I read the first book in this trilogy a year ago. I read Sword over the summer and just finished Mercy in the last few days. I kept meaning to write about this book but life has been very busy, and that business, unfortunately, has colored my perception and enjoyment of this series.
I really wanted to like these two book as much as the first one but I did not. I found the first 1/2 or so of each book to be torpid, but at least Sword ended with an exciting climax that kept me turning the pages and I finished it in just a few days.
The problem was, it took me weeks or months to get there. There were so many characters, so many simultaneous plot threads that were exacerbated by the main character being able to be in many places at once (or at least view many things at once) and it was very hard to keep it all straight. I had a hard time staying with it, and when I returned to the book after days or weeks, I felt even further behind.
One thing I did notice about the book was the use of the pronoun “she” for basically every character. I don’t think all of the characters were female. In fact, in Sword, there is specific mention of penises. But instead, it was that society’s language using she for the default pronoun. I noticed it very much, which I believe was probably the point. To show my own prejudices about language. So, to be honest, that didn’t bother me, but it did take me out of the story regularly as I thought about what it meant that I was confused by a feminine default. It is some short-sightedness by me and certainly built into western civilization.
The series ended weakly, in my opinion. There wasn’t a big clash, not a big battle, it wasn’t clear that the protagonist Breq actually won the battle against the Lord of the Radch (who has herself been subdivided into multiple factions and is at war with herself). There was a strong message of hope and justice for the AI personalities at the end of the book that I have to admit had been hinted at all through the trilogy, but I had lost the thread.
I was telling my wife that this was a very complicated book and it was too much for me right now at this phase of my life. And then I told her that I also had found Dune complex and difficult to read, and it took me 3 tries or so to first get through it in high school. I believe that had I read this trilogy more quickly, or had a more plastic brain, or had been able to concentrate on it more, I would have liked it more, but at this stage of my life, I just couldn’t get deep enough into it that I could appreciate the storytelling that is clearly there that went right over my head.
This is a book series that I may return to. Now that I know how it ends and who the major players are who continue from book one to the end, I may be better able to pay attention. But I’m going to shelve it and unfortunately rate it lower than it perhaps deserves at this time.
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