Ancillary Mercy

eBook

English language

Published Oct. 11, 2015 by Orbit.

ISBN:: 978-0-316-24667-5

(1 review)

For a moment, things seemed to be under control for Breq, the soldier who used to be a warship. Then a search of Atheok Station's slums turns up someone who shouldn't exist, and a messenger from the mysterious Presger empire arrives, as does Breq's enemy, the divided and quite possibly insane Anaander Mianaai - ruler of an empire at war with itself.

Breq refuses to flee with her ship and crew, because that would leave the people of Athoek in terrible danger. The odds aren't good, but that's never stopped her before.

3 editions

enne📚 reviewed Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch, #3)

Ancillary Mercy

5 stars

This final book in the Breq trilogy is so satisfying. We get action and infiltration, we get multiple emotional tangles from Seivarden and Breq, we get station politics and the protest line, and we get plenty of thematic discussion around self-determination.

The Translator Zeiat and Sphene comedy routine in this book is also so good, even if it feels tonally out of place at times. (I also think Zeiat and Dlique work better on a reread where Translation State has provided some more context about the Translators and it feels less wacky.)

In the end it’s only ever been one step, and then the next.

I think this trilogy could be unsatisfying to some, in that nothing gets fixed or is truly resolved. To me, it feels like a satisfying model for incremental change, starting with making things better for the people and spaces around you.