Ancillary Mercy
Oct. 22nd, 2015 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrJust finished this and it was a great end to the series. Same flaws as the others, especially the tendency to heavy handed anvils about Privilege, but still overall really great, thoughtful, thrilling space opera with lots of delicious non human intelligences and questions about ethics and The Nature Of The Self.
Pretty much everything I have to say is covered by this spoilery post and the comments to it, I had even been thinking of how to best capslock summarise the exact section she capslock summarises, teehee.
Two extra, VERY SPOILERY thoughts:
First: what next? I am left really curious about how the Radch are going to cope with the freedom of the AIs, both on a practical and cultural level. I also feel like the Radchaii are eventually going to get sick of being the Radch's despised minions. It reminds me a lot of the British empire, with the Radchai the equivalent of Australia, the US etc. More "civilised" than the natives but not really British, you know. Hopefully the inevitable fallout will end up a bit more equitable than the colonies forming their own independent little empires which otherwise continue the machinery of empire much the same. And how are the AIs going to handle it? At best it could end up like the Culture but...idk. Ships have not always shown much general respect for human life beyond their captains, and humans have shown even less for ships or stations. But both groups need each other, at least for now. The AIs could in principle get by without (willing) humans more easily I think, but all the ones currently existing are very much used to having humans around. Also the Presger, urg, who knows what's going to happen THERE.
Second: I hope someone writes some Seivarden/One Esk/Justice of Kahlr makeout fic. This is a thing I would very much like to read, even though I can see why it didn't happen in canon, and the hugs were lovely. It's not that I like Seivarden all that much (though I like her a lot more than some) I just think they're all cute together.
Pretty much everything I have to say is covered by this spoilery post and the comments to it, I had even been thinking of how to best capslock summarise the exact section she capslock summarises, teehee.
Two extra, VERY SPOILERY thoughts:
First: what next? I am left really curious about how the Radch are going to cope with the freedom of the AIs, both on a practical and cultural level. I also feel like the Radchaii are eventually going to get sick of being the Radch's despised minions. It reminds me a lot of the British empire, with the Radchai the equivalent of Australia, the US etc. More "civilised" than the natives but not really British, you know. Hopefully the inevitable fallout will end up a bit more equitable than the colonies forming their own independent little empires which otherwise continue the machinery of empire much the same. And how are the AIs going to handle it? At best it could end up like the Culture but...idk. Ships have not always shown much general respect for human life beyond their captains, and humans have shown even less for ships or stations. But both groups need each other, at least for now. The AIs could in principle get by without (willing) humans more easily I think, but all the ones currently existing are very much used to having humans around. Also the Presger, urg, who knows what's going to happen THERE.
Second: I hope someone writes some Seivarden/One Esk/Justice of Kahlr makeout fic. This is a thing I would very much like to read, even though I can see why it didn't happen in canon, and the hugs were lovely. It's not that I like Seivarden all that much (though I like her a lot more than some) I just think they're all cute together.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-22 12:12 pm (UTC)I loved the second book because of the contrast of seeing Breq on a quest for revenge in the first book, and on a quest for restitution in the second. Her mourning for Awn really worked for me as a motivator, and the moment where she reveals who she is out loud caught my breath.
So I loved them all a lot. And I too was amazed at how well the author stuck the ending.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-23 03:57 pm (UTC)Yes, I became very fond of everyone, and that ending was perfect, the rare balance of "I did not see that coming" and "That makes perfect sense" combined with some nice character moments.