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lbrunner.net · @lbrunner.net@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Ancillary Sword 8/10

I struggled a little bit getting back into this book, loads of things were a bit blurry in mind: in what position Breq and Seivarden were left at the end of the previous book, the root of the internal conflicts between Mianaai, the use of she/her nearly exclusively ("wait isn't Seivarden a man?"). I did re-read Ale's review which helped and then things mostly slotted back in place.



This is the 3rd big fantasy/sci-fi sequel book I am reading this year and I felt many callbacks to them while reading. Wearing gloves and focus on propriety and clientage is so "Masquerade". The distinction between Radchaai and uncivilised and the shared consciousness between bodies is so "Teixcalaan". I mean even the focus on fleets and their officiers, very present in all of those books (and in many way, the "Masquerade" books are just low-tech sci-fi, the same way "Attack on Titan" is a low-tech mecha anime).



I guess what struck me the most is how streamlined and flat the Radch feels compared to Teixcalaan. Don't get me wrong, the book world-building is still very strong and the setting is by in no way banal. I mean, conscious warships with feelings and favourites, using human bodies to do their duties, which aren't machines but humans with feelings and needs. Clientage and complex social structures. The focus on the religious aspect of the Radch and their syncretism with conquered people. All of those are pretty unique and appealing but when put next to the Teixcalaani... some aspects feel lacking. Obviously, those books are separated by a decade and surely the later one has been influenced by the earlier one in many ways. But the language/religious/cultural contrasts, the aspect of citizen vs barbarian, even the fleet power dynamic feel much more alive and real in Teixcalaan. When compared, Radchaai feel very much like a slightly altered Western civilization (after all clientage and hiding parts of your body isn't anything new) but Teixcalaan feels alien, especially the names (people but also organizations), the way people act, move, even smile! While I enjoyed getting back into the Radch (I mean not because I like it, it is a pretty inequal and frightening society), I kept missing the sheer depth of Teixcalaani.



Breq is very angry and cold in this book, maybe she was in the previous one too but I can't remember being that harsh (especially the first few chapters!). I mean I love her so whatever. I would have preferred if she took less shit from people though, some characters (notably <spoiler>Queter, Sirix or even Sword of Atagaris</spoiler>) really ram into her and while sometimes they are right, they are also pushing a lot of responsibility on Brew which isn't her fault at all (or role to fix). I get this book has a very strong message around privileges and even intersectionality on some level but Breq comes from a pretty unprivileged background and she gets burdened with all that shit? Come on now. I did continue to enjoy Breq's disdain for sexual matters (obviously).



A lot of the plot felt like a DnD campaign (or maybe I am playing too much of that??), lots of discussion and intrigues, which honestly is great but also <spoiler>we end up staying in a single system with a limited cast</spoiler> and that's a bit of a shame.



I did enjoy getting back in the "she/her" as a default (if not as a blanket) writing, which honestly really influenced my mind on how I perceived characters. By the end, I was reading everyone as female even ones explicitly stated as male <spoiler>Seivarden, Grandfather and Urane</spoiler>, completely forgetting their gender after even a few pages. It gave me huge throwbacks to "The Left Hand of Darkness" and how it influenced my mind's portrayal of characters too and that's so peculiar and interesting.

#book

Published 2022-01-09 20:40 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere