#imperial radch

[coquelicoq]

#the scene when the body we know as breq gets hooked up and as part of the process of assimilating the new ancillary one esk just kind of #rifles through this persons brain and is like ‘‘she doesn’t even know any interesting songs :\’’ #it says soooo much so quickly it rules (via @gracelandmp3)

#station administrator as a collector worried about authenticity vs. one esk collecting kids songs for candy #how breq appreciates the valskayaan singer's ability to modify a song as a warning #how she's the only one who knows bits of their culture because she was there at their destruction #how she cannot help but hum the song that child gave to her when she sees her again #one esk singing for its favorite lieutenants #breq captaining a ship whose human crew sings songs for her? #it all goes around (via @irrigone)

#also a form of horror - this ship will destroy your people and be singing your people's songs a thousand years later #it may be singing them badly (via @alishatheninth)

justice of toren collecting songs and one esk/breq constantly humming/singing them is such a good detail and ann leckie does so much with it. an incomplete list:

justice of toren's eager collection of songs is part and parcel of its violent destruction of cultures: these songs are cultural artifacts that it only learns because of its presence on those worlds during their conquest, and in many cases breq is the only one to remember them because their people have died out due to that violence. JoT preserves cultural artifacts for its own use at the same time it directly contributes to the need for that preservation in the first place.

the matter-of-fact way in which this is narrated to us gives us information about JoT's stance on respect and imperialism - that is, contrasted with other characters who look down on the conquered cultures, JoT does actually seem to appreciate their value. and yet it communicates to us no sense of remorse over its role in their genocide.

singing can be a communal activity. this allows us to feel the difference between one esk's multiple bodies singing together in harmony/in a round vs. breq singing alone. this has emotional weight, is an evocative image, and illustrates quite nicely some of the logistic considerations of having one vs. multiple bodies.

the constant humming/singing is extremely notable and idiosyncratic according to other characters, which is a dangerous combination for someone who's supposed to be undercover, so it adds a lil bit of fun suspense for us.

the fact that no one ever figures out breq's identity despite this giveaway tells us something about the other characters' attitudes towards artificial intelligences (though see below about seivarden).

the fact that it's so idiosyncratic also tells us something about the ability of individual AIs to have personalities that distinguish them from other AIs, and the fact that one esk sings constantly but two esk doesn't tells us something about the ability of different ancillary decades that are all part of the same AI to have distinguishing characteristics. this is very relevant to, and illustrative of, the series' thematic throughlines around identity, personality, continuity, etc.

the fact that breq personally has a bad voice also serves multiple purposes. because breq and seivarden both believe that the medic could have chosen a body with a good voice if she had wanted to, we can infer something about how ancillary bodies work, how much the AI (and, by extension, its medics) knows about the individual capabilities of those bodies while they're in suspension, and what kinds of things the AI can and can't control once it has unfrozen and taken over a body.

we can also draw conclusions about the medic that chose that body and about intracrew relations on that ship.

breq's bad voice creates moments of humor and irony in the narrative, such as when breq's constant singing - aka the most obvious clue that she is one esk - is precisely what makes seivarden so sure that breq can't be one esk, because no esk medic would use a body with a bad voice for an ancillary.

constant singing/humming imposes itself on the shared soundscape, meaning other people can't easily avoid it and it has the potential to annoy them, especially if the voice itself has annoying qualities. the reactions of other characters to the frequency and/or quality of this verbal tic tells us something about the level of affection those characters have for one esk or breq.

because singing involves words, the meaning of the lyrics being sung can be used to advance the plot, communicate things about specific characters, create irony in juxtaposition with what's happening on the page, etc.

i especially like what's done with the lyric "it all goes around". it's woven throughout the story in such a way as to manifest its own meaning (the repetition of "it all goes around" is, itself, an example of something going around). by repeating the lyric, breq is the one making it true, and i would argue that her repetition of this particular lyric about things orbiting other things contributes to, and/or is a sign of, her growing understanding of the necessity/reality of interdependence and her place in that framework/her role in constructing it, or in other words, the extent of her own agency and the rights and obligations it confers upon her.

because the singing/humming is a constant, background, automatic action, it only ceases when breq is experiencing a strong emotion. from this we are able to infer things about the emotional state of our famously-omits-details-about-her-emotional-state narrator based on other characters' comments about whether or not she is currently doing this thing.

we also aren't even aware that breq is doing it constantly until another character says so. on a narrative level, this serves the dual purpose of making sure we know about how much she hums AND of reminding us that she's not telling us everything.

the humming is not mentioned constantly even though it is happening constantly - this helps us forget in between mentions that it's going on while also simultaneously reinforcing just how constant it must be, so constant that to mention it every time it happens would be like narrating every time she breathes in or out. whenever someone brings it up, we are reminded anew that something has been happening all along that we forgot about. this means that ann leckie is able, by leaving information out, to hammer home to us how much we are not being told.

through this one character trait, ann leckie efficiently and elegantly communicates not just aspects of character but also of setting, plot, tone, theme, and narrative. there's no extraneous exposition just to tell us about the song collection or singing; everything that tells us about it is serving other functions in the narrative as well. the ways in which she manifests this one character trait in the universe and in the narrative contribute to and exemplify both the story itself and the method of its telling.

[blessphemy]

there’s a thing about Breq’s POV where she will notice the specter of servant/household labor. which makes sense considering that back when she was a ship she was the one to do the work. invisibly and without recognition. cleaning and mending and tending. We see though her eyes how much of her time was this menial labor. Comparatively little of her time was the explosive brutalism of military violence. The real exercise of power is the exercise of who sits back and who does the work.

- the perfectly white uniform of the immigration officer coming into the Radch, which she described as indicative of either a servant, or a great deal of time invested in an effort to look like there was a servant

- the impressive wall of household plants in Skaaiat’s home, speculated to be the full time job of one of the household’s occupants

There are more of examples, probably. And there’s something in here about Seivarden acting as servant to Breq in book 1.

I’m having a half-baked thought about how, even with the POV character being a millennia-old warship, with the arc of the story being about galaxy spanning imperialism and political maneuvering. this is a story about the overlooked and taken-for-granted daily work, which is what that empire invisibly hinges upon. man I love this series. And this first book in particular. It’s put together so clean.

[dangerousyako]

Love Ancillary Justice it's all Breq showing up places "I'm Breq an impossibly cool and ultracompetent expressionless determinator with inhuman reflexes on a two-decades-long revenge quest. And this is Seivarden, I just found her in the trash and she has nothing to do with my plans. No I don't like her and she doesn't like me either. We are not to be separated."

[scribefindegil]

Obsessed with this bit in the preface to the 10th Anniversary edition of Ancillary Justice:

Specifics aside, "I thought this would be fun and relaxing. It was not." is a great summation of what happens with like 80% of creative endeavors.

[arianwells]

My heart is a fish Hiding in the water-grass In the green, in the green.

[nasty-little-guy]

Just mainlined the first three imperial radch books and a new thing I noticed this time round is that every time Breq needs to load visible_disdain.exe she simply does her best Seivarden impression and honestly what a beautiful friendship. If I taught my 3k year old warship bestie how to be a condescending dick, purely on accident, just by being myself, I would die of joy.

[despiashrq]

“Boy, I can’t wait to read more about the Presger, I have so many questions!”

100 pages into Translation State: ✋ I have additional questions

[volpestarks]

Landscapes inspired by Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch 3/?

[beansoup3000]

It's so important to me that Breq does not support either side of Anaander Mianaai's civil war. Like given the events of the first book I half expected her to join forces with the side of Anaander who didn't destroy Justice of Toren against the side that did, but that's not the kind of story it is. Her first priority is to find and protect Lieutenant Awn's family. And by the third book her objective is to keep the residents of Athoek System safe (including Station itself). It's just so helpful to me to have this story where the fabric of society is ripping apart on an incomprehensible scale, and our hero is someone who chooses a specific group of people and says, I will keep them safe. Not "I will save the universe" or "I will prevent collapse" or "I will fix it all," just "I will do what I can to keep this population safe amidst the chaos." So even during big action scenes, harm mitigation is central to Breq's calculus. She's trying to establish trade with the Presgr for medical correctives bc she recognizes the need for medical infrastructure independent of the Radch empire. She's pushing for mundane repairs. She's supporting workers unionizing. It's not sexy it's not action packed it's just a grounded response to crisis. She doesn't waste time engaging in the rhetorical stakes of the intra-Anaander conflict, she just gets to work helping people. I think it's a good example of how to handle problems that feel paralyzingly large.

[cat-dragron-arts]

Hey go read Ancillary Justice it's so good I'm insane.

[crouchabout]

hi i'm really good at controlling my facial expression and keeping it pleasantly normal and mysterious. also one time i looked at someone and she got so startled she fell off a bridge. what was that about lmao

[winter-wise]

Reading Ancillary Mercy rn and Seivarden has really been on the journey of all time. In a coma. Woke up. Whole family dead. Only person who recognises her is her former company car, who's decided to go and shoot the president. Not kill, just shoot. The car shoots the president several times. The president gives the company car her own company car. Seivarden can come along. Seivarden is in love with her former company car. The company car never liked her. Her company car is now in love with another company car. The company cars are openly discussing this in front of her, including Seivarden's own feelings for one of the company cars. Sequence of events of all time.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 2

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children series)

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children No Solicitations No Visitors No Guests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

Fantasy, portal fantasy, mystery, magical realism, boarding school, novella, series, adult

Imperial Radch series (Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy, Provenance, Translation State, and other stories) by Ann Leckie

Endorsement from submitter: "Breq/Justice of Toren is a ship AI and doesn't have a gender. The Radchaai language only has one pronoun for people, so (almost) everyone in the empire is she/her, to the point that they're infamous for failing to correctly guess which pronoun to use with outsiders."

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

Science fiction, space opera, far future, series, adult

[scribefindegil]

As much as I adore conlangs, I really like how the Imperial Radch books handle language. The book is entirely in English but you're constantly aware that you're reading a "translation," both of the Radchaai language Breq speaks as default, and also the various other languages she encounters. We don't hear the words but we hear her fretting about terms of address (the beloathed gendering on Nilt) and concepts that do or don't translate (Awn switching out of Radchaai when she needs a language where "citizen," "civilized," and "Radchaai person" aren't all the same word) and noting people's registers and accents. The snatches of lyrics we hear don't scan or rhyme--even, and this is what sells it to me, the real-world songs with English lyrics, which get the same "literal translation" style as everything else--because we aren't hearing the actual words, we're hearing Breq's understanding of what they mean. I think it's a cool way to acknowledge linguistic complexity and some of the difficulties of multilingual/multicultural communication, which of course becomes a larger theme when we get to the plot with the Presgar Translators.

[jennelikejennay]

The question is not "why do Vulcans kiss with their fingers?"

The question is, why do humans NOT?

The human fingertip—EACH fingertip—has over three thousand nerve endings. It has more touch receptors per millimeter than any other part of the body, including lips, tongue, and genitals.

Obviously the type of sensation we get from our fingers isn't typically a sexual one. But this is also true of lips and tongues. We just think of our lips as romantic and sexual but we don't put finger touching into the same context. We probably could though.

The real reason Vulcans kiss with their hands? It's because they don't touch with their hands very often. Something you don't do with everyone becomes significant and intimate. Like (switching universes for a minute) when the Radchaai take off their gloves. You wear gloves 24/7 around everyone you know, pretty soon taking them off will feel like stripping. Same concept.

Context is everything. Sure, it's no big deal for Vulcans to type with their fingers, just like it's no big deal for you to put chapstick on or lick an ice cream cone. But when a person you've never touched before very carefully brushes your pinkie with their pinkie while your hands are under the table.....you gonna tell me that's not first base? It could be.

[aethersea]

the very concept of Anaander Mianaai is amazing though. immortal unkillable emperor as old as your civilization itself but she is NOT a god. she is just a guy, who is also a lot of guys, who are all the same person. impeccable.