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laerugo's review against another edition
4.0
a smart and gripping conclusion to a deeply moving series. one of those stories where you wonder how the series could have ended any other way. i love u breq i love u seivarden <3
timinbc's review against another edition
5.0
OK, lookout, the book is a six, with half a star taken away for the TEA, blankety-blank TEA, every blasted page there's TEA .... and half a star for the ending, which I'll explain.
This is one of the best world-building efforts in recent decades, and we get good characters too.
OK, we have a Presger gun left over from previous volumes, and its has to get used; it does.
We have some seriously flawed characters, and those flaws are going to have to develop; they do.
We have a cloned emperor whose instances may all be insane, and Leckie wisely realized that she's written herself a trap with that, and can't really use her/them much. Indeed, at the ending Anaander is surprisingly weak, and I suspect that she has to be because otherwise the plot can't end the way it needs to.
The translator and Sphene are delightful, and the sometimes-snarky AIs are right up there with Neal Asher's. The lieutenants have some challenges to go with their competence (I hate those military books where the characters are all competence and nothing else). Even the decades are fun, some being ready to become officers while others appear to be housekeepers with OCD. Not sure why the Eminence had to be such a complete and utter twerp, but again she had a role to play.
There's a bit of handwaving in places, such as how did Breq become able to do THAT, and how Anaander's control of certain characters became so weak, and what exactly Tisarwat has become, but it's all necessary and not annoying.
This book is not for you if you are one of those odious people who believe that lesser races and lesser individuals ought to have fewer rights. Breq doesn't believe that, and if you do you probably gave up halfway through volume 2 anyway.
And the use of "she/her" for everyone creates some interesting situations. Such as when A cuddles up to B and clearly does more than that behind closed doors. You think, "F/F, M/M, or M/F?" and then after a while you realize it doesn't matter.
Publishers. are you listening? I borrowed these books from the library, but if you produced a second edition I would buy it -- on the sole condition that you EDIT OUT NEARLY ALL OF THE FURSHLUGGINER TEA!
Final decision: This belongs up there with Bujold, Reynolds, Asher, Vinge, etc., and if something is going to beat this out for a Hugo/Nebula it's going to have to be a doozy.
This is one of the best world-building efforts in recent decades, and we get good characters too.
OK, we have a Presger gun left over from previous volumes, and its has to get used; it does.
We have some seriously flawed characters, and those flaws are going to have to develop; they do.
We have a cloned emperor whose instances may all be insane, and Leckie wisely realized that she's written herself a trap with that, and can't really use her/them much. Indeed, at the ending Anaander is surprisingly weak, and I suspect that she has to be because otherwise the plot can't end the way it needs to.
The translator and Sphene are delightful, and the sometimes-snarky AIs are right up there with Neal Asher's. The lieutenants have some challenges to go with their competence (I hate those military books where the characters are all competence and nothing else). Even the decades are fun, some being ready to become officers while others appear to be housekeepers with OCD. Not sure why the Eminence had to be such a complete and utter twerp, but again she had a role to play.
There's a bit of handwaving in places, such as how did Breq become able to do THAT, and how Anaander's control of certain characters became so weak, and what exactly Tisarwat has become, but it's all necessary and not annoying.
This book is not for you if you are one of those odious people who believe that lesser races and lesser individuals ought to have fewer rights. Breq doesn't believe that, and if you do you probably gave up halfway through volume 2 anyway.
And the use of "she/her" for everyone creates some interesting situations. Such as when A cuddles up to B and clearly does more than that behind closed doors. You think, "F/F, M/M, or M/F?" and then after a while you realize it doesn't matter.
Publishers. are you listening? I borrowed these books from the library, but if you produced a second edition I would buy it -- on the sole condition that you EDIT OUT NEARLY ALL OF THE FURSHLUGGINER TEA!
Final decision: This belongs up there with Bujold, Reynolds, Asher, Vinge, etc., and if something is going to beat this out for a Hugo/Nebula it's going to have to be a doozy.
p25n's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
luckylikesreading's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
oxnard_montalvo's review against another edition
3.0
I couldn't help but feel that this conclusion was a fan-fiction version of itself. Perhaps I'm the kind of reader that needs more details explicitly described. I found myself frustrated at the hints of this wider worlds huge society and fillING in the gaps with my own imagination was fine, but I want Ann Leckie to expand on what's she's created. Not to leave everything so unsaid in the background.
The structure of a great story is there, but I wasn't overly impressed with the execution.
The structure of a great story is there, but I wasn't overly impressed with the execution.
allison_s's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
grahamclements's review against another edition
4.0
Ancillary Mercy is the third and final novel in Ann Leckie’s award winning Imperial Radch series. The novels are about the adventures of Breq an Ancillary connected to a ship that was destroyed. An Ancillary is a human who has been turned into an AI and has their consciousness connected to a ship. They can access its data and see and hear what all other Ancillaries are experiencing. They will do whatever the ship’s captain commands them to do.
The third novel starts where the second novel finished. Breq is still the nominated fleet commander of the Athoek system and is located on its space station. She is trying to fix the station’s undergarden area which was damaged in the previous novel, as well as fix the station’s complex politics. She has to deal with the agendas of an uncooperative system governor and power hungry religious leader.
Her attempts at fixing the station are interrupted when an envoy from the all-conquering Presger arrives to survey humans and to see whether they have broken the “treaty” between the two races. The envoy’s arrival is then complicated by unknown warships appearing in the system.
This novel is more about Breq’s attempt to create a more merciful local system where even the AIs, like the ships and station, get to decide their own fates. She wants them to have the choices that she now has as an Ancillary who has been cut off from her destroyed ship. She also wants the indigenous population of Athoek to control their future.
One of the most intriguing features of the novels is the fact that Breq cannot differentiate between female and male, so she refers to every character as “she”, which creates a viewpoint character who does not bring gender into the power dynamics between the characters she deals with. Leckie leaves it to the reader to add genders to characters if they want to.
I very much enjoyed this novel as it attempted to bring the series to a conclusion, but there were still plenty of loose ends at its conclusion for a fourth novel to explore. It’s probably not as good as the first two novels, as the first was huge on world building, and the second was more about Breq attempting to redefine herself, but still an excellent read.
The third novel starts where the second novel finished. Breq is still the nominated fleet commander of the Athoek system and is located on its space station. She is trying to fix the station’s undergarden area which was damaged in the previous novel, as well as fix the station’s complex politics. She has to deal with the agendas of an uncooperative system governor and power hungry religious leader.
Her attempts at fixing the station are interrupted when an envoy from the all-conquering Presger arrives to survey humans and to see whether they have broken the “treaty” between the two races. The envoy’s arrival is then complicated by unknown warships appearing in the system.
This novel is more about Breq’s attempt to create a more merciful local system where even the AIs, like the ships and station, get to decide their own fates. She wants them to have the choices that she now has as an Ancillary who has been cut off from her destroyed ship. She also wants the indigenous population of Athoek to control their future.
One of the most intriguing features of the novels is the fact that Breq cannot differentiate between female and male, so she refers to every character as “she”, which creates a viewpoint character who does not bring gender into the power dynamics between the characters she deals with. Leckie leaves it to the reader to add genders to characters if they want to.
I very much enjoyed this novel as it attempted to bring the series to a conclusion, but there were still plenty of loose ends at its conclusion for a fourth novel to explore. It’s probably not as good as the first two novels, as the first was huge on world building, and the second was more about Breq attempting to redefine herself, but still an excellent read.
sonofstdavid's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
mitskacir's review against another edition
3.0
This was a good extension of the second book and a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. For some reason, I had less of an attention span for this one, and got confused and disconnected from the story at certain points. The first book was definitely the best in the series, and it's probably not necessary to read the other two, but I don't regret reading the whole thing.
seriuzbiznus's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0