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A review by asterope
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
I feel like this is an unpopular opinion but I loved this even more than the first book! It's certainly a change of pace to smaller scale political intrigue, so I can see why there's differing opinions. But I loved every page and I can see the influence on A Memory Called Empire.
With the foundations that were laid in the first book, Ancillary Sword cuts even deeper with its scathing exploration of colonialism in space and the Radch's view of civilisation. The chapters set around the tea plantation and what happens there were particularly poignant as my family are from a tea-growing country that has been colonised by a few Western countries.
This books feels a lot more emotional than the first. I teared up a few times. Breq's character really opens up where this book gives us a deeper look at her emotions and how the events of the first book affected her. There's some really beautiful writing when Breq is considering her new life as a single body and the effects ofAwn's death .
There's more moments of humour and snark which had me genuinely laughing. We get to meet all these new members of Breq's crew, with their different personalities and intertwining relationships. I adore Kalr Five and her passion for fancy tea sets. Can relate.
The plot is somewhat more straight-forward but still just as compelling. I've already cracked open the third book to be honest, I couldn't wait until I'd reviewed this to start reading it!
With the foundations that were laid in the first book, Ancillary Sword cuts even deeper with its scathing exploration of colonialism in space and the Radch's view of civilisation. The chapters set around the tea plantation and what happens there were particularly poignant as my family are from a tea-growing country that has been colonised by a few Western countries.
This books feels a lot more emotional than the first. I teared up a few times. Breq's character really opens up where this book gives us a deeper look at her emotions and how the events of the first book affected her. There's some really beautiful writing when Breq is considering her new life as a single body and the effects of
There's more moments of humour and snark which had me genuinely laughing. We get to meet all these new members of Breq's crew, with their different personalities and intertwining relationships. I adore Kalr Five and her passion for fancy tea sets. Can relate.
The plot is somewhat more straight-forward but still just as compelling. I've already cracked open the third book to be honest, I couldn't wait until I'd reviewed this to start reading it!