Ancillary Mercy

I had a harder time getting into this one than the first two; maybe I missed some of the subtleties, but both the political intrigue and the emotional subtext was a bit hard to follow at first and the story seemed to have a hard time getting off the ground. After the overly-expository first half, though, the plot grew teeth and the ending was absolutely riveting. As in “No, dear, I can't take a break to eat dinner with you, I have to find out what's going to happen”. :P

I'm still not totally sure I really understood all the emotional nuances, but that's not a bad thing. The relationships in the trilogy feel complex and changeable and real in a way that's all too rare in scifi. On the whole there's a lot of texture here that will hold up very well to a reread.

The series reminds me in the best possible way of The Culture, Ursula Le Guin and Laurie J. Marks.