Ancillary Sword

I liked Ancillary Justice, so to feel the second novel in the series upping the ante was pretty fun as a reader. I think one of the most interesting plot points of this part of the trilogy is how Breq's identity as an ancillary (i.e., non-human-but-made-from-a-murdered-human AI; this isn't a spoiler alert as that's clear from from the first novel) gives them passing privilege among humans, with the downside passing always also includes: hearing in an even more unfiltered manner how clearly and easily humans distinguish between themselves and other (read: lesser) life forms. Breq also struggles with themes about what privacy and consent mean in a hyper-connected world, and those around her and under her command wrestle with whether individuals have the power for change in vast, slow moving, inequitable systems. There's a quote from a review of the front of the book that refers to the trilogy as a “space opera,” and opera doesn't speak to me personally, usually, but I get what they mean: thematically, the scope of this trilogy really feels like what it means to be a person (human or otherwise) in the world.