The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

Breq was once part of a huge ship’s AI, linking the ship to thousands of “Ancillaries”, captured peoples turned into soldiers controlled by the AI. After a betrayal from the highest levels destroyed the ship, Breq is just one fragment of her former self. 1000 years later, she plans on revenge before she comes across Seivarden, a former lieutenant on her ship suspended all this time.

I heard this mentioned often in comparison to other books so I decided to check it out. The narrative jumps between future Breq and her quest for justice, dealing with a drug-addicted depressed Seivarden; and the past where the events of an annexed planet lead to her destruction.

It covers a decent amount of Breq and the world-building as a whole for one book, with cultural shifts over time, the diversity within a splintered AI and the expansionism of the state. The main culture’s language is also ungendered, so for the books’s POV and any characters from that culture use she/her for everyone with Breq occasionally getting mixed up in misgendering a species in their native tongue - being confused by all the different social cues each culture uses to determine it. That adds an interesting cultural spanner into the narrative as you learn about the characters. 

I loved If The Fates Allow by Rainbow Rowell. This wonderful little story really spoke to me. It was such a relatable tale of our times. It took place during Christmas 2020. If the Fates Allow captured so accurately the struggle of having holidays and managing family during the pandemic. Another unexpected point of this story that I really connected to was the Nebraska grandfather. I was born and raised in California, but my grandfather was from Nebraska. He died about ten years ago, and while he was pretty different from Reagan’s grandfather, there were some things that reminded me of him.

When I read the line “He started carving the turkey with an electric knife that was probably older than she was.” I definitely had an emotional response.

I loved this short story so much. It really resonated with me and my pandemic response. I highlighted so many bits. My family was definitely Reagan for the last, like, 20 months or however long it’s been. I really identified with the struggle to keep my own family, plus the extended family, safe. I read it before Thanksgiving, which was my first family gathering since the pandemic started. I a little nervous, and reading If the Fates Allow felt too close and raw at first, but in the end it was very cathartic.

Did you know that Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas was a wartime song about not being together on Christmas? The original Judy Garland lyrics are

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were dear to us
Will be near to us once more

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now