Die Maschinen

Very interesting concepts, with accompanying interesting literary techniques; great social critique; and an excellent opening chapter that really hooked my attention.

But there wasn't quite enough story there, and the pacing was sloggy. So just barely 4 stars.

I will say, I *loved* reading a book where the default pronoun was "she" which meant the default human was a woman. Very restful. ( )

Read 2014, favourite. ( )

It took me a year and I don't know why. Also I cursed a lot and it took me many Google searches to understand the world.

Normally that would be an indication that my reading experience sucked.

It didn't. And I think this is one of those stories that will get better with every re-read.

But fuck you Seivarden I wanted to hate you. SO MUCH. ( )

Really just an incredibly compelling book. While I see why people were thrown a bit by the temporal jumping and pronoun stuff, I thought that the book did a great job of keeping everything clear, and both of those things added immensely to the power and intricacy of the story.

The worldbuilding was fully realized, both terrifyingly different and terrifyingly familiar. I'm glad Leckie didn't feel the need to spell everything out, letting us work out for us the importance and complexities of Radchaii politics, hand-covering, the supplementary gestural language, etc., without needing to expound on their origins. Instead everything arose naturally through Breq's interactions with the world.

The ancillary concept made for a totally unique protagonist, and is one of the best and most original ideas I've ever encountered in a sci-fi novel. Leckie walked a fine line between making Breq's history and experience something totally alien and unimaginable, and making the reader care and feel immensely for her, both as Justice of Toren One Esk and as an individual detached ancillary.

I did find the scenes set in the past more engaging, both because I liked Lt. Awn as a counterpoint character more than Seivarden, and because of the fascinating mechanics of the ancillary experience (especially when Mianaii uses the communication-blocking device.). Chapters 16 and 17 were an incredible payoff to the slow burn of the book's beginning, and were more tense and exciting than any action movie scene I've ever seen.

But Breq as a lone-wolf stoic Byronic hero in the "present-day" scenes was great too, and all the action at the palace made for an exciting back-half of the book, even if the ending definitely sends you running for the sequel. ( )

A really unique sci fi perspective. Really creative choices overall. I'm excited for the next book. ( )