The White Lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewhitelily) wrote2016-02-15 12:18 pm
thewhitelily) wrote2016-02-15 12:18 pm
Entry tags:
Book Review: Imperial Radch Trilogy
So first of all, go out and read it. It's brilliant. Second of all, go out and read it. Third, did I mention you should read it?
Ann Leckie hits the spot precisely here, writing the kind of fiction I hope to write, the kind of fiction I like to read. The characters are deep and quirky, spectacularly powerful yet unexpectedly limited. The world is rich and full of history and vivid detail and with consistently and deeply thought through cultural strangeness, thought provoking and mind twisting. The plots are neat and satisfying, with all the possibilities thought through, all the loose ends tucked in and satisfyingly fall out to a inevitable (yet thrilling and surprising) conclusions. Just... really, really quality stuff.
So, given I have nothing to complain about and essentially nothing except perfect-in-every-way praise to lavish on it, I'm going to get out my writers goggles to note down and occasionally disect a couple of techniques I noticed and/or loved. Mostly from Ancillary Justice.
Let's start with Breq's characterisation - I'm not even talking here about the fact that she's an amputated single cell of a deceased spaceship, the fact that she gets to cheat on POV *all the time*, which is, I can't even talk about how brilliant technically, and how smoothly it's done. But Breq is complex. She's a complete BAMF, an avatar of vengance with an utterly inexorable goal, with an exquisitely deep understanding of people and realistic, fatalistic expectations for their behaviour, and a devastatingly practical approach to everything. But aside from revenge, she doesn't understand a lot of her own motivations, and her compassionate actions come as a surprise even to her. It's not compassion that makes her save Seivarden--and put the pursuit of her goal in serious jeopardy--on multiple occasions, and she never even imagines that anyone might owe her any loyalty for her actions. Indeed, even when she's betrayed she finds it utterly natural and holds no grudge. It's simply that she is programmed to protect and look after the people she serves, and to facilitate their freedom to choose even if that puts them in danger. She cannot be any other way.
I love her because she is so utterly herself, so completely independent of what anyone thinks of her or anyone wants her to be. I always love powerful, reserved characters who get on with the job and do what they think is right, who stand back and listen to the silly chatter of the people around them and let it wash over them, listening and waiting until it matters to make their move. I love the way that, despite her very passionate long term goals, she never ever sacrifices somone or something in the short term. And I love the way she never aims high, only for what would be unacceptable to lose--her life isn't one of those things. She's the perfect realist who nonetheless acheives great things because giving up isn't practical. So incredibly deeply and vividly characterised.
I particularly admired the setup technically, it was very cleverly done, because all the things that Breq loses to give her her angsty past that makes her who she is... they're all fictional things. They are things that we can't understand, out here in the real world. No one can really get what it means to lose the majority of yourself and all your crew you're responsible for, and have been forced to kill your favourite and be left in a body that can't even sing. But it's really cleverly built so that by the time we get there, the devastation is visceral.
I also loved how the bond between Breq and Seivarden builds. It was incredibly cleverly done. By the time Breq jumps off a bridge for Seivarden, it's almost not a surprise, given the number of times she's already saved her, but it still sneaked up on me. And that watershed moment for Seivarden, gaining Breq an unshakable ally who she can't trust... yeah, I love these books.
Of course the culture was magnificent, with the gloves and the tea and the customs and the history. Incredibly deep and well thought out, and I need to read these stories again to pick through all that. But perhaps what I loved most about these books were the tiny, vivid, and consistent details of the many places they travel through. Sensory and deep, but never boring or tempting me to skip like I often do through description. I think because it felt like every little piece was linked to something important, that we would need it to understand, and we *did* need it to get that depth. It was all said in passing, Breq's focus somewhere else but just little eyecatching bits slid in there enough to build the feeling. These are the things I need to read these stories again to watch out for, to feel that exquisite balance of too-much and not-enough and try to extract some rules to work with for myself, because the characterisation and relationship arcs? Those are the things I already feel that I can do myself. The amazing worldbuilding in these books, I need to see again to understand.
I must say, I'm looking forward to it.
Finally, OMG, this woman was a bored stay at home mum in 2002, wrote a novel in NaNoWriMo, and ten years later had turned it into this. Can I just say, I want her life? And it is astonishingly inspiring to see someone who has done exactly what I want to do. Okay, Lily, head down, bottom up. If you want this thing, then you write this thing. :)
Ann Leckie hits the spot precisely here, writing the kind of fiction I hope to write, the kind of fiction I like to read. The characters are deep and quirky, spectacularly powerful yet unexpectedly limited. The world is rich and full of history and vivid detail and with consistently and deeply thought through cultural strangeness, thought provoking and mind twisting. The plots are neat and satisfying, with all the possibilities thought through, all the loose ends tucked in and satisfyingly fall out to a inevitable (yet thrilling and surprising) conclusions. Just... really, really quality stuff.
So, given I have nothing to complain about and essentially nothing except perfect-in-every-way praise to lavish on it, I'm going to get out my writers goggles to note down and occasionally disect a couple of techniques I noticed and/or loved. Mostly from Ancillary Justice.
Let's start with Breq's characterisation - I'm not even talking here about the fact that she's an amputated single cell of a deceased spaceship, the fact that she gets to cheat on POV *all the time*, which is, I can't even talk about how brilliant technically, and how smoothly it's done. But Breq is complex. She's a complete BAMF, an avatar of vengance with an utterly inexorable goal, with an exquisitely deep understanding of people and realistic, fatalistic expectations for their behaviour, and a devastatingly practical approach to everything. But aside from revenge, she doesn't understand a lot of her own motivations, and her compassionate actions come as a surprise even to her. It's not compassion that makes her save Seivarden--and put the pursuit of her goal in serious jeopardy--on multiple occasions, and she never even imagines that anyone might owe her any loyalty for her actions. Indeed, even when she's betrayed she finds it utterly natural and holds no grudge. It's simply that she is programmed to protect and look after the people she serves, and to facilitate their freedom to choose even if that puts them in danger. She cannot be any other way.
I love her because she is so utterly herself, so completely independent of what anyone thinks of her or anyone wants her to be. I always love powerful, reserved characters who get on with the job and do what they think is right, who stand back and listen to the silly chatter of the people around them and let it wash over them, listening and waiting until it matters to make their move. I love the way that, despite her very passionate long term goals, she never ever sacrifices somone or something in the short term. And I love the way she never aims high, only for what would be unacceptable to lose--her life isn't one of those things. She's the perfect realist who nonetheless acheives great things because giving up isn't practical. So incredibly deeply and vividly characterised.
I particularly admired the setup technically, it was very cleverly done, because all the things that Breq loses to give her her angsty past that makes her who she is... they're all fictional things. They are things that we can't understand, out here in the real world. No one can really get what it means to lose the majority of yourself and all your crew you're responsible for, and have been forced to kill your favourite and be left in a body that can't even sing. But it's really cleverly built so that by the time we get there, the devastation is visceral.
I also loved how the bond between Breq and Seivarden builds. It was incredibly cleverly done. By the time Breq jumps off a bridge for Seivarden, it's almost not a surprise, given the number of times she's already saved her, but it still sneaked up on me. And that watershed moment for Seivarden, gaining Breq an unshakable ally who she can't trust... yeah, I love these books.
Of course the culture was magnificent, with the gloves and the tea and the customs and the history. Incredibly deep and well thought out, and I need to read these stories again to pick through all that. But perhaps what I loved most about these books were the tiny, vivid, and consistent details of the many places they travel through. Sensory and deep, but never boring or tempting me to skip like I often do through description. I think because it felt like every little piece was linked to something important, that we would need it to understand, and we *did* need it to get that depth. It was all said in passing, Breq's focus somewhere else but just little eyecatching bits slid in there enough to build the feeling. These are the things I need to read these stories again to watch out for, to feel that exquisite balance of too-much and not-enough and try to extract some rules to work with for myself, because the characterisation and relationship arcs? Those are the things I already feel that I can do myself. The amazing worldbuilding in these books, I need to see again to understand.
I must say, I'm looking forward to it.
Finally, OMG, this woman was a bored stay at home mum in 2002, wrote a novel in NaNoWriMo, and ten years later had turned it into this. Can I just say, I want her life? And it is astonishingly inspiring to see someone who has done exactly what I want to do. Okay, Lily, head down, bottom up. If you want this thing, then you write this thing. :)