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I recently read Ancillary Justice. Not an especially easy read. She puts a lot on the reader to notice and interpret. I enjoyed it but not everyone will.
I think my major complaints are throwing too many vowels into Radch names (are these guys modeled after Romans or Hawaiians, lol) and one historically important alien race name is Rrrrrr. No, I'm not kidding. Six r's.
A minor complaint is she touches on the nature of strong AI (e.g. ships and stations) without showing how it is constrained from becoming our masters (edit to add - one-time overrides are not the basis for their day to day behavior). I did like how she posits that emotions in AI are necessary to make swift decisions. That is an unusual twist that is actually the most important theme of the story.
My big question is how did a single person, Anaander Minaai, rise to control the Radch so thoroughly and permanently (three thousand years, IIRC)? Maybe later books will touch on this.
I will likely continue reading the Ancillary series.
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