Ancillary Mercy

The future world of humans, AI Cores, Gods, and worlds is a truly unique concept that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed with the end of this series. Bravo.

“Ancillary Mercy” is the third novel in Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch Series, and completes the original trilogy featuring the being known as Breq. It’s a deep dive into her complex and different universe.

It continues to feature the culture and civilization of the Radch. They have built a interstellar empire by conquest, turning conquered planets into new citizens. When doing this they absorb their cultures and religions while imposing their own. They have mainly concerned themselves with other human civilizations, but there are at least three off-screen alien civilizations.

To support this military might, there are large AI controlled starships such as the Justice of Toren which was a troop-carrier with vast numbers of Ancillaries, which others refer to as corpse-soldiers. Each of these mind wiped, augmented, and repurposed human bodies is an extension of the ship. The ancillaries form a sort of a hive-mind with the ship’s AI, and should be little more than tools to be used and thrown away. However, when the Justice of Toren is lost through treachery, only a single ancillary that calls itself Breq remains. The first novel in this series followed Breq’s search for vengeance, and development as a person.

In the second novel, Breq had been appointed a Feet Captain by the Lord of the Radch, and given a military ship, the Mercy of Kalr. Breq was sent to the Athoek System to protect it and maintain the peace. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Radch fights a civil war with herself.

In this third and final novel in the initial trilogy, the Radch civil war comes to the Athoek System. Breq has done all they can to prepare for any possibility. Meanwhile, a translator for the powerful alien Presger has arrived. Can Breq balance the needs of the various humans, AIs, and the alien representative that have converged on Athoek?

This novel is somewhat different from the first two, but I found it equally compelling. Breq continues to become a person, and develops as a character. Vast amounts of tea are consumed, and more details of the Radch Empire are revealed. There are now two additional novels set in the Imperial Radch Series that I’ll have to read at some point, but they seem to be independent stories.

Just finished re-reading the Ancillary trilogy. Unique, imaginative, extremely well written and one of a kind. Simply one of the finest science fiction works I have ever read, and I’ve read a lot!

The authors pushing her gender agenda gets in the way of the plot which in the last two books devolves into petty bickering between the maybe female characters in a typically catty housewives of whatever city manner.

The basic story is excellent but the author discarded so much potential reader commitment to the story in the interest of political correctness. The ability of the reader to fully connect and identify with the characters is lost when everyone is a “she” or a “her” and you don’t know if she is he, hers is his or vice versa.

I doubt I would ever read works from this author again. I like my protagonists to be a hero and/or a heroine with whom I can connect, not a faceless blob in my imagination due to the author being a slave to the latest trend in academia.

The characters are compelling and unique. The universe is complex, and deeply layered. A wonderful read from the first book to the last. Was sad to see the end of the trilogy

If Ancillary Justice was a fascinating tour in non-linear exposition, and Ancillary Sword felt like a cozy mystery set in the midst of a space opera, Ancillary Mercy struck me as an interstellar version of the folktale motif “six go through the world”. That is, a protagonist accumulates a set of unlikely and improbable allies simply due to treating those she encounters with honesty, empathy, and (if you will forgive the word) humanity, to find that those allies come through with a vengeance when the chips are down. And the essence of Breq’s success in gaining allies is the question "what counts as 'humanity?" Who deserves to be treated as having equal significance and whose consent is worth respecting? Issues of colonialism and class consciousness play out at multiple levels and there are additional mythic resonances to reward the observant reader. (For example, the motif of redemption through willing self-sacrifice.) If the resolution relies overmuch on the triumph of good will and virtue, I’m happy to see those things triumph on occasion at the moment. This was a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.

I'd advise against reading, to preserve your high opinion of Justice and Sword. Exhibits none of their strengths.

Would never have been published, if not for the reputation established by its predecessors.

Sloppy. Meandering. Grossly out of character. A terrible shame.

I'm not giving up on Leckie, but this installment should not have happened.

Amazing third book in the wonderful Ancillary series. More action than the second book, builds to a very satisfactory ending.

Loved the book, love the series. Leckie has written an emotionally satisfying end to her award winning trilogy about Breq, the single ancillary soldier who is all that survived the destruction of the AI ship named Justice of Toren.