Paperback, 384 pages
English language
Published July 28, 2013 by Orbit.
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship and an artificial intelligence controlling thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. But that might just be enough to take revenge against those who destroyed her.
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.
One of the potential pleasures of SF is being dumped in an unfamiliar world and suffering "future shock" - the specifically science fictional equivalent of the bewilderment known to travellers as culture shock. It's fun; you have to figure out what things mean; how this society is organised; what this tech actually does. The puzzle is the fun. Sometimes, though, it can be too confusing, initially, and detracts from being able to properly follow the story. That was the case here, at least for me, but the more the veils slowly lifted and I retrospectively understood things the more I enjoyed it.
The story is full of surprises and goes down easily and was exactly the kind of thing I needed in the moment.
