Ancillary Mercy

I still habe no clue what the heck was going on but I enjoyed the emotions carried through <3

A blueprint for the possibility of revolution under Empire.

This is a good series. The only problem is the series I thought I was getting into, the series I thought the first book was preparing me for, and the series I read, aren’t the same. It’s still worth reading. It’s just not what I thought it’d be.

This one definitely has more action than the last and I really appreciate the new characters introduced.

The Ancillary series is one of my absolute favourite sci-fi stories and this was a fantastic end to the trilogy! There's still plenty of stories to tell in the universe, but Breq and her crew have gotten to a good place to move forward in their lives. AND I HAVE ALL THE FEELS!!!! I AM NOT READY TO LEAVE ALL THESE CHARACTERS WHAT DO I DO?!?!?!?!?!?!?! In short, read the Imperial Radch series. It's awesome, the characters are very endearing, and the creativity is just sublime!

Wow, what a series that was. I enjoyed the read from start to finish, I was captivated by not only the interesting universe the author created, but the characters that inhabited it as well. I believed all of the characters' motivations in the books, none of the decisions they made stood out to me as something done for the plot's sake. The themes covered in the books were well integrated into the stories in a way that didn't seem too preachy, although at times the characters spelled out the message, it wasn't in a way that took me out of the story. I highly recommend these books for any science fiction lover.

This was a challenge to get through. I found the writing stilted and self-conscious (what the hell was with constantly removing the noun from sentences?), the dialogue ridiculous and awkward, and the plot unsatisfying, simplistic, and predictable. The stakes were so small, the things we were meant to be worked up about (a single passenger shuttle being destroyed by an empire that was responsible for the murder and enslavement of untold numbers) so insignificant, I spent the whole read trying to figure out why I should care. And I was never given an answer. I am quite glad I will not be subjected to another chronicle of now-infallible, all-knowing Breq and her posse of annoying, one-dimensional sidekicks (Seivarden being the worst). Not to mention the damn tea. I loved Ancillary Justice, tolerated Sword, and absolutely loathed this. Terrible, and a disappointing finish to such a promising start.

Breq by the end tbh:

Wow, what a series that was. I enjoyed the read from start to finish, I was captivated by not only the interesting universe the author created, but the characters that inhabited it as well. I believed all of the characters' motivations in the books, none of the decisions they made stood out to me as something done for the plot's sake. The themes covered in the books were well integrated into the stories in a way that didn't seem too preachy, although at times the characters spelled out the message, it wasn't in a way that took me out of the story. I highly recommend these books for any science fiction lover.

This one - like Ancillary Sword before it - is not an innovative "Big Idea" novel like the first in Leckie's trilogy and the plot is a bit of a mess, but it's thoroughly enjoyable. Leckie's an engaging writer, and she injects enough humor and pathos to keep the reader moving from one tea ceremony to the next.

This book! Every time I get sucked in and love it completely. Brew is once more the centre of drama and chaos and this time we have a mysterious member unknown to all to contend with and a second Presgr translator in the mix. This book was much more about the struggles of the crew of Mercy of Kalr and how they are coping with the tumultuous times following Breq on her path in space. My complaint last time was that Seveirdan (whose name I really can't spell) didn't get enough page time and that definitely wasn't the case this time. He was struggling to cope and so he should he's learning to cope after a severe addiction to kef (a drug) and so to see both his struggles and his role on the space station was awesome. Everything about this book was awesome. I had my doubts but I was fully invested in the story once I got into the story.

This whole trilogy has been a bit weird for me. I had heard so many good things about it from some of my favorite authors, so I couldn’t resist buying all the audiobooks. And I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy them, but they also aren’t my favorites. It’s just that I found them compelling enough to continue. I didn’t remember much of what happened towards the end of Ancillary Sword, and I never checkout the blurb for this finale, so didn’t at all realize that the proceedings would still remain in Athoek station this time as well. While a significant part of the book was about being ready in case of any attack on the station or on Breq, I felt that this book was mainly about the characters and their relationships. We get to see Seivarden in her most vulnerable moments, while also getting to maybe understand her snobby privileged behavior. Tisarwat is still struggling to separate her own thoughts with that of Anaander Mianaai but is making progress and is generally a great asset in troubling situations despite being pretty high strung. We have significant appearances from all the previous side characters and it’s fun watching them again. And Breq is just trying to take one step at a time. It’s mostly still a slice of life kinda story but with the characters’ lives in some kind of danger. But there are no elaborate battles or shrewd strategizing here - it’s just a group of people (and non humans) trying hard to do the right thing and save as many innocents as possible. There’s also quite an understated theme about what what it means to be human, the feelings of ships and AIs and if they all should respect each other’s agency and coexist peacefully. I was quite surprised to see how the author used these themes to kinda resolve the story towards the end because I didn’t see it coming. But I’m also not used to open ended trilogies, so this felt a bit unsatisfactory. However, on thinking a bit more, I think it’s the perfect climax for this trilogy but I wouldn’t mind knowing what happens to these characters in the future.

A good end to this trilogy. In many ways better than the second, but definitely not as good as the first.

Really tough to get into (you've got to pay attention), but so rewarding anyway.