Thursday, November 1, 2018

Month 36: The mid-trilogy doldrums

Month 36 of 260 (13.86 percent)
Size of list: 88,224 pages (13.43 percent above start)
Pages read: 18,869 (21.31 percent)
H-list: 5,415/23,530 (23.01 percent)
N-list: 7,033/36,694 (19.17 percent)
O-list: 6,421/28,328 (22.67 percent)
Finished: Ancillary Sword
Reading: Lord of Chaos
Added: Ancillary Mercy

After the novelty and wonder of Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword was a big disappointment. Ancillary Justice set up this huge conflict between, well, the ruler of a vast empire and herself. Ancillary Sword just kind of treads water at a space station orbiting a planet. It's like a filler episode of a TV show, one that explores the effects of the empire, and power dynamics of the colonizer-colonized and owner-worker. If this were a series of 10 novels, it would be a worthwhile story. But this is a trilogy, and it didn't feel like it moved the story forward from the first part. When I read Ancillary Mercy next year I'll know for sure, but I suspect that this should have been a duology, but the publishers demand trilogies. 

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