The entire novel, which is only 340 pages long in paperback, is laid back, chilled out, almost languorous. This is a book which has very bizarre pacing. However, it doesn't really work with Ancillary Sword. The original Star Wars trilogy is a good example of that, and it's a reasonably common set-up in science fiction and fantasy which can work quite well (and arguably is better than "proper" trilogies with a single big story, where often the middle book feels surplus to requirements). The Imperial Radch trilogy is what can be called a "fake trilogy", where Part 1 is self-contained (to some extent) to avoid too many unresolved plotlines if sales tank, whilst the remaining two parts form a much more closely-linked duology. This is where things start to go wrong for Ancillary Sword. A fine space opera novel which contained thematic musings on identity, consciousness and pre-existing biases, it was a striking debut, if one that was slightly overrated.īeing a success, of course the novel turned out to be the start of a trilogy. Ancillary Justice was released in 2013 and won the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C.
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