Ancillary Sword ... More Please

[Joshua S]

So I'm nearly finished Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie and I'm well aware I'm going to want to read something similar when I'm done.

The pull quotes often refer to her as the "Heir to Banks" - is that Iain M Banks?

Who else has written Sci-Fi like Ann Leckie - and I'm well prepared to accept that no one has ever written Sci-Fi like Ann Leckie before.

[Kevin]

That's referring to Iain M. Banks and his Culture novels yes.

[Michael]

Ann Leckie cites C.J. Cherryh as an influence rather than Iain M. Banks, so I'd probably point you at Cherryh.

And if you're looking for something equivalently boundary-pushing in Fantasy, I can't help but shill The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley.

[Whitney]

more books to add to the list. The never ending list. :)

[Charles]

Ehhh. I so much wanted this book to be as great as the first. It's sad that it ended up as such a disappointment. Sense and Sensibility and Spaceships just about sums up what I feel about it.

The robotic feel of the characterisation was perfect in the first novel, since we're seeing all this through the eyes of an AI. But it's a little tired in the second, and Breq's techno-magical ability to guage emotions comes off feeling far too cheap. 'Tisarwat is anxious,' 'Tisarwat is unhappy' - I know that because Ship told me! Isn't it convenient to have Ship around?

The second novel is the one where you're supposed to flesh out your universe and fill in some of the details left out of the first. The corrupt nature of the Radchaai empire is hardly a revelation, and neither is the nature of the crime at the heart of the book. The only new item of knowledge is a brief mention of the Notai. I'll pick up the third book when it comes out, but Leckie has left a lot of strands dangling that she needs to tie up (not least the massive co-incidence of Seivaarden).

After Ancillary Sword I started Caliban's War (finally working my way through The Expanse), and it was a bit of a relief in comparison.