Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch)

As good as the first in the series. With even better and deftly handled social commentary. A nice set up for the next in the series. I am curious how it could be made into a movie. I think it would be very difficult with the gender ambiguity....

OK, perhaps this sequel impacted me very slightly less than the first book ("Ancillary Justice"), but I definitely enjoyed reading it as much!
I started reading SF over 60 years ago (Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Tom Swift Jr. and Rick Brandt, and then onto Heinlein, Asimov, etc., etc.) and have just recently begun reading books written in the last 10-15 years. The "Imperial Radch" series has been a very pleasant surprise to me!
These "new" space opera books are at least as good as books written 60-70 years ago, for example, Hamilton's "The Star Kings." I'm very much looking forward to Leckie's next book.

Leckie has potential as an author; unfortunately, all the 'gender' nonsense in the first novel in this series, continued into this novel, detract from what would otherwise be an interesting storyline written in a fresh voice.

She should tone down the identity politics nonsense and just tell the story. There are lots of things she can say about the human condition without beating her readers over the head with such an overbearing, intrusive narrative obstruction.

I'm utterly opposed to Kim Stanley Robinson's politics, which are made clear in his novels - and yet, I read everything he writes, because he's a master storyteller who can get his points across without being overbearing and intrusive about it. Leckie needs to read some KSR and reapply herself, because she really does exhibit literary talent, when she isn't too busy with the passive-aggressive propagandizing.

Exciting new sci-fi writer. Second book is more tightly plotted than first, easier to follow. Highly recommend series for anyone interested in seeing gender treated like eye color, i.e., not something to distinguish people from each other. Also asks perennial question of futuristic science fiction, "Is there any real difference between humans and AIs?"

Absolutely loved the story!
Absolutely hated the feminine pronoun silliness.
If you write in English, write in English.
Silly gimmick to attract attention and stir up the buzz for award nominations, eh?

This is an amazing science fiction book that brings up subjects like identity, gender, power and misuse of power. It's a very special kind of sci fi with a lot of internal dialogue and no big epic battles. It's an excellently written book and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Ann Leckie is the finest new science fiction author to come along in many years. I loved Ancillary Justice and this second novel in "Imperial Radch" space is a great sequel. I can't wait for more of of her work!

As a long time fan of science fiction, I found this book to be fantastic. I find One Esk to be a very interesting character and I enjoy seeing how she relates to others. I also liked learning more about the Imperial Radch and the whole concept of ancillaries and how the world interacts with them. I'm excited for the big conclusion between the warring factions and seeing how the empire will change as a result.

Very enjoyable read. I could not put it down

I really enjoyed the first Ancillary novel as an innovative and engaging new universe. I was unsure where it could go from there - but this sequel extends and develops the characters and universe in wonderful and surprising news ways. I was somewhat reminded of Susan Matthews "Jurisdiction" series - providing a character pursuing personally moral actions in situation where those actions have ambiguous consequences. This novel does - I think - need you to read the first novel to really understand and appreciate it, but I would heartily recommend reading both. You'll be glad you did.

There is a cover to a New Yorker magazine fiction issue that depicts superheroes in appropriate costumes breaking through the wall into a literary fiction cocktail party. At this party are such heroes of literary fiction as Norman Mailer , John Updike , Truman Capote , etc.... No doubt this metaphor certainly refers to Ms. Leckey. Perhaps in the future because of books like this and others such as, All The Light You Can Not See and The Martian that a new genre may be created, science-based literary fiction. It certainly was ironic that as an avid reader of science fiction that this series was recommended to me by someone who had never read science fiction before. It is my fervent hope that exposure to books like this will garner interest in the quality Science Fiction that has been written for years.

I never realized how frustrating it is when you don't know if a character is male or female, yet also how satisfying it is that, after two books, I still can't tell which Breq/Justice is.
That's says a lot about how good a writer Leckie is and how clear her characters are. I'm not really sure why Breq is there, in that particular system, or how s/he sees her mission progressing, but I'm happy to follow wherever it goes.

Another wow for Ann Leckie. At the end of "Ancillary Justice", the former starship AI Breq (and former ancillary) had decided to seek forgiveness from Lt Awn's sister at a far-away planet and station. Breq is given command of a "Mercy" ship by one-half of the seriously split personality that runs the Raadsch empire. The empire is in a civil war now that has closed many of the transfer gates needed for interstellar commerce and communication, people are anxious about interference by a lethal alien race, and Breq's orders are to secure the system she is going to in order to ensure that it remains safe.

While there, Breq takes her orders to heart, making enemies of the system governor, the in-system fleet Captain, and some of the corporations that run things while she tries to improve upon things. It helps that she's an ancillary and has an invisible gun.

As the Raadsch language has no gender identifications, almost all the characters are referred to as "she" as in the first book of this series. While irritating at times, it's interesting how it's not an issue except when talking of relationships between two or more characters and trying to figure out who's the guy and who's the gal. Sometimes not so easy to do, but then for most of the book it doesn't really matter. Plus, we still don't know the sex of Breq's ancillary body.

The book is well-written, the plot here is excellent, and, like the first novel, it often flashes back and forth quickly (sometimes in alternating sentences) between Breq here and Breq there (such as on the ship) since she can "see" and "hear" much more than what is going on in her presence.

Not a book for beach reading or for speed readers; it's a delight to read it at a moderate pace and enjoy the writing and the story.

The ending is a little open as we know that something has to be done about several gaping issues (such as the schizophrenic Raadsch ruler), but it just whets the appetite for the next book.

Once again, Ann Leckie delivers great, character-driven space opera sci-fi. Personally, I enjoyed the first novel more, but I think this one is the better of the two--at least from a literary standpoint. It doesn't have much of a major plot (that is, aside from the main plot of the trilogy carrying over from the first book), but that's okay since the characters and the world they live in are the focal point here. Leckie has succeeded in enamoring me with this world she's building, and I'll keep coming back as long as she keeps writing these novels.

A richly imagined universe that picks up from where Ancillary Justice left off. This book is actually more successful in a way because the story builds more organically. (The climax of Justice felt a bit mechanical after the excitement building up to it.) I'm very interested in what's coming next. Leckie is building up a grand epic here.

Fantastic. Deeply developed characters and a subtle political and emotional plot that doesn't bore. Continues the creative and unique world from the first book and leaves many plot lines to be further explored. Reminiscent of Bujold's early Vorkosigan novels and hopefully with as long lasting a storyline to follow!

Great book! I absolutely loved this sequel to Ancillary Justice. You have to read AJ first to enjoy this book. AJ is a tougher book to get through because it sets the rules of the series, the wonderful character Breq (who is so much more than 'she' seems), and the overall universe: the gender non-specific reality (which I struggled with in AJ but was ready for and thoroughly accepted in AS), the ability of the main character to be aware of several things at one time, the hidden emotion (and what great emotion there is) in the seemingly stalwart military structure, the fiercely loyal AIs, the overall FEEL of this dangerous and yet beautiful universe. And while AJ played out over a much larger canvas, AS is more intimate and successfully so. I love these books. Highly highly recommended! I hope there is another book soon. I can't wait to visit this unique world and these people again. Wonderful job Ms. Leckie.

I am eagerly awaiting the next volume in this series. While Ancillary Sword is not quite the epic of its predecessor, Ancillary Justice, it is still a wonderful story that seems to be building to transition to the next one. Recommend reading the two volumes in sequence.

It is always with trepidation that I pick up the sequel to such a killer frst book as Ancillary Justice. No need to worry. Ms Leckie's world view is as amazing and engaging as the first time around. Breq is a hero to admire and cheer for. Download a sample and see for yourself.

I'm an old SF fan (in every sense), and I really like these books. I especially like the way the author plays with gender (having a PhD in English is probably has something to do with that). I definitely find myself drawn into the story and wanting to get back to the book to read more. Already pre-ordered the next one.

Actually this rating is for both books. 1 & 2. And although the books don't have the amount of action I usually like, the expression of the play of consciousness in life that it reaches for is superb and hints at subtleties that continue to tease the reader well after finishing the story.

Hated to see this one end. I found this to be a much more engaging storyline than the first book though it was very good. It was interesting how the author showed the unique nature and perspective of the main character. Looking forward to more!

I wasn't sure if this sequel could compare to the first book. I had read some reviews that were mixed and unappealing. I finally relinquished, ordered the book and became immersed in that fantastic world that Ann Leckie has created. Truly incredible writing. I can only hope that she will write more and I will never hesitate the next time one comes out. It would be a surprise if this book was not nominated for Nebula or Hugo award.

The characters are more deeply filled in, and though Leckie continues to make heavy use of narrative uncertainty and missing information in her plot development, a richer sense of the interplanetary environment of the Ancillary books is coming together. I will certainly keep reading the series.

I've been waiting for this ever since finishing Justice the first time, earlier this year and I'm thrilled with the book.

Leckie brings in new, interesting characters while keeping continuity and fleshing out the main ones more. It's no copy-paste of the original plot, but further, interesting adventures in the increasingly complicated universe of the Radch.

I can't wait to see where this goes next!

The second entry in Ann Leckie's proposed trilogy is more of a slow burn than the 'Anclillary Justice,' but still filled with fantastically complex characters, themes and ideas. Her use of language, and the sparseness of her descriptions, leave the reader to flesh out these worlds as much as they can. Cannot wait for part three.

I can't say enough good things about this middle book. Wow. What a wonderful character this Breq is. You have to love someone who is that angry all the time and yet so incredibly decent.

I have read a lot of sci-fi, so the other thing that strikes me is how unpredictable the plot is. And each new character is invariably interesting. I'm already disappointed that there are only three books in the series.

(Since writing the above I've read manyof the negative reviews here. I think the problem is that some people drawn to sci-fi enjoy character development and others are primarily into epic space opera action. I thought this book had both, but apparently there's not enough of the latter for some readers.)

At one point late in Ancillary Sword, a character asks the protagonist, "How (does) any of this (matter) when we have a civil war going on that might find its way here?" Breq's answer placates that character, but after finishing Ancillary Sword many readers will likely find themselves asking the same question with a far less satisfactory response. 2 stars.

The award winning Ancillary Justice combined space opera, social commentary, and shifting perspectives to create one of the more original works of science fiction in some years. While there was some criticism of pacing and depth, most readers felt those negatives were offset by the unique worldbuilding.

Unfortunately, Ancillary Sword retains most of the negatives without the positives. The plot summary: newly promoted Fleet Captain Breq proceeds to Athoek station, where by virtue of her superior rank she can order nearly everyone to do pretty much whatever her whims demand. Anyone who disagrees? Clearly, they're morally and intellectually bankrupt, and Breq has near omnipotence to not only steamroll them but to miraculously contain their enmity. (There's probably an ironic meta here someplace comparing Breq's leadership to Anaander's eternal dictatorship, but this is almost certainly unintentional.)

While there, she uncovers a few conspiracies, spends an awful lot of time working towards social justice for various oppressed locals, and on occasion tries to make up with Awn's sister. The big picture stuff that drove the plot of Ancillary Justice disappears and the book stagnates.

Civil war? Almost nonexistent for most of the book. Alien menace? The introduction of what is easily the most fascinating secondary character in either book ends up devolving into an almost irrelevant transitional plot device. Villains? Two dimensional and not particularly subtle, especially as any ambiguity over the morality of the Radchaai gets erased as the book proceeds. And Awn's sister? While the author previously stated her protection would be Breq's main priority in this book, once she began writing, Leckie appears to have abandoned that idea. Not only is Basnaaid a very minor character, but somehow the author couldn't come up with a subplot that puts her at even moderate peril.

Those who loved the first book will probably find enough here to tolerate Sword, but the bottom line is that this just isn't a particularly enthralling sequel. Perhaps the final book of the trilogy will put all of this in context, but as a standalone this falls badly short. 2 stars.

A great sequel to a fascinating debut novel. Breq / Justice of Toren is one of the more memorable characters created in sci fi in recent years: a Jack Reacher of the Radch space, if you will, only much more nuanced and ultimately human -- and far more terrifying.

I can only wonder at the skill of the author: characterization, the structure of the novel, and the way its universe is gradually revealed to the reader, without any sense of heavy-handed reads-like an instruction-manual passages, all done so skillfully so that it's is only afterwards that the reader starts to wonder: what exactly is the Radch home world like? How did it come to be? Will we find answers to these questions in the next book? And will there be many more books to come? I sincerely hope so.

Also, I'm intensely curious about the source material: Hinduism in its many forms, ancient Egypt (the duality of gods, Amaat, the way regiments are named?) Highly interesting.

I read this almost immediately after Ancillary Justice (which I loved) expecting it to be more of the same. While there are similarities, they are not the same novel (which is good). Obviously the past vs present timeline switching stopped once at the end of Ancillary Justice so that's missing from Ancillary Sword. However there are a lot of great bits about haves and have-nots in the space station and colony world. The politics seem more subtle in this book with less of the grand overthrow the tyrant type of stuff in the first book.

All that being said, I still think this book deserves 5 stars (and hopefully a Hugo award) and I'm looking forward to what Leckie has in store for us next.

This sequel to Ancillary Justice follows in the tradition of the best classic science fiction writers of the past century, reminding us, even in the face of advanced technology, what it means to be human.

Ann Leckie's "Ancillary Sword" is a good follow-up to the highly-lauded "Ancillary Justice." It doesn't break a lot of new ground, but it does continue down the path begun in the first book. As before, the protagonist is a former ancillary -- a human slaved to a an artificial intelligence -- who is out to avenge the destruction of the ship she used to belong to and the death of a ship officer she felt especially close to. (Note that in the Radch Empire, all persons are referred to with feminine pronouns regardless of their biological sex.)

Made a fleet captain and sent off to a nearby system to enforce order, the ancillary shakes everything up. Her primary objective is to weed out the forces that are undermining the stability of the empire, but in her efforts to enforce the best ideals of the empire -- while the empire's vast scope owes a great deal to its ruthlessness, it does still have some ideals -- she completely manages to alienate most of the locals. Her quest for justice and equality seems almost quaint at times, but it's tough not to root for her.

A major subplot regards the fate of a young officer who had been briefly slaved to the emperor in the same way the ancillary had been slaved to an AI. The young woman's efforts to knit together the remnants of her old personality with the overwhelming presence of the emperor within her head presents a difficult challenge that she struggles with throughout the novel.

This novel does not move us very far down the line towards a resolution of the conflict within the empire, suggesting that Leckie plans more than a trilogy. That would be fine with me; I've enjoyed what I've read. Readers who come to this book expecting some sort of slam-bang repetition of the first novel will be disappointed, but those who bring more patience should be well satisfied with what "Ancillary Sword" has to offer.

While there is a lot less action in this book, it is a joy to return to Justice of Toren's careful, delicate and brilliant thinking process. I do not recommend this book as a stand alone.

Delicious to follow the development of the new and old characters. Loved to see Seivarden settling in to a familiar role and developing from there.

The general plot / conflict of the universe was not advanced at all, so I am still eagerly waiting for the next books.

After reading the previous Radch story i looked forward to this.
I am sorry that i will have to wait so long for the next.
Few people have the ability to create a radically different universe/future

I seldom praise a book. But this writer is up there with Cj Cherryh.

This book is very smart. It reminds me of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. It starts a little slow but it's worth it in the end. There are many smart topics: the nature of consciousness, ethics, A.I., lots of philosophy... One of my favorites.

Not as kinetic as Ancillary Justice but absorbing. I liked Ancillary Justice a lot but also found it rather unsettling and wasn't sure I would read it a second time - after reading Ancillary Sword I want to go back to it. If you enjoy boldly imagined science fiction worlds, good writing and intricate plotting, do read both of them. These two books blow a lot of "recommended for me" SF (with lots of five star reviews) out of the water.

Breq, once a superintelligent AI controlling a vast starship, is now a reluctant agent of Anaander Mianaai, the ruler of the Radch. Mianaai inhabits thousands of different bodies scattered across human space, but is now suffering from disassociation: two distinct factions have arisen in her multiplicity and are now waging war on one another. Aligned with one faction against the other, Breq is ordered to the remote planet Athoek and take steps to secure it against the opposition.

Ancillary Justice was released in 2013 and won the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke awards the following year. A fine space opera novel which contained thematic musings on identity, consciousness and pre-existing biases, it was a striking debut, if one that was slightly overrated.

Being a success, of course the novel turned out to be the start of a trilogy. This is where things start to go wrong for Ancillary Sword. The Imperial Radch trilogy is what can be called a "fake trilogy", where Part 1 is self-contained (to some extent) to avoid too many unresolved plotlines if sales tank, whilst the remaining two parts form a much more closely-linked duology. The original Star Wars trilogy is a good example of that, and it's a reasonably common set-up in science fiction and fantasy which can work quite well (and arguably is better than "proper" trilogies with a single big story, where often the middle book feels surplus to requirements). However, it doesn't really work with Ancillary Sword.

This is a book which has very bizarre pacing. The entire novel, which is only 340 pages long in paperback, is laid back, chilled out, almost languorous. Breq travels on her starship to Athoek and meets lots of people and is nice to them, whilst carrying out observations of them from her unique perspective (a starship AI living in a single human body). The other characters are a mixture of interesting and bland, but the novel stubbornly refuses to engage in anything really approaching a plot or giving them anything interesting to do. A representative of an overwhelmingly powerful alien race is murdered, but this has no consequence (in this novel anyway). There's a lot of politicking and capital-building, both by Breq and her subordinates, and some of this is addressed in the novel but a lot of it isn't. At one point we learn of a mysterious "ghost gate" leading to an unknown star system where Breq suspects something is going on. She resolutely fails to follow up on this lead.

Ancillary Sword, it soon turns out, is almost nothing but set-up and pipe-laying for Ancillary Mercy, the third and concluding volume in the series. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is an issue when the book denudes itself of its own identity and storyline to benefit the later book in the series.

What the book does do quite well is character development, with Leckie also cleverly inverting the usual cliches of "AI wanting to be human" stories by having an AI become human and resolutely dislike the experience. By the end of the book Breq knows where she stands with regards to the government of Athoek and the administrators of the space station above it. The novel also makes some nods in the direction of themes such as colonialism, but treats the subject simplistically and superficially: no-one on Athoek but Breq has ever had the idea of treating the labourers fairly or even just enforcing the law on treating subject races well, apparently.

This is a slow-burning, SF-lite novel which feels like it is trying very hard to be a Lois McMaster Bujold book (who does this kind of comedy-of-manners, character-rooted story which holds back on violence and explosions with considerably less hype) but is undercut by also lacking the story and thematic elements that Bujold would include in her work effortlessly. If Ancillary Sword is anything, it's certainly not effortless: this is a turgidly-paced novel that took me five weeks to get through despite its modest length.

Still, Ancillary Mercy (**½) is a desperately slow and badly-paced novel rescued by some effective characterisation and ends with some plot developments that leave things in an intriguing place for Ancillary Mercy to resolve. How well it does so remains to be seen.

I’m sort of surprised to be writing this review. I fully expected another solid 4 star experience from Leckie, but sadly this book fell a little short for me. I think once the shiny newness of her complex world building wore off I was disappointed at what I was left with.

The plot in this book felt like it had no purpose or direction. In the first book, you know Breq has her reasons for doing what she does, she just hasn’t shared them with you yet. Here, she wanders from pitfall to pitfall on Athoek station for no other reason the Anaander sent her there.

Which brings me to point number two: Leckie creates a false sense of suspense by allowing Breq to know things the reader doesn’t. There is never a reason or justification given for Breq knowing these things, she just has “suspicions”. She tells you she suspects it, but she never says why or who. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like this also happened in the first book, but with less frequency.

Seivarden was largely non-existent for most of the book which I found extremely disappointing. She went from being hated at first to being loved and then she seemed to be written off in book two. Why go through all that character development and then stow her away, off stage?

I know at this point I don’t sound very positive, but I do enjoy Breq as a character. I loved the one action scene at the end, and the further glimpses into Radchaai culture. So while this is no means a bad book, I just don’t think it had as much to offer as Ancillary Justice. I will probably continue with Ancillary Mercy and hope for a stronger plot structure.

In this second installation of the hopefully tea-sponsored trilogy, we have:

* The very complete notes of the meetings of the space ladies' tea club in case you missed some gossip
* A very detailed travel log of an isolated planet packed with 2 residences and a lake
* More award nominations
* Almost no appearance of the pesky plot-advancing villain of the trilogy (who again?)
* Very nice dishes and nicer dishes still, probably not the best dish descriptions of the best dishes yet to come but they're here
* Detailed scenes of wealthy, catty teens with problems and crushes, including their dialogue
* The un-usually un-armed all-conquering space military that does nearly nothing all book besides injure people at a station tea house (total of twice) and shoot a storage locker (really)
* The fleet captain of the above that's a 2,000 year old, cranky, dangerous AI controlling a superhuman zombie that is mostly adept at tea and being stuck in the beginnings of social inequity subplots while being disrespected by all
* One bomb that leads to a sojourn in the woods, tea, dinner, and talking
* One really interesting alien for a few pages (spoiler)
* Tea house defacement (up to twice) (spoiler)
* The plot of the second and third books bluntly air-dropped into the middle of tea scenes
* Worf's kindly adoptive parents show up which makes him and Alexander uncomfortable, raising the tension and intrigue level substantially (I may have nodded off and dreamed this part)
* Lieutenants all became leftenants and if you get the narration, all new odd name pronunciations and strange character voices

I'll finish the trilogy. It's too late for me.

Ann Leckie's "Ancillary Sword" is a good follow-up to the highly-lauded "Ancillary Justice." It doesn't break a lot of new ground, but it does continue down the path begun in the first book. As before, the protagonist is a former ancillary -- a human slaved to a an artificial intelligence -- who is out to avenge the destruction of the ship she used to belong to and the death of a ship officer she felt especially close to. (Note that in the Radch Empire, all persons are referred to with feminine pronouns regardless of their biological sex.)

Made a fleet captain and sent off to a nearby system to enforce order, the ancillary shakes everything up. Her primary objective is to weed out the forces that are undermining the stability of the empire, but in her efforts to enforce the best ideals of the empire -- while the empire's vast scope owes a great deal to its ruthlessness, it does still have some ideals -- she completely manages to alienate most of the locals. Her quest for justice and equality seems almost quaint at times, but it's tough not to root for her.

A major subplot regards the fate of a young officer who had been briefly slaved to the emperor in the same way the ancillary had been slaved to an AI. The young woman's efforts to knit together the remnants of her old personality with the overwhelming presence of the emperor within her head presents a difficult challenge that she struggles with throughout the novel.

This novel does not move us very far down the line towards a resolution of the conflict within the empire, suggesting that Leckie plans more than a trilogy. That would be fine with me; I've enjoyed what I've read. Readers who come to this book expecting some sort of slam-bang repetition of the first novel will be disappointed, but those who bring more patience should be well satisfied with what "Ancillary Sword" has to offer.

Ancillary Sword is the second book in Ann Leckie's "Imperial Radch" series. It's an interesting experience reading books that I have overheard being discussed as thoroughly as these have, when reading them well after everyone else in the world has done so. I'm not spoiler-averse, but it's curious to discover the contrast between the focus certain events and people have received in discussion versus the amount of page-time they received. (For example, I was a bit startled to discover how brief the stage time of translator Dlique was. But never mind.)

The joy in reading Ancillary Justice, the first of the series, was the joy of bending one's mind around a non-linear narrative in which all the usual notions of voice, character, and causation are thrown to the winds. The joy in reading Ancillary Sword (for me) was more that of a cozy mystery. If a planet can be a quaint country village. There was the same sense of teasing out the residents and relationships, of tracking down motives and means, of looking for the anomalies and inconsistencies. There is murder, or something like it, and attempted murder. There is the confrontation and revelation and confession. Given that I had absorbed the premises and assumptions of the setting in the first book, this one was far less brain-stretching. Quieter and less surprising (which is not to say predictable). We're given a number of secondary characters that we're clearly meant to become attached to, providing the right amount of worry and suspense.

The prose, as before, is smooth and polished with the sort of technical invisibility I like in a good read. The protagonist Breq is becoming more familiar and I start to see the cracks and gaps between what she is supposed to be within this universe and what she actually is...or is becoming. It is a comfortable middle book: building on what came before, encompassing a tidy independent plot arc, and yet leaving the larger question of what's happening in the Radch empire hanging for future resolution.

Ancillary Sword is the second in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series and the sequel to Ancillary Justice (my review here). Picking up chronologically almost immediately after the events of that book, it follows Breq, the once ship, but now the last remaining ancillary of her ship, as she is given command of a ship and sent to resolve problems in a star system under the Imperial Radch rule. Within moments of arrival, it's clear that something is awry, but exactly what is a mystery.

There is a distinctly different feel to the story her from Ancillary Justice. So much of the excitement over the first book seemed to be how Ann Leckie blew the top off conventions of perspective in how she told the story, using Breq as a personality split over many bodies as the narrator. With Ancillary Sword, Breq is confined to just one remaining body, her ship destroyed, and while she is able to jump her awareness to many the perspectives of those under her command instantaneously, it is not the same thing. Further, the story itself is structured differently, her motives are different, and her goals changed. It results in a completely different feel, one that is, in many ways, more conventional than Ancillary Justice.

The change isn't necessarily a bad one, but Leckie doesn't really seem to provide that wow factor that carried Ancillary Justice. Her characters are flat, her protagonist is not compelling or sympathetic, and I wasn't really sure that I felt the injustice that was supposed to be resolved. Sure, there was an underworld of repressed citizens on the space station and down the well, but their repression is never developed into something that felt personal. I might have been reading something out of a travel log by a socially conscious journalist for all the depth that the oppressed demonstrated. In some respects, this may be an outgrowth of Breq's nature as a ship, an artificial intelligence shoved into a physical body, but the effect is one that while occasionally interesting is ultimately lacking in sympathy and emotion, even when Leckie goes into excessive detail about every feeling and motivation that Breq is experiencing.

In some respects, it's an excess of tell over show that dulls the credibility of Breq's experience. Breq never really faces significant obstacles and strides through Radch colonial civilization like a demi-god, demanding, and receiving, the results she desires.

This observation about the nature of the colony raises some other concerns I had. At 600 years the colony is still facing the same prejudices as integration by the Radch? Given the level of technology the Radch and their citizens utilize, this strains credibility and marks one of the deficits in a lot of science-fiction writers repertoire--an appreciation or understanding of anthropology and human cultural evolution. We may buy that civilization in the Star Wars universe remains relatively static for millenia, but we don't come to it with a promise of social change and justice the way that Leckie does in her novels. As a result, the sudden changes that Breq forces upon Athoek's governors and people seem out-of-place and forced. Would change really have been static for 600 years? For a comparison, consider that it 600 years ago, Columbus had not discovered America--or been born, most of the world was feudal, peasants lived in wooden huts, fought with bows and arrows and swords, traveled by horse, and had a life expectancy of 30. Meanwhile, Radch citizens were conquered by space ships, had access to artificial intelligence, and lived in space stations. And social change has been static for 600 years? Perhaps this is Leckie's point--something has been retarding the change, but I didn't get that impression. Rather, it felt like an excuse for Leckie to write a metaphor for social change imposed by powerful individuals on repressing social groups to the benefit of the huddled masses.

Yes, the heavy-handedness of it all. Leckie's actually much lighter with her hand than others, but because the tale lacks in other ways, the social message seems to drive the story more than the story driving the social message. It hurts her effort, and I think diminishes Ancillary Sword's potential.

Ancillary Sword has been nominated for the Hugo for Best Novel. I don't have any problem with that, per se. It's a decent follow up to Ancillary Justice, even if unsatisfactorily so. However, I suspect that, because it was not on the Sad or Rabid Dogs slate and because Ancillary Justice received the Hugo last year, it will receive the bulk of the votes from those who are revolting against the Sad and Rabid Puppies slates. This is unfortunate, because there are better books that have been nominated this year (for example, The Goblin Emperor, review forthcoming) and that deserve attention. But are the Hugos about quality science-fiction and fantasy any more or just a platform for the promotion of petty political agendas?

Breq, whom we met in _Ancillary Justice_, is an ex-ship. She (gender unknown: "she" is used for everyone in this future) tried to kill the Emperor of the Radch, Anaander Mianaai, and wound up working for her. Or for some of her. Except that she doesn't.

You see, Anaander Mianaai has, at any moment, thousands of bodies, and they've got somewhat out of synch. As a result, there is war in the Radchaai empire, and taking sides - any side! - is probably treasonous.

Breq herself used to be the troop carrier _Justice of Toren_, but some Anaander Mianaais sabotaged her, leaving her with only one "ancillary" human body of the hundreds that had been part of her.

Well, Breq, now Fleet Captain Breq Mianaai, has come to Athoek Station, and uncovered a mare's-nest of spying, smuggling, and "company town" style slavery. And she's doing something about it.

And in the meanwhile, an emissary of the powerful alien Presger manages to get herself murdered.

This *is* the middle book of a trilogy, and many things begun in it are setup for book three, and go at least partially unresolved. But, unlike many "middle books," there are at least two major plots begun and resolved in the course of the novel - though they will no doubt resonate into _Ancillary Mercy_ - and it's quite a satisfying read on its own.

Breq is a fascinating character in a world of fascinating characters. Indeed, though the Imperial Radch trilogy is promoted as "space opera," it is so only by courtesy; there are, in the first two books at least, no great big space battles à la the Edwards, Hamilton and Smith. But there is a great deal of politicking, intrigue, and even some derring-do.

What to make of this book, which is quite different from most contemporary sci fi novels? Well-written and set in an interesting future universe, the story still suffers from major shortcomings that make it not a compelling tale. I still don’t know if there are any males around or if the Radcch society consists only of females. And many of these characters are part of a group consciousness and not whole individuals, making them unfortunately robotic in their behavior. I find it hard to care for these people. They also have subtle interactions and social conventions that are not well-delineated and left me puzzled as to what was happening. Though I liked Ancillary Justice better, it suffers from some of the same problems. Ancillary Sword has a somewhat plodding plot where little of interest happens until the end. I know my view on these books flies in the face of all the praise and awards the author has garnered, but I will stand by this opinion.

I loved Ancillary Justice. I loved the pacing. The relationships. The scope. The conflict. The dual stories that developed simultaneously. The use of a single gender pronoun that forced me to confront and acknowledge my own stereotypes.

The only one of those strengths that Ancillary Sword maintains is the use of the single gender pronoun. That's not enough.

Biggest problem here: I never felt any sense of urgency or purpose in anything. Breq is a bit of an omniscient narrator -- but she isn't as forthcoming with the reasons for her actions. Therefore, again and again I found myself asking: why are we doing this? Why are we going here? Why is this important? Unable to decipher any rationale for the progression of the story, or at least the promise of an interesting mystery that may ultimately get resolved, I frequently found myself growing bored.

Worse, because there was no logical buildup in suspense, there was no clearly defined climax. In fact, by approximately 4/5 of the way though, I thought things were so adequately (but uninterestingly) wrapped up that I had no idea how we would spend the last chunk of the book. Oh yes, there was one more dramatic scene forthcoming, but for me the story had lost whatever momentum it had by that point.

How about characters? The core of a good story, in my opinion. Well, how about Seivarden? Very interesting character from the first book that had a very satisfying character arc. How would her (using Radchaii pronouns here) character further develop with her reintegration into modern Radchaii society? Don't get too excited -- she's a bit character in this story, relegated to the ship while the "action" takes place on the Athoek station and planet.

Instead you get Raughd. With this one, what you see is what you get. Flat and uninteresting, she's essentially a McGuffin, there only to progress the story. Or Tisarwat, who pretty much just mopes around. Tisarwat enjoys a bit of an arc, but by the time she starts doing anything useful, it's already been very, very well established that she's a miserable mess who just wallows in self pity. Even Breq is less interesting here. She seems more robotic and single minded than before. When she sings in this story, it feels bizarre and out of place. Breq as One Esk felt for more laid back and personable and likely to enjoy music.

Overall, the pieces just don't fit together for me. It wasn't the absolute worst book I've read; Ann Leckie's writing style is very readable, and although I found myself bored at times, I never felt stuck and unable to proceed. It just falls into the massive basket of mediocre science fiction that exists in book stores. Not absolutely terrible. . .but probably not worth my time. I'm going to have to give serious thought to whether or not I want to open Ancillary Mercy. It's sitting on my bookshelf because I enthusiastically bought Sword and Mercy immediately after reading Justice. That may have been a mistake.

Ancillary Sword is just as good as its predecessor, Ancillary Justice, but with the added bonus that the reader now understands Leckie’s odd system of ancillaries, ships, and tea ceremonies right from the start. (I ended up loving Ancillary Justice, but that story took far too long to clarify how the rules of its universe worked.) It’s a little strange as a sequel, since most of the drama that came to a head at the end of Ancillary Justice just continues to boil off-screen here while the main character gets shunted off on a glorified side quest. But the new storyline of a seasoned officer investigating backwater corruption is well-told, and Leckie continues her fascinating contemplation of what constitutes identity when multiple bodies can be plugged into (and unplugged from) a single consciousness. I’m not really sure what to expect from the next book in this series after this one went off in such an unexpected direction, but I do know I’m looking forward to it.

No, it really is. The novel is filled with tea, and fine china. There’s polite meetings in polite society. There’s blushing in abundance at the smallest of social faux pas. There’s tears from the young ‘uns when their jobs are just a bit too overwhelming. There’s snooty-as-hell top of society landowners with brat children to match. There’s tea. There’s gossip amongst the servants, and resentment amongst the slaves. There are gardens. And tea. And dressing expectations. And a funeral with a proper and lengthy period of mourning and doing nothing. And because everyone is bored with life, there are accepted and expected trysts galore. Also tea. 95% of the “action” in the book falls somewhere between “a snore” and “a boring college professor’s lecture.” There is, to be fair, a bomb. And there is a murder. But everything, and I mean everything, is dealt with such straight faces and such inhuman emotional reactions (ans I do understand we’re working with ancillaries here) as to make the producers over at the BBC stand up and wildly applause (though quietly and politely, and certainly without smiling, unless it is wryly). And tea.

In other words, it’s Downton Abbey...in SPAAAAAACE!

A few other notes:

Note: As others have pointed out, the major theme of the novel of seeing slaves as people is very heavy handed, and cliched.

Note: As others have pointed out, no one in this military acts like someone in the military - even an imaginary military.

Note: I’m not really sure that the title works very well here: Ancillary Sword. There’s not much “swording” going on. Breq doesn’t exactly “cut through” the social expectations, either. She just sorta has tea until the social expectations change. Not very “swordly” of her.

Note: I found this book much easier to read than Ancillary Justice because I knew Leckie’s style going into it, and because the narrative in this novel is focused on one time frame. However, the ideas that made Ancillary Justice so compelling were hardly to be found in Ancillary Sword: the idea of being an ancillary, one of many, was almost gone in this novel. The idea of Anaadnder Mianaai being at war with herself was almost non-existent. The idea of conquering planets and turning the inhabitants into ancillaries was barely present. And the idea that the all-powerful Presger might have been meddling with things, well, the reader is told repeatedly that the Presger are not involved. In summary, all the interesting ideas were taken out (replaced by tea).

Note: In the end my feeling about this book are on par with my feelings about those of Lois McMaster Bujold and her Vorkosigan Saga: books with promise, but that are far too polite.

Final Note: Downton Abbey...in SPAAAAAACE!

I became an instant Ann Leckie fan after reading Ancillary Justice. What a wonderful concept and execution. The book was well written, compelling and exciting. Character development was excellent. The structure of the book made a complex plot understandable and easily followed. All the awards for Leckie and the book were well deserved.

Not so with her tedious and boring follow up. I found myself waiting...waiting...and waiting for the story to move at more than a snail's pace. Stop conversing and thinking and get on with it! I became annoyed with all of Breq's calculating thoughts. I have never before been so let down by an author and a sequel. True disappointment.

It seems that every science fiction writer has to do a trilogy these days. I can only assume the profit motive has something to do with that, although I must admit there are some great trilogies. But the second book of Leckie's trilogy will bring this trilogy down even if the third book is as good as the first.

Ancillary Justice still goes on my list of favorite science fiction books of all time. I wish Leckie had stopped with that one and moved on to something else.

While I loved listening to "Ancillary Justice", the reader of "Ancillary Sword" totally ruined the story. While it took a bit of time to get used to the voice of the reader of "Ancillary Justice", it was worthwhile. She clearly pronounced some of the difficult, scifi-ish names, and her slightly deadpan tone matched well with the persona of the heroine. The reader of "Ancillary Sword" by comparison garbled the difficult names and gave such horrible interpretations of the secondary characters' voices that it was hard to pay attention to what they were saying. I tried several times to go back to it, but in the end, decided it was not worth the aggravation. Instead, I will get this on the Kindle and read it since I think the story is still captivating.

This is the second book of Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy. I had enjoyed the first book, Ancillary Justice, as a very imaginative space-opera, with lots of creative ideas and nicely written plot lines. So I was anxious to get on to this second volume. I can’t say I liked it quite as much as the first, although I’m hooked on the series.

Ancillary Justice introduced the idea of the Radch empire, powered by a fleet of AI-endowed spaceships and “ancillaries” — multiple human bodies under a single directing consciousness. The lead character in the story, Breq Mianaii, is the one remaining ancillary of what had been the AI-driven ship, Justice of Toren. Breq’s companion, Seivarden, continues in this book, although she takes more of a back seat to a new character, Tisarwat. Both Seivarden and Tisarwat serve as lieutenants to Breq on the ship, Mercy of Kalr, as they travel to Athoek Station, where the civil war playing out at the end of Ancillary Justice has generated an atmosphere of confusion and suspicion.

No one is aware of the true nature of the civil war, the division of Anaander Mianaii within herself, but the chaos that erupted at Omaugh Palace is well-known. All the cards get thrown up in the air, and scrambles for power and loyalty break out. Tisarwat herself has been planted as an extension of Anaander Mianaii and a spy aboard the Mercy of Kalr. Anaander Mianaii needs but doesn’t trust Breq.

The plot, you may begin to see, is very much a political story — there is a power struggle going on within Anaander Mianaii, and within the empire as a whole. Long entrenched racial and class injustices come to the surface, and Breq emerges here more clearly as a potential hero, who despite not actually being human, displays and enacts a true sense of human justice.

Neither Ancillary Justice nor Ancillary Sword are books you want to read without committing to the series. They are parts of a story — neither stands all that strongly on its own. But Leckie’s strength, I think, is weaving together a universe worth navigating.

Ancillary Sword is the sequel to the award winning Ancillary Justice. I have enjoyed the universe that Ann Leckie has created. The story takes place in a universe where the primary society is the Radchaai, and time where Artificial Intelligence has developed to the point where it is able to run spaceships and space systems, and can see everything that is going on. The AIs can "live" for thousands of years. The ships have "ancillaries" which are humans which have been reconfigured to interact with the AIs. The ancillaries are also connected with their AI, so each ancillary can see what the other is seeing, and they are all connected. In addition, the leader of the Radchaii society Anaander Mianaai, has cloned herself so that their are many versions of herself, and that she too can live through her new bodies pretty much forever. If all of this sounds confusing it can be, but it is also worth the effort. The main character of the stories is Breq, who in Ancillary Justice we learn about her past, and the mission she has set herself on. Ancillary Justice takes place on a number of planets and space stations and explains the Universe created. It also covers plot lines which occur thousands of years apart. Ancillary Sword is a much "smaller" book in that for the most part it takes place on one planet and the space station above it, over the time of a few weeks. Some may complain that nothing really happens, but Leckie takes her time with the characters, and is playing the long game with the universe she created. I'm looking forward to what happens next.

The first book,in the series takes a bit of work to sink into, building slowly (and sometimes confusingly) to a phenomenal conclusion. This, as the second book, starts off with a bang and continues to draw the reader in. Incredibly relevant and intelligently written, so far this is the best series I’ve read since the Hyperion Cantos. It is as thought provoking as it is engaging, bringing in social theory, class warfare, moral relativity, gentrification, gender identities, power dynamics, colonialism, and other meaningful paradigms into an exquisitely crafted universe. It’s been a while since I’ve devoured a book so quickly. I can’t wait to start the next one!

The first book in this series, Ancillary Justice, was very good. About 40 pages too long, but such original ideas and characters this was easily forgivable. Ancillary Sword however, had little originality in concept or characters. Another reviewer said Ancillary Sword felt as if it was just mailed in, and I concur. The plot did not move forward at all. This felt more like a never ending soap opera. I'm pretty sure the author now plans to milk this for another 20-30 installations without ever resolving anything.

It was very disappointing given that the author is clearly capable of doing better.

A well-written, worthy second installment of this creative scifi trilogy. At times it can be a little difficult to follow, but I enjoy the story arcs and the narration by an AI that was once a spaceship with many AI-human soldiers, which has been "reduced" to a single human body. Just a personal thing for me, but it drives me semi-nuts trying to figure out how to "correctly" pronounce the many alien names/terms with their atypical letter combinations - for me, it can get in the way of the story's flow.

The book is a nominee for the 2015 Hugo award. On finishing it I would have to say it's not bad, as a Hugo nomination not great. If it hadn't been nominated I would have never read it. That said, I enjoyed the story and it was reasonably well written. The author only uses the female personal pronouns, my impression is that we are supposed to assume that this is a literal translation of a language that only contains the female pronoun. She uses one annoying exception, the military officers are addressed as "Sir". Why the male address? A weakness with the writing, which maybe a consequence of using this gimmick is the lack of detailed descriptions of the characters. I think that is to affirm the focus on gender, "all beings are primarily female". The lack of character description limits the story. You are left shadows that you have to color in using dialogue. The first 25% of the book is filler, to bring you up to speed, if you haven't read the first book. That was probably imposed on the author by the publisher and it reads as such. That part of the story is wooden and the language has a bitter tinge to it. I almost gave up on the book because of this section. After the tedious forced introductory section, the writing and the story becomes more interesting and at the middle of the book, almost exactly at the 50% point you have the predictable crisis point. Then the story starts to get interesting and was worth the time and effort to finish the novel. Another limitation on the book is the lack of humanity in the character, there is no one that I could empathize with, no one that I would like to invite over for tea. There is no happiness, joy or humor in the book, almost a souless robotic netherworld. This book is obviously an intermediate novel, meaning it has introduced all the elements needed for an exciting sequel. Based on the introduced elements the next book should be quite interesting and I will definitely check it out.

Boring. If Justice had not been such a fine book, I never would have completed Sword.
The first 80% of the book is bereft of action. Collecting songs, drinking bowls of tea, and championing more sanitary living conditions in the underground does not make a page turner.
Following space opera with an opine for social justice is an unexpected come down.

A fascinating sequel, in which we get to see how the vengeful ex-slave protagonist of Ancillary Justice navigates her unexpected afterlife and the uses of power.
Ancillary Sword deepens the world of the Imperial Radch, bringing out the themes of colonialism, gender, and the messy intersections of the personal and political introduced in the first book, and adding a deep inquiry into justice and authority.
The protagonist is perhaps inhumanly ideal, but there's an ... organic... reason for that. I look forward eagerly to the third installment.

So many negative reviews of this book by people who loved the first book. I have read many of them and I think a lot of this has to do with what you enjoy in a book and also expectations for the second book. I personally loved both books, and actually Ancillary Sword I loved more. Before I comment on Ancillary Sword I want to say that I really enjoyed Ancillary Justice. It had wonderful complex characters, a suspensful plot, was fast paced, raised interesting social issues not easily solved and it had a primary sympathetic character who had done some pretty awful things. Fascinating! My only complaint about Ancillary Justice, which my husband who was reading it as the same time as me shared with me, was that quite often we would get bogged down by how hard it could be to follow. We would often have to re-read sections multiple times to get the gist of what was going on. I like challenging reads, but there's a limit. The book kept me going, but the one thing I would have changed about Ancillary Justice was to make it less of a chore to figure out what was going on.

So one thing that I loved better about Ancillary Sword was it's readability - much better! I LOVED Ancillary Sword. And those of you who stopped reading it part way through really missed a wonderful story and an amazing ending. It delves much more deeply into Breq's character which I found fascinating. It doesn't have the overall primary drive of the first book - In Ancillary Justice Breq is trying to get close enough to the Lord of the Racht to do some damage and her goal in Ancillary Sword is a lot more vague and perhaps not as interesting - keeping a planet/system safe. However I found the book to be riveting, suspenseful and intriguing as Breq in her usual fashion addresses the challenges and inequities in the universe in which she was created and keeps finding ways to move forward and triumph while figuring out what that means. We learn a lot more about what it means to be an ancillary, about what drives Breq ... as she ponders the impossibility of the whole situation where the Lord is at war with herself and no matter which Lord you support they're all the same person so it doesn't matter. I thought it was fabulous.

The only criticism I agree with was what was up with the penis festival which didn't seem to fit into the book - no idea what the point of that was.

Nevertheless, I can't wait for the third book!!

This book was a big letdown after Ancillary Justice. The universe felt smaller, the gender fluidity/relativity that made the first book interesting was barely discussed, and the plot felt lazy and derivative. Ancillary Sword is the epitome of a sophomore slump. Leckie had ten plus years to write Ancillary Justice and wrote Sword in a year or two, and you can tell.

A one sentence summary of the book is: Everyone is drinking tea.

Read this book if … you read Ancillary Justice. Read Ancillary Justice if you’re tired of status quo sci-fi and bro-driven hero stories. Ann Leckie flips it upside down with the first installation of the Imperial Radch series, and Ancillary Sword is worth the read if only to immerse one’s self in the universe for another several hundred pages.

Don’t read this book if … you need to feel the g-forces of a spaceship dogfights or smell the singe of laser blasts. AS, like its predecessor, doesn’t get the heart pounding until the end (and then you’ll just about pass out from hyperventilation), and instead relies on its characters and the inherent mystery of the series-arching plot to carry readers through.

This book is like … few other books. I may not be well versed enough in the science fiction genre to compare this book to anything other than its own prequel, Ancillary Justice, because its characters are relatively unique and Leckie discovered a new way to discuss artificial intelligence. I compared the first Imperial Radch novel to Kazuo Ishiguro because of his similar style and penchant for stories of heartbreaking regret. AS is completely different, leaning more toward conspiracy thrillers.

Read my full review on my blog: http://litbeetle.com/2014/11/11/on-ann-leckies-ancillary-sword-imperial-radch-2/

This is the second book in the “Imperial Redch” series. The first book Ancillary Justice cleaned up at all the major awards for the genre (Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Clarke, BSFA…).
I liked the first book quite a bit. This has many of the things I liked about the first book, but gets caught up in its own emotional development of the characters and the plot suffers because of it.
At the halfway point I thought it less of a story line and more of a series of unfortunate events.
The author does tie it all up at the end and the last 30% does move along and keep your interest.
If you plod through the set up you’ll be rewarded. If you want something fun to read at the beach look somewhere else.

Who hasn't imagined what it'd be like to have countless minds interlinked to your own? To be ripped away and thrown into intergalactic politics leading a power force would be crazy. How crazy? Well you'll have to read this series to understand. This is book 2 and while not everything that book 1 was it was still a thought provoking and entertaining read. I'm intrigued where she can take this series with only a single book left. There are a crazy number of loose ends yet the book still came to a fulfilling close.

Pacing seems to be the biggest problems with both these books.

In book one you felt the pacing problems much less due to the duel timelines (which I don't generally like, but didn't mind it in Book 1). This book spends a great deal of time on what is essentially a side quest. The great Radch tea incident doesn't really progress the plot along at all. It was just 20% of a book you were required to read. Did it make you like the protagonist more? maybe. We already felt sorry for any 'citizen' that wasn't one. Of course we support 'her' when she sticks up for non-citizens.

Did it feel like in Book 1 how thew protagonist captain handled things? Sure. I get that. She's like She. Point taken. But we're teased early on with this new character who represents the 'evil alien race' that is _awesome_ and then nothing. We're teased with ghosts and random gates to nowhere, and then _nothing_. We're teased with... You know what, we're teased a lot.

Basically, this is a publisher's dream BOOK #2 knowing it's a 3 book contract. I'm not sure of any threads that were tied up in this book. Near as I can tell, she added about 15 new ones.

While I voted some less positive reviews as being helpful (because they talked about interesting ways THEY felt about the novel), now I have to try to mention why for me it was 5 star read, even with differences and less big surprises.

First, as I was not interested in Anaander Mianaai as character, so for me it was a positive thing she was mostly kept out of story line. And I do hope to learn more about the mysterious Presger in next book (it was disappointing that translator Dlique made such a short appearance)

It amuses me that I have settled in with not attempting to figure out gender of characters - even the ones who might have been pointers about. As if it does not matter for the storyline, why should it matter for me?

I am biased. I absolutely loved Ancillary Justice. The premise of that story, a human adjunct to a space-ship's AI is, of course, continued in this story. The whole depiction of ship-AIs used in this series is compelling in and of itself. The continued development of the main character (separated from the tight link with her former ship-AI and now lightly linked to a different ship-AI) is superb. The development of the supporting characters is also excellent. I think this concept is unique, absorbing, and fun. I will be reading the third book in this series soon and, unusual for me, I am keeping these books with the expectation of reading them again in a few years.

Breq is sent to Athoek Station, home to Lieutenant Awn's sister, to stabilize the region while public war breaks across Radchaai space. The plot here is a strange beast: the politics of Athoek's annexation are simultaneously heavyhanded and morally gray--like Radchaai's agender society, the issue of cultural discrimination isn't superbly handled but it is well intended, and I would rather it be there than not. The sense of place, politicking, and personal motivations knit well; foreshadowing to plot twists, however, is emphasized in a way that makes resolutions talky and transparent.

But while the plot's quality is uneven, the true focus is interpersonal. Leckie's antagonists/political conservatives--often the same thing--can be caricatured, but her sympathetic characters are superb, prickly and complex and beautifully drawn. And Breq, as a multi-instanced AI made singular, continues to be singularly phenomenal, a unique concept explored with conviction and insight. The emotional punch of this book should not to be underestimated. Ancillary Sword has its flaws and I just don't care--it's so rewarding to read.

While I very much love the universe woven by Ann Leckie I can't help but feel like this second book was just an episode and didn't really contribute to the series except in some minor superficial ways. The first book set up an epic, but the second seems to have deflated down to "a week in the life of."

All of that said I still recommend both books and am eager to see what Leckie brings in Ancillary Mercy. I sincerely hope it will return to the scope of the first book.

I loved the first book, but the second seems be the SF version of "Waiting for Godot". I'm about halfway through and I just don't know if I can make it. If I read one more long detailed description of an ancient tea set then I'm out. I haven't seen this much plot stagnation since Jordan's 10 "Wheel of Time" book. No one expected this to be a rollicking space opera, but having the main character stranded on a backwater space station discussing mourning rights for chapters at a time was also not expected. Ms. Leckie is a talented author who brought a truely fresh perspective in her first book. I hope she can bounce back in her next effort and have her characters actually do things that matter in the facinating universe she has created.

Loved Ancillary Justice and looked forward to this installment, but quit listening to the book with 3+ hours remaining. The plot has absolutely zero pace. I get that Breq is a different character now, an entirely different kind of being than she was in AJ, but she's not nearly as interesting as Fleet Captain. I see what Lecke was trying to do with regards to slavery, human rights, exploitation, etc, but I was bogged down in s a swamp of tea, chipped china, and string of uninteresting characters.

I want to start off by saying I liked this book. I read it in about a day and a half, which is pretty normal for me. However, I loved Ancillary Justice. I have read Justice twice now, and I am sure I will read it again in the future. It truly deserved all of the awards it won,

Sword pulled me from page to page as a good space opera should, but it didn't quite stick with me the way that Justice did, and I have put off writing this review until I could figure out. And I think that I finally know what struck me the wrong way. Before I get to that I want to talk about the things that I liked, because as I said, this is a good book. I liked is Tisarwat. I love the idea of her needing to re- find her identity after being briefly taken over by the multibodied Anaander Mianaai. She is no longer who she originally was, and she is no longer Anaander Mianaai, but some of both. Part of what makes her interesting, I think, is that her experience is really not that alien to us. I think most of us have probably had at least one experience where our worldview, or personal narrative has been challenged or broken in some way. And after the shock wears off, the only thing you can do is figure out how to move on, often reconstructing your own identity in some way. I think Anne is doing a great job of exploring this with Tisarwat.

Others have commented that Sword suffers from "middle book syndrome", and while that may be true, I felt like the whole plot is really a side quest rather than a middle book. The main threads left unresolved from Justice dealt with Anaander's war with herself, the Presger, and for Breq, contacting Awn's younger sibling. Very little of this was dealt with or expanded upon. I was expecting the complexity of all of these three plots to increase substantially so that they could be resolved in the final book. Instead, what I get was a story that seemed really more about describing the abominable sharecropping practices of the reconstruction era South. Not that the story was poorly written, or wasn't a good story to tell, its just that it was a left turn, and in a lot of ways did not fulfill the expectations that were set up in the first book.

We did get a few tidbits however, and I am looking forward to the third book, and hopefully a return to the main story threads. Anyway, in summary, I think it was a good story, I just didn't necessarily think it was a good sequel.(

Spectacular. I am sure that you have already heard much about it. It is a great read, fun, exciting, thoughful, humorous, insightful and most importantly entertaining. I read through the entire series and am quite curious to see where this adventure leads to.

I still loved this book, but holding it against her first book of the series, this one did not burn as bright. Still read this book, don't know how else i can say it but this book and the previous one Ancillary Justice are great reads that will take your head for a spin while blowing away many of the usual sci fi patterns.

I saw many reviews saying this book was not as good as the first, but I really do not understand the complaints. The first book set up the conflict in a grand scale while this second installment looks at the conflict in a microcosm. Can't wait to read book three.

This is the second book in the trilogy begun in last year's Best Novel Hugo winner, Ancillary Justice. Breq, having survived the confrontation between the two parts of Anaander Mianaai, is now in command of Mercy of Kalr, and off to contain another part of the spreading crisis at Athoek. While there, she hopes to also protect and offer some sort of compensation to the sister of her much-loved Lt. Awn, whom she was forced to kill.

At Athoek, she finds an already tricky political situation exacerbated by the closer of the gates and the news that there are at least two perfectly legitimate "Lords of the Radch" now in open conflict with each other. It takes longer to discover that underneath the existing and new political conflicts, and ordinary class conflict and exploitation, there's a truly horrifying corruption hidden here.

Did I mention there's another ship in the system, Sword of Atagaris, of questionable loyalties? And a little error in judgment by Atagaris' Captain results in the death of a translator/representative from the frighteningly powerful aliens, the Presger.

And while juggling all that, Breq is confronting her odd status as an ex-AI, ex-ancillary, now in command of a ship rather than a part of it. It's a sometimes unsettling experience for her, and at first her crew, except for old companion Seivarden, do not know what to make of her.

There's a lot going on here, in character development, revealing more about the history and culture of the Radch, and action as the conflict between the Mianaais and even older tensions in the Radch empire play out.

I'm looking forward to the third volume, Ancillary Mercy.

Recommended.

Enjoyed it. Characters are well developed so that I became invested in them. Plot twists are rational. Interesting concept world of what will happen if the demise of the Y chromosome is completed. All gender is feminine, all children are clones, AI is personal. Still violent, hierarchial, with a dominate military. It's just that you need to wear the correct gloves and serve tea well to fit in.

This book falls victim to the all-too-common middle book problem: it's no longer got the novelty of the first book and it's still setting the stage for the ending. It's still an amazing book though, and the plot is satisfying.

This series is sharp, original, and extremely well written. I love the narrator's voice and the shifts between gender and ancillary viewpoints (because why would those limit the viewpoint of a former ship?). The plots are all intriguing and well-paced, and I never have trouble finishing these borrowed ebooks within the library's timeline. I am clearly ignoring many, many things I should be doing instead of reading.

This wasn't quite as good as Ancillary Justice, its predecessor in the series, but it's still excellent. It suffers from being the second book in a trilogy; the climax hits, and the story ends, but it's clearly setting up Ancillary Mercy as opposed to a fully self-contained tale. That's a bit ironic, considering that this story takes place in only one system, Atheok, which has largely been sealed off from the rest of the universe. That said, it's still a brilliant tale. Breq's interactions with the people of Atheok reveal more about the inner workings of her culture. The background conflict, between the two (or more) parts of Anaander Mianaai, is explored as well. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing the story resolved in the next book in the series.

I listened to the audio version of this book because it was a Hugo nominee for best novel and was available from my local library. It was the second in the Imperial Radch series. The references to the first book in the series were enough to fill gaps sufficiently to make the story work and yet make me curious. I ordered the first book in the series and look forward to reading book 3 as well. This is worth being on the Hugo short list and a writer I will keep an eye on. My only regret is that I listened to the book and the narration was so irritating that I often had to turn off the book while I was drivin, road noise being preferable. I think the narrator had poor direction by whoever produced the books.

In regards to the Hugo list, Kevin J. Anderson's Dark Between the Stars did not make me want to read books in the other series he referenced heavily or have any interest in reading other books in the Saga of the Shadows.

This continuation of the Imperial Radch series is much more subtle and less action packed than the first novel, however its focus is on character development, where it truly excels. I recommend the book and look forward to reading more about this universe.

Less singleminded than the first book, Ancillary Sword introduced a fresh range of wonderful characters. While it's clearly a second book -- setting up the plot for the third book, rather than coming to a firm conclusion -- it was a satisfying sequel to Ancillary Justice and a great story in its own right. Ancillary Sword also gave us more of the culture and politics of the empire and some of the colonized people who live there.

It is like she wrote this book on Prozac. I forced myself to finish it hoping it would get back some of the spark of the first book, but I wasted time I will never get back. Snoozeville. If you liked the first book do not read this. It will leave a bad taste for it.

It's well done, but not as good as the first. Being a middle-book in a trilogy it's not surprising. The plot is slow with only the rare bit of action and Breq is still a deeply engaging character.

Full review available @ ReadingOverTheShoulder.com

Not a lot to say about this one except I love this series. I normally hate books that are overly hyped, but this one actually measures up to it.

My only complaint is that the title drives me crazy - why isn't this one called Ancillary Mercy - since this book the Ship is a Mercy.

I love this whole trilogy, but this and Ancillary Mercy are really one story. They had to break it up this way into three equally-sized volumes, but just treat this as volume 1 of book 2 - read them back to back!

I loved Ancillary Justice and hoped that Ancillary Sword would be just as good. It is even as it is different. Breq is till the main character but now she is further away from being a ship with many bodies and more an individual who is still growing and changing. There are so many strands to this story and while some are resolved more are left as hooks for future books.

Ancillary Sword is very character driven with Breq the one doing the driving. There are some secondary characters from the previous books and some new to this book and each is seen through Breq’s eyes. The writing is still first rate, the world building continues and plot still builds. Leckie takes all of those stands and weaves a interesting and complex book that is hard to put down.

I am looking forward to the next book and hope the high quality continues in the series.

I was given this as a gift. I haven't read Justice yet, but with all the great things I'd heard about her writing I couldn't wait. I wish I had. I was expecting a fast paced story with interesting characters and a great plot. This was the most boring, poorly written, and horribly paced book I've read since high school. The story seems like it was a long short story or short novella plot forced into a novel, with the additional sub plots or POV's necessary to make it work replaced by random scenes that seemed to have no real purpose or plot advancement involved (yes, the festival is one of them).

I wanted to like this novel, I tried to like it. There was absolutely nothing redeeming in this at all. While not the worst thing I have ever read, it is probably the worst book I've finished. I hope it's a sophomoric stumble, just a case of an author being driven to push out a sequel by the publisher, but I will be looking for the first (and maybe the eventual third) in the library as opposed to purchasing.

I've been reading Sci Fi for 50 years, and buying books from the store for a long time. I may have written a review in the past, but if I did, I don't remember it.

But I'm writing now because it is a rare day that I have been so impressed with a book, much less a series such as Ann Leckie's Ancillary books.

In some ways, there is nothing new to be written about that time when humanity has expanded so far beyond the earth, that the ancient home planet doesn't even play into the stay, when humans have taken different forms and machines, or cyborgs, have reached sentience and capabilities beyond human.

But Ann Leckie has approached that ground with what seems to me to be a breathtaking sensitivity, understanding, and humanity. She is dealing with core issues -- what it is to have your humanity, your personality, itself, stripped away and replaced. To have the understanding of that and know both the joy and grief of what it is replaced with.

Let me be clear about this: I don't love character studies. I like Sci Fi with active plots, action, and dramatic outcomes. The stories in Ancillary doe not disappoint. It's just that I can't remember caring about the lives and fates of so many different characters. And the development and growth of the protagonist, Breq, is a wonder.

Ancillary Sword marks a welcome return to the Radch Empire. Following her confrontation with the much distributed and physically schizophrenic Lord of the Radch, Breq is now Breq Miannaai and captain of the Mercy vessel formerly captained by her adversary. Following the schism between the two Lord of the Radch, the interstellar gate network is under threat and Breq is on a mission both to protect a remote but economically crucial planet while also following her promise to a former colleague. Unless you’ve read the first novel, Ancillary Justice, this, and probably the rest, will make no sense at all.

No longer the totally isolated individual of the first novel, as captain she has a neural connection with her ship and, to some extent, its adjuncts, but since ancillaries are now outlawed, that instant, multiple personification of the ship is no longer available. With no family or personal history but now carrying the surname of the Lord of the Radch, she has to win the loyalty & trust of her crew and the respect of other citizens of the Empire.

More so than in ‘Justice’, the reader is drawn further into the complex military-religious hegemony of the Empire where status, family and protocol are paramount but where there is no linguistic gender. You very quickly get used to everyone being ‘she’ and when, later in the novel Breq encounters indentured labourers for an earlier annexation who have gender, then ‘he’ and ‘grandfather’ look really odd. The pace is stately rather than break-neck but it is never dull. Leckie weaves such a rich tapestry that it is impossible not to become engrossed and the intricacies of the social and military hierarchies require a satisfying level of concentration. As with the first novel, ‘Sword’ is not a page turning-finish-it-and-forget-it novel; it is intelligent, coherent and mature. Oddly, while the novel is definitely the ‘middle book’ there is none of the traditional setting up for the set-piece grand final instalment; in fact the end of the novel is so tidy and complete that it feels like the end of the final book. Most unusual, but then run-of-the-mill cannot be used to describe the Ancillary novel.

There are tantalising references to the mysterious Presger and Rrrrr races and little hints of what we may expect in the final instalment, and while ‘Sword’ doesn’t have the dual narrative or pace of ‘Justice’ it piles yet more depth into the personal and societal complexity of the citizenry of the Empire. The Radch cycle is starting to have a bit of a ‘Foundation’ feel but with a truly original and modern flavour. Marvellous.

If you were once a minor human cog of a sentient machine, and now you are all on your own – can you stay sane? Breq is mostly sane, but can the Lord of the Radch say the same? Yes, of course she can. Just ask her. And prepare to be killed for your efforts.

Ancillary Justice ends with Breq’s confrontation with Her Lordship, and Sword picks up with the space station recovering from the fight. Then she sends Breq to another station, where the Ancillary-turned-Captain can right some wrongs. Only, how can you help someone who distrusts you as soon as you say your name? How do you fight for justice when the people in power are lying to you, and the people out of power don’t want to have your justice if it means giving up their quaint ethnic folkways – or if safety means security cameras that the government can monitor?

And of course, the book’s title more than hints that justice is going to need a Sword, not words.

This book was a lot of fun, even as it looked at serious issues such as systemic oppression & unequal justice between classes. The social aspects of drinking tea, or not having tea to drink, or sharing one’s private supply of tea, or not paying the tea-workers enough to buy even cheap tea, wound in and out of the narrative. Having gloves instead of walking around with your hands naked (OMG naked hands SHIELD YOUR EYES) or wearing the wrong gloves for a particular social event. It skips over the entire wardrobe and focuses on gloves, and yet mocks the current system of clothing as social device.

It’s fun to read a can-we-have-romance scene between two people, both of whom are ‘she’, and speculate about which ‘she’ has the deeper voice and shaving gear. No one seems to have beards in this world.

It’s interesting to see how Ancillaries are sometimes hated, sometimes imitated. And one particular Ancillary is so happy to go shopping for fine china, and so upset when there’s no opportunity to use ‘the best’ – even Captain uses second best.

This book was even better than the first and I want the sequel right now. Not a year from now.

Hate to say it, but compared to the 1st book, this sequel was deadly dull. I couldn't even make it to page 70, before giving up. Discussions on dishware? Maintenance of the ship? I can't say what happens from that point on, but I was falling asleep trying to wade thru it.

So, after all the (much deserved) buzz and awards for Ancillary Justice, can Ancillary Sword live up to expectations? Can Leckie follow through with a book just as compelling? Yes. She absolutely can and does. Ancillary Sword is the continued pay off for time invested in Ancillary Justice. It is a highly intelligent, fast paced and intriguing story that I just could not put down.

It has all of the strengths of Ancillary Justice but honestly, I found this to be a much easier and quicker read than Ancillary Justice. That’s not to say that it is a lighter book. I think Ancillary Justice introduced us to many concepts that just took a little bit of time to adjust to and learn about. That adjustment has been made, I honestly did not even think about gender in this book. The pronouns all still default to female, in the first book I started out trying to determine if a character fell into the male or female bucket. By the end I learned to let go of my desire to figure out, realizing a large part of the point it to really underscore that GENDER DOES NOT MATTER! What better way to address that than to write a book with a gender blind perspective? I love that this series has made me (and other readers) do that. We can only judge characters based on the actual character and events, and not make any gender based assumptions.

The hive mind aspect was another thing that I loved in the first book, but admit it slowed my reading a bit. There is still a bit of that in this, as Breq gets information from the Ship about ongoings in other areas. So, while she may be conversing in one area, we will get interspersed information about other characters during that conversation. But I never once felt it slowed my reading, I no longer had that adjustment of jumping between simultaneous scenes. It just worked, and worked well.

Breq has traveled to Athoek Station to find Lieutenant Awn’s sister. This world should be “civilized” and peaceful. And on the surface, it can give that appearance. But of course, things are not always as they appear. And as the story unfolds, and we understand what is really happening on Athoek, the book gets to address a number of great political points such as “separate but equal” ideologies. I love books that take problems with our world and wrap them in a fictional setting without being preachy, books that can be read at face value or read to gain a perspective on our world.

For anyone that is on the fence if they want to continue the series, I absolutely urge you to read on. I think for some, learning the world and technology made Ancillary Justice a harder read. But those were all carried over, so this book allowed for a quicker reading experience, where the reader could focus on plot and characters much more without compromising the complexity of the world that was built in the first book.

A fantastic sequel to Ancillary Justice. Having set up the world in the first book in addition to the smaller setting, it is a far tighter plit. Both satisfactory in its ending and sets up the third book. Well worth the read.

I usually hate "middle" books in a series but this was well written and advanced the story in interesting ways. Unfortunately, it also introduced several new characters and unanswered plot lines -- more for Ms Leckie to fill in for future stories I suppose but it's occasionally nice to see some issues resolved. Still, better than 90%+ of what passes for SF these days. Look for this book on several award lists this year.

Not as perfect as the first book in the series, but still excellent read.
Given the unique perspective/premise of the first book, it's understandable the second would be scaled back in that department. This was a good continuation of the arc towards book three.

You need to read book one in order to appreciate this novel. its hard sci-fi, high concept, and (I don't say this easily) the work compares favorably to Ursula K Leguin. Challenging and humane vision of the struggle to live a meaningful and ethical life in a corrupt but civilizing empire.

There is nothing enjoyable about this story.

1: The protagonist is a jerk. She routinely abuses people, is whiny, bitter, and just not an attractive person.
2: The society is wretched. Most people are dehumanized to the point that, not only are they referred to by job title, and not name, but they would be bothered to be referred to by name. The society grow by letting other people terraform and build system, then swooping in and conquering them in an orgy of death and destruction.
3: The actual plot is slow, boring, and uninteresting. They're in the middle of a civil war. Why? Don't know. What do the sides want? Don't know. I got 100 pages in before giving up.

Simply can not recommend this. That it got nominated for a Hugo is a sad string against the Hugo Awards

Firstly, I didn't read Ancillary Justice. This book was recommended by the PrintSF group on Reddit, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

This book is awful. Firstly, as a man, there is little (if anything) to relate with in this book. It's 100% women, 100% lesbians. I don't have a problem with lesbians, but it makes this book largely un-relatable to me. Mind you, there is the mind-boggling "Penis Festival" that is thrown into the middle of this book, without explanation, and without purpose.

Also, the struggle to portray AI with an emotional side was eerily reminiscent of the worst "Data becoming human" episodes of Star Trek. It was overdone, and not really asked for. In fact, I didn't really see the purpose in this book at all, other than character development - much like a Soap Opera would develop characters. Hollow and meaningless characters, some with puerile regrets about past loves.

This book was a huge "miss" for me, and I have to assume it's targetted at someone else, because i found it totally unrelatable.

This was even better than the first volume. I am very happy to announce that the glorious one night stand with Ancillary Justice has evolved into a beautiful engagement with Ancillary Justice. I'm anxiously waiting for the wedding.

Breq again puts everyone she loves in danger. This is a slow burn of a book, the ever present threat of violence erupting in abrupt spurts as the gears of a society nudged out of its comfortable equilibreum start to grind against each other.

Ann Leckie continues to employ the first person omniscient viewpoint, this time with a rather touching twist. The narrative this time around is straightforwardly chronological, but with action often occurring simultaneously in multiple locations the reader's brain is again thoroughly exercised.

Where as 'Ancillary Justice' was a Revenge Story with Flashbacks, the sequel 'Ancillary Sword', is more like a Detective Story with allot of space station Drama. It's a great read but don't expect any answers to the epic questions raised in the 1st novel. Instead of a proper sequel this seems more like a great side story. I just hope this series is longer than a trilogy as toted by the author because the characters and the universe she created leaves you wanting more.

I didn't think Ms. Leckie would be able to make her second book as interesting as her first book, but I was wrong. Yet, it was interesting in new and different ways, instead of just extending or building out the premises of the first one. This was a page-turner from the start.

Little fiction makes me feel as inspired to explore further. And when done reading, I was left with this burning question.

Anyway I realize this may at the same time be the first review I ever write, and the last one, and it has a high chance to get deleted.

But I care only very little.

Warning: If you don't yet know the book, read it first: There be spoilers.

Ancillary Tea
------------------

Kel has always been easy enough to wake from sleep, but sometimes she can be particularly irritable right after.

She knows well enough how much I hate it when she calls me Bo Eight.

So, Bo Five then, in my best ancillary voice, I suggest we find the decade mass, and news.

After the cast, Bo Nine is eager to point out how she's always known Fleet Captain to be most definitely Justice of Torren crew. Hence naturally, her choice of gods.

It all makes sense.

The problem with that is, of course, that Fleet Captain hasn't exactly claimed that. She has claimed to be the ship.

Well that can't be entirely possible, Naumen points out. Ships can't be legal persons. Why, and at this point we reflexively glance at the gods, it's heresy for an AI to worship, and not just in any minor way. Heresy worth a reeducation. If the perpetrator was a person, not an AI.

You can't reeducate AIs, and AIs can't worship gods.

She's probably just faking her ancillary far better than any of us. We could agree on that.

And she sings all these strange songs, which ancillaries don't do.

Well, Bo Nine, points out, except for those of Justice of Torren.

We refer to Mercy of Kalr. Mercy of Kalr is a ship, and a ship would know. There's immediate confirmation that no, a ship wouldn't have any ancillaries sing. There wouldn't be any benefit in it.

Except, yes, Justice of Torren had her ancillaries sing.

So, would Mercy of Kalr accept orders from another ship?

No. But when chain of command requires it, yes.

Well that was no great help.

Naumen tries again: How could a single ancillary even be a ship? Doesn't it require the full link to a ship, or at least another ancillary to have fully functional AI capabilities?

Mercy of Kalr knows about this one: Every ancillary has enough capacity in implants to fully support a ship AI, with some minor limitations on external bandwidth.

And adds that Fleet Captain is fielding the requisite hardware.

All that hardware and she still manages to miss an entire human and hull the station instead with a gun that shouldn't even have been able to?

None of this makes any sense.

We like to bring up the firing range scores of Fleet Captain occasionally. They're just that good. Could Special Missions even do that? We suspect an ancillary could. Mercy of Kalr helpfully shows a few comparisons to her own former ancillaries. They look very similar.

Well, here's one thing none of us could fake.

I wonder whether there's any point in still behaving on former Captain Vel's orders, ancillary like, at this point.

Bo Nine tries not to look unhappy at that prospect. She's been trying so hard to be a good ancillary, we've never found out her full name. She's fairly new crew and tries to be twice as good at everything as the rest of us. It's how we got her to baby sit Lieutenant Tirsawat.

But at the same time Kel frowns at me, perhaps to agree, but I suspect not and grin at her. I guess right: I can see when she realizes she's wearing a very un-ancillary like expression, and unexpectedly, beautifully, she laughs.

The question, Mercy of Kalr volunteers, of whether a ship would prefer ancillaries over crew is a very complicated one, but Fleet Captain would probably be perfectly happy if we'd behave more naturally human. As indicated by certain decisions.

Tea, Jiryn, or Bo Four brightly suggests, which has become her favorite thing ever since Fleet Captain granted the privilege, and proceeds to boil water for all of us.

That's probably a thing a ship would do. Not for its ancillaries, to be sure, but for its crew.

That would sort of make sense.

Fleet Captain favors her tea and even Captain Vel's precious tea services. Kalr Five has been telling the story of how she got Fleet Captain to return those far too often, but suddenly that explains why we almost left without any.

Who believes Fleet Captain could be Justice of Torren, that favors first songs, now tea?

Medic pokes her head in on the way to lunch to scoff that we'd better believe it and if we're not done with the kitchen in ancillary record time she can probably get a proper ancillary fleet captain to teach us how to scrub under the grates. Again.

Nasty.

Time to get working.

I'll get a job near Kel and see whether we can not be ancillary so much.

I'm so confused.