Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Ancillary Justice

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

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I read this when it first came out and had a few abortive attempts to read the rest of the series. I am rereading it now for at least one more go at completing the series. I’ve never been so simultaneously impressed by a book, exhausted by it, kind of annoyed by it, and questioning whether I actually think it’s good or not. That’s pretty impressive. It’s an impeccably written novel. Handling a few literary conceits that are confusing to narrate, confusing to conceive of […]

Space opera binge – “Nothing touched by empire remains itself”

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

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              ** Some spoilers for the plot of Ancillary Justice in the review of later books in the series ** Space opera can definitely be big, loud and dumb and that can be fun and exciting.  But I love my space opera to be populated by complex, conflicted people (and other beings) living in intricate worlds with a deep culture and history.  Add beautiful writing, and big questions about identity and ethics, and I am in heaven. So I […]

An intensely human space story

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

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[Read as an audiobook from the public library] Well, we’re straight out of Murderbot and right into some of the most serious big person pants sci-fi I’ve read since I started reading Leviathan Wakes about a hundred years ago. Bite-sized fun time space western this is not. It was some work, and it took some time, but the rewards are definitely ample. Ancillary Justice is on its face a sprawling space opera spanning a thousand years, with weird names and strange planets and ridiculously nuanced cultural […]

The Ancillary trilogy ends with the tremendously satisfying Ancillary Mercy

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

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Note: Ancillary Mercy is the third book in the Imperial Radch series, following Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword. The trilogy is one long story and should be read from the beginning.   I spent a lot of my review for Ancillary Sword snarking about the unpronounceable names of characters and places. I did this because the plot itself was kind of a mess and not super engaging. Apparently, Ann Leckie took my feedback to heart, went back in time, and wrote Ancillary Mercy. It is the only way I can explain the leap […]

A Tale of Ralph and Carls in the Imperial Radish

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

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Note: Ancillary Sword is the second book in the Imperial Radch series, following Ancillary Justice. Because I had once been a ship. An AI controlling an enormous troop carrier and thousands of ancillaries, human bodies, part of myself. At the time I had not thought of myself as a slave, but I had been a weapon of conquest… – Ancillary Sword Like most of us on CBR, I read a lot and I read many series at once. Usually, when returning to a series it […]

There will be a reckoning.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

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The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie’s first fantasy novel, uses the framework of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to create an enthralling new tale. A king is dead, an uncle has usurped a throne, and a prince is going mad with the injustice. If you squint you can see Ophelia, and Rosencranz & Guildenstern, and Horatio among the other expected players. Yet, there is more going on in the kingdom of Iraden than a simple coup. The mystery starts from the first sentence directed at “you”. The entire book […]



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