Asakiyume mita

I've been waiting to read Ancillary Sword until I could do it book-group style with the ninja girl. The chance presented itself at the end of last month, and we both finished it the other day and were discussing it avidly via messages this morning.

The reviews I read said that it was a very different sort of book from the first--quieter--but the reviewers all liked it as much as or better than the original. I enjoyed it tremendously (I carried it with me everywhere so I could read in spare moments), but I didn't like it better. I kept on wanting things that didn't come (for those of you who've read the book, that would be more about Tisarwat's unique situation and more about Translator Dlique, plus something more central that I'll get to in a moment), and I was bemused by much of what did come. The situation on the Athoek was interesting, and Ann Leckie did a great job of showing how different groups have different interests, and showing how personal situations intersect with bigger issues (how the personal is political, heh), but those bigger issues were (to my mind) predictable. I felt a little as if I was looking in on a sociology case study that promised to hit on X, Y, and Z points. It did, and the details of how it did were gripping, but I chafed a little.

Some of that teacherliness was present in Ancillary Justice, too, but I completely forgave it/wasn't bothered by it--why? And why not this time? Part of it is personal idiosyncrasy--I loved small details of life on Ors and life on Nilt and found them so vivid that the instructive elements paled. But much, much more important, I loved getting to know Breq and shared entirely in her personal pain and loss. The driving emotion that propels her through Ancillary Justice was so, so intense.

In Ancillary Sword, Breq has only brief (though very memorable, and very moving) moments of emotion. She's affected by the pain and suffering she sees, but it's not hers in the way that it was in the first book. I missed that. I know it couldn't be repeated ... but all the same, I missed it.

I'm mystified and deeply, deeply curious about what will happen in Ancillary Mercy. Ancillary Sword felt like a book that you might get if there were going to be nine or ten stories about Breq and the other characters--it touched on the larger issues that Ancillary Justice raised, but it doesn't advance them very much. A few new elements come into play. How will the trilogy wrap up? I can't wait to find out!

ETA: Just read the Goodreads book summary for Ancillary Mercy and it sounds like it'll focus on the stuff I want to know more about--yay!

It IS ANCILLARY JUSTICE FAN TEA, YO.





I am drinking the Justice Blend. I don't have gloves on, though. If only it were a humid, sweaty day, I could pretend I was on Shis'urna, but in fact it's a cool and delightful day. Who am I?

When you played games set in story worlds, did you mainly pretend to be a character from the story, or did you create an OC and interact with the characters? I think I mainly did the latter, but sometimes the former.

THOSE OF YOU WHO'VE READ ANCILLARY JUSTICE, if you were to play an imaginary game set in the world of Ancillary Justice--not write a fanfic, mind, but play a game--which character would you be, or would you be an OC?

And a question for you, ann_leckie, if you happen by: which of your characters enjoys Justice blend the most, do you think?

As you may know, I really loved Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice--loved it so much that I wanted to get Ann in a room and talk with her for at least 36 hours about ALL THE THINGS the book made me think about. That's not possible, but Ann *did* let me send her a bunch of interview questions, which she's kindly answered.

( On gender )

( On distributed consciousness )

( On the concept of freedom )

( If you had worlds enough and time )

( Reader reactions )

( Food! )

And there you have it! Any aspects of these questions or responses that you'd like to dig into further? Leave a comment, and maybe when she has a free moment, Ann will swing by and share more thoughts.

ETA: (Okay, spoiler is gone and the comment will go back up (spoiler free) when Carlton is able to access LJ next.)

Once she was the starship Justice of Toren, a two-thousand-year-old AI operating through hundreds of ancillaries—reanimated human bodies, retrofitted with the AI intelligence and other augmentations. Now she’s reduced to a single ancillary unit, and she’s out for revenge.

That was more or less my understanding of Ancillary Justice when I started reading it; that was what made me **want** to read it. I like revenge tales, and I like sci-fi looks at consciousness and its complications, especially Borg-style ones. The Borg, seen from the inside? Yes please!

But my goodness, there was so much more to love than just the bones of the story. I loved the muscle of the story as well, and its nerves, and every inch of its skin. It was more than absorbing; it was life-commandeering. (I pretty much needed the author to hold my hand while I read it. She was very patient, even in the face of howls of grief.)

With so much to talk about with Ancillary Justice, I’m going to have to pick and choose.

( I choose Breq, children, and pronouns )

So much left unsaid—colonialism; multiple cultures; the role of food, song, and religion; how the Lord of the Radch is a concretize metonym; more on identity; more on power—but I have to pull back. Let me leave you with two quotes, one on identity, one on the difference between thought and action:

Here is Breq, thinking about the nature of identity:

Or is anyone’s identity a matter of fragments held together by convenient or useful narrative, that in ordinary circumstances never reveals itself as a fiction? Or is it really a fiction?

And here, on thought and action:

Thoughts are ephemeral, they evaporate in the moment they occur, unless they are given action and material form. Wishes and intentions, the same. Meaningless, unless they impel you to one choice or another, some deed or course of action, however insignificant. Thoughts that lead to action can be dangerous. Thoughts that do not, mean less than nothing.

It's not really spoilers because it won't mean anything if you haven't read the book, but all the same, maaaaaybe you don't want to click through if you haven't read it. It's just one name, contextless, but still.

( it's… )