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I finished the book the other night. I did end up enjoying it, although possibly in ways I didn't expect. I also need a reread, as I'm pretty sure I missed some details.
For example, I was having trouble figuring out why Breq was supporting one of the two split leaders of the empire. I knew she was on a course of revenge but I was having trouble figuring out which of the two positions of Anaander Minaai she had decided to side with. Apparently at some point she deciphered which of the sides was responsible for the death of her Lieutenant, but I had trouble following all of it.
I also had come to know the book as one that did some subversive things with gender (subversive isn't the right word...unusual? Pointed?), which actually didn't really seem to be a particularly big part of the book for me. I didn't spend much time trying to parse out genders in the characters, and although I think at one point Seivarden Vendaai was indicated as male by another character, I promptly forgot it. It seemed like an interesting but ultimately minor piece of worldbuilding that I found interesting, but it didn't say anything much bigger than that to me, if it was supposed to.
I also have some problems with how opaque characters are - it's natural, because you're reading through the lens of an AI who has been suddenly cut off from her nearly omnipotent understanding when she's a ship full of her officers. (Locally omnipotent, I guess.) So watching Breq keep protecting Vendaai kind of remained a mystery to me. Was it simply because she had once been one of Breq's lieutenants? (Although as Breq keeps pointing out, never a favorite.)
For me the book is strongest in it's look at a totalitarian regime from both the inside and the outside (ancillary vs corpse soldier). You're experiencing it all from someone who is utterly inside the culture like a goldfish is in water, but sometimes she does run up against the hard edges of it and has to figure out how she feels about it. I wonder if the later two books are some sort of AI to fully individualized person kind of story, but it was interesting how much of a relief I felt when Breq gets taken aboard what will be her new ship, back into something closer to her old life. (Except her old life is killing people really well, and her new life is now going to be responsible for keeping half of a mad despot in check?)
ANYWAY. I really enjoyed it but I want to get the other two books under my belt and then do a reread and see if stuff I found nebulous clears up.
For example, I was having trouble figuring out why Breq was supporting one of the two split leaders of the empire. I knew she was on a course of revenge but I was having trouble figuring out which of the two positions of Anaander Minaai she had decided to side with. Apparently at some point she deciphered which of the sides was responsible for the death of her Lieutenant, but I had trouble following all of it.
I also had come to know the book as one that did some subversive things with gender (subversive isn't the right word...unusual? Pointed?), which actually didn't really seem to be a particularly big part of the book for me. I didn't spend much time trying to parse out genders in the characters, and although I think at one point Seivarden Vendaai was indicated as male by another character, I promptly forgot it. It seemed like an interesting but ultimately minor piece of worldbuilding that I found interesting, but it didn't say anything much bigger than that to me, if it was supposed to.
I also have some problems with how opaque characters are - it's natural, because you're reading through the lens of an AI who has been suddenly cut off from her nearly omnipotent understanding when she's a ship full of her officers. (Locally omnipotent, I guess.) So watching Breq keep protecting Vendaai kind of remained a mystery to me. Was it simply because she had once been one of Breq's lieutenants? (Although as Breq keeps pointing out, never a favorite.)
For me the book is strongest in it's look at a totalitarian regime from both the inside and the outside (ancillary vs corpse soldier). You're experiencing it all from someone who is utterly inside the culture like a goldfish is in water, but sometimes she does run up against the hard edges of it and has to figure out how she feels about it. I wonder if the later two books are some sort of AI to fully individualized person kind of story, but it was interesting how much of a relief I felt when Breq gets taken aboard what will be her new ship, back into something closer to her old life. (Except her old life is killing people really well, and her new life is now going to be responsible for keeping half of a mad despot in check?)
ANYWAY. I really enjoyed it but I want to get the other two books under my belt and then do a reread and see if stuff I found nebulous clears up.