Anna
asked
Ann Leckie:
Hi Ann! Is there a reason you chose to title the second book Sword, and the third Mercy? My SO keeps insisting that Sword would have been a better title for the final book based on how the ships are ranked, curious on what you can say on the choice? In any case, we're both excited for for the release!
Ann Leckie
I get this question a lot actually! Several people thought I should have titled Sword as Mercy, just because they didn't think there was quite enough Sword in that book.
I personally think Justice-Sword-Mercy makes a better overall arc, and that was the order when I first conceived of the trilogy. In fact, originally the titles were ship names--when I first went looking for an agent, the manuscript was titled Justice of Toren and the next two were intended to be Sword of Atagaris and Mercy of Kalr. When my agent suggested a title change, I figured I'd just make the same sort of change to the subsequent titles.
As sometimes happens to writers, the ship Sword of Atagaris ended up not being quite as prominent a character as I'd intended. But I still felt the arc worked better the way it was.
I personally think Justice-Sword-Mercy makes a better overall arc, and that was the order when I first conceived of the trilogy. In fact, originally the titles were ship names--when I first went looking for an agent, the manuscript was titled Justice of Toren and the next two were intended to be Sword of Atagaris and Mercy of Kalr. When my agent suggested a title change, I figured I'd just make the same sort of change to the subsequent titles.
As sometimes happens to writers, the ship Sword of Atagaris ended up not being quite as prominent a character as I'd intended. But I still felt the arc worked better the way it was.
More Answered Questions
jude
asked
Ann Leckie:
In your research have you come across Lu Yu? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu_Yu He's a Chinese guy whose legacy is apparently a book about tea, "The Classic of Tea". Wikipedia calls him the Sage of Teas. This made me laugh. Is there any such seminal literature about tea in the Imperial Radch universe?
heartmint
asked
Ann Leckie:
It's implied in Ancillary Sword that nuclear families and unrequited love (and therefore strict monogamy) are not really things that the Radchaii concern themselves with. Could you elaborate a bit on that? Are romantic/sexual relationships generally casual? Are there usually more than two adults raising children together?
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