We are finally at the end of the Imperial Radch read-a-long and the end of the final book in the trilogy (although there are plenty of standalones set in the world that I’m very much looking forward to getting to).
Every week, there are a set number of chapters to read, and the host for the week will post questions for people to answer!
Week 1 Questions – Azrah @ Quintessentially Bookish
Week 2 Questions – Nicole @ The Bookwyrm Knits
Week 3 Questions – Annemieke @A Dance With Books
Week 4 Questions – Mayri @ The Bookforager
I read this week’s part as soon as I posted my answers to the week 3 questions but then got busy and didn’t get around to actually answering the questions for week 4! Luckily, it’s the final part, so I don’t have to worry about spoilers.
With that – here’s your SPOILER WARNING.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. THIS IS NOT A SPOILER-FREE POST. SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE SERIES UP TO THE END OF ANCILLARY MERCY POSSIBLE! I’M SERIOUS – I LITERALLY TALK ABOUT THE FINALE OF THE PLOT.
Many thanks to Mary @The Bookforager for this week’s questions. I’m trying to give my raw thoughts on this, so I’m holding off on reading any other posts until I’ve posted mine – so my thoughts may change depending on what other people suggest!
We’ve laughed, we’ve cried … These final chapters have been an emotional rollercoaster – care to share your favourite moments?
See, this kind of question is why I should answer questions closer to when I finish reading the book! Although I suppose the moments I remember this far out from finishing it are probably the most memorable.
I love a ‘everything comes together’ moment in books (even if in this case there wasn’t so much a hidden plan that comes together but a stroke of brilliance on the spot), so my favourite moment was probably when Breq manages to beat Anaander by using her own dehumanisation of sapient AI and the translator’s investment in the Treaty to basically get herself immunity to Anaander’s machinations. Very satisfying moment (even if it does come with so-bad-it’s-good country naming… can you call it a country when we’re talking about whole planets?).
And yet more questions have been raised than answered about the Presger. Any pet theories? Burning questions? (Things you hope might be explored further in Provenance and Translation State?)
I want to meet a Presger! And I want to figure out how Translators work both in terms of their biology and (even more) in terms of their social structure etc.
“I don’t have any plans, no play beyond the obvious one.” / “I don’t believe that.” (pg 297). Do you think Breq’s been winging it this whole time? Or do you think she’s more of a planner than she admits?
I think I’ve said this before but I don’t think Breq is much of a long-term (or even really short-term) planner. What she is, is excellent at making use of the resources that are available to her to achieve an immediate goal, and processing information about a situation quickly to make accurate and fast judgements about how to deploy those resources. I think this makes a lot of sense if you think that she was a Ship.
“Shall we bring up the question of where you’re actually human anymore?” (pg 305) What’s your judgement on whether the Lord of the Radch is human still, or not? Do you think it’s relevant?
I think it’s relevant in terms of the Lord of the Radch’s perception of herself – especially in relation to the AIs that she commands and uses to maintain and spread her influence. She’s able to control and use the AIs like that without any kind of moral dissonance because she sees them as objects and tools of humans. Therefore, she must see herself as human in order to be superior to them. If she herself is no longer human, then she is no different or no better from an AI (in the hierarchal view of the world that she herself possesses).
Outside of the implications it has for her own worldview and thoughts about what it means to be ‘human’ in relation to the independence and agency of AIs, I don’t think it matters to the machinations of the plot. But in relation to these questions of sapience and humanity and agency, which have become major themes in this last book especially, then it does matter.
Ship priorities! Sphene wants to talk about ancillaries. What are your thoughts/feelings on this discussion between the cousins?
I think it’s normal that Sphene is attached to her ancillaries – if you think about it, they’ve been her only connection and community and company really for most of the time she’s been stuck in the other system. Equally, Breq is totally valid in not wanting to kill and capture people to make ancillaries. I think her suggestion that the ships try a hybrid crew to get used to having people rather than ancillaries is probably a useful way to try and transition the attachment from ancillaries specifically to crew more generally.
And how do you feel about the provisional Republic of Two Systems?
Kind of an awful name, I will admit, although it does kind of show how different Breq’s thinking is from the imperial, expansionist vision of the Radch. Apart from that, I think it makes an interesting attempt at showing what happens beyond The End, which I always like in stories and I’ve mentioned before as well, and we do get some insights into how they’re attempting to govern it, etc. I would definitely not be opposed to getting a future story set in the Republic (probably not one following Breq and this crew, though, since I’m pretty happy with how their story has ended – it would be interesting to see the Republic many years or even centuries in the future).
And that’s it for the read-along! It’s been super fun and I hope I can participate in some similar read-alongs in the future. Feel free to also check out my mini review of Ancillary Mercy here.
I’m now off to go and read everyone else’s answers!
Keira x
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