On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Once, she was the Justice of Toren--a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.
eBook, 409 pages
English language
Published Oct. 20, 2013 by Orbit.
Really enjoyed this book. In some ways it's a classic space opera but there's enough twists on the formula that it feels super fresh. Fascinating explorations of identity, language, and class. The writing was fun and engaging, I ate this book up.
This is a fun space opera that has all the fun space opera things: giant interstellar empires; worldbuilding on various interstellar cultures, and how they interact with each other, and how they do gender; exploration of how cognition and identity works in entities that are not (or not entirely) human; grand plots and conspiracies.
The overall plot is perhaps a bit simple, and some of the characters lean perhaps too much into one-dimensional archetypes, but it does not matter that much against the lively worldbuilding, and how it ties into the whole story.
I liked it!
I found it difficult to follow the first 15% of the book and only really got into it at about 25% which is pretty far compared to what I'm used to. I'm sure it was intentional but I was doubting my understanding and comprehension initially. This made it feel like I was forcefully trudging through until a point I would hopefully understand.
Once I got into it the book kept on getting more interesting and exciting as it progressed.
I enjoyed the way the book played with concept of self, culture and gender concepts.
This is a really good read, with great concepts. Definitely a page turner!
