Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

Last book in the Imperial Radch trilogy.

I guess it was a Good ending. A sort of happy ending, not my cup of tea though. I'd have preferred it to be a bit darker or maybe much darker.

Anyways I love this world, not plausible, I guess, but thought provoking. A world where humanity coexists with Artificial Intelligence and Sentient Machines. A world where Contradictions arise... Humans are the Masters and Machines the Slaves, Is this fair when machines can be sentient?.... at the same time, Humans are almost totally dependent on AI to survive, they are constantly watched (there is no Privacy!) And monitored to the extent that even their feelings can be predicted by machines.

The Lord of the Radch was an interesting character. Thousands of bodies across the empire but only one consciousness. It reminded me of Mr Bovey, a Multiple from the Void trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. Similar concepts only in the Void Mr Bovey's had a few bodies and they lived together. All the bodies represented the same person whereas the Lord of the Radch could have different personalities.

Things I thought were missing:

. We never know who built the AI cores, and under which principles, or values.

. Some AI are presented as if they had emotions and feelings. However most humans seemed unaware of this, including auhorities, including the Lord of the Radch, who I thought should have been the one to specify the quality of AI in his empire, or at least be better informed.

. If the above have not been programed on purpose on AI, but developed or evolved on its own, then I guess the author missed an opportunity to explore this more in depth.

. No more character development, the protagonist and other main characters do not evolve much. The strory just follows up from book 2 in a kind of straight line, no surprises, no twists, at least that I could see.

More questions come to my mind, like:

What is life? And Consciousness? Can Artificial Intelligence be alive? Or have rights?

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

Second book in the Imperial Radch trilogy. 

This is a good sequel but not as good as the first novel. Check my previous post. Again we follow Breq, the protagonist of the first story, now on a mission to keep a section of Radch space safe from its own ruler. 

The writing is excellent, addictive. The plot focuses very much on a specific situation outside (and on) a planet. The character of Breq is further developed as she becomes a fleet captain exercising her power on a colonised planet. Unlike the first book, most of the story in this novel takes place in space, either travelling or on a Space station. However it didn't feel like a space opera to me. I think it was because the story did not involve (or very little) any descriptions of spaceship technology, but was more concerned with interactions inside the spacecraft and space station. 

As with the first book, I liked the idea of Intelligent Spacecrafts as well as AIs embodied in (dead) human bodies. The writer created a powerful narrative with these concepts exploring the political, economic and social impact on a human civilisation on a galactic scale. Themes such as gender, identity, slavery, hierarchy, colonisation and others. However there were some gaps I kept wanting to be filled. For example the story never explains AI from the scientific and technological points of view. The main character, a spaceship AI, 3 thousand year old, has lived a long life, but we never know if it has been upgraded, or improved. Actually technology doesn't seem to have changed so much in that time. New spaceships do not differ much from the old ones. How is that possible? I kept asking myself, more questions, How a civilisation so advanced that can Insert/Upload a Human or Artificial Consciousness on a Human Brain, be so decadent in other aspects? Why do Humans not enhance their intelligence? What about Uploading human consciousness on machines? Hehe, cough, cough, perhaps I'm asking the author to write a different book...

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

First book in the Imperial Radch Trilogy.

This is a story of Revenge taking place thousands of years in the future. This novel is well written. It has excellent world building and includes themes of Artificial Intelligence, Gender and language, politics, imperialism and slavery.

It is Character driven as opposed to Plot driven. I found the Plot to be simple and straightforward (a revenge) but it worked perfect with character development and world building.

I don't think this is hard science fiction, but it was thought provoking due to the topics and the way it is written. Conceptz and Technological advances are not explained or discussed but shown, for example Artificial Intelligence, embodying multiple devices, including spaceships and human bodies, and managing them all at the same time. The narrative exposes this brilliantly, sometimes intercalating conversations by the same AI using different bodies who are talking to different people at the same time.

The question of Who/What is Human? is relevant. The radch cannot see beyond AI as tools for conquest and war, and as tools to ease their daily lives. Not the AI inserted in human bodies not the ones living in machines. The author raises questions though with the protagonist construction and growth as well as with the changing views around her.

In terms of social and political commentary, there is plenty. A totalitarian system which depends on constant growth to survive. Social Hierarchies, status, military abuse, the use of a genderless version of English and many other aspects which make the Radch an interesting place to explore.

I read this book for the #spaceoperaseptember but I don't think it is a #spaceopera. 98% of events take place in planets or space stations and I never felt I "was in space" while reading it 😭

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa.

Beautiful writing, a disturbing story. A dystopian world seen from the eyes of young novelist.

What struck me the most, was not the continuous disappearance of things but how the majority accepted their faith. Things disappeared and memories went away with them. A few unlucky people were chased by the Memory Police because they didn't forget. Actually there was more fear of the Memory Police than of losing things. This novel made me reflect about loss and the value we place in everyday objects, and other important things.

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

An excellent science fiction space opera. Set in the far future, more than 6 million years from now. We follow a human civilisation comprised of Shatterling Lines. Each line a group of clones of the same individual, dedicated to explore and record memories of the galaxy.  Shatterlings travel on their own and meet with the others in their Line every two hundred thousand years or so. Then they share their memories with the rest. They are known as a meta-civilisation as they witness the emergence and disappearance of human civilisations across millenia. This phenomena is called Turn over. No human civilisation (except for a handful) is able to survive more than a few thousand years. The Lines however have survived for 6 million years. The reason perhaps is that they have developed technology to dilate time.

The story starts with a couple of Shatterlings, Purslane and Campion,  on their way to a Line reunion. They are a few years late but that is not a problem. In their last circuit they have met with the Vigilance. An ancient human civilisation,  custodians of a galactic library,  containing data ranging for million of years. Campion is able to meet with a Vigilance and get access to some of their data banks. With that information they set course to their meeting. Still a few light years before arrival they get a distress message from one of their leaders. They had been attacked and annihilated. Years after and ignoring the leader's warning Purslane and Campion arrive at the reunion place finding only devastation. They set on a mission, to find survivors and get revenge. 

Concepts and things I loved:

The vigilance are an interesting concept. They achieved immortality by making their bodies grow perpetually. Now they are the size of spaceship or bigger, their brain takes long to think due to the distances between neurons. 

Hesperus, a robot,  belonging to the Machine People civilisation.  Despite being a Machine he is more human than many other human characters. He stands for friendship and loyalty. 

The Spirit of the Air, a former human being who downloaded his brain, and  now is able to exist without machines. He is admired and feared  by the people in the planet where he lives. Like the Vigilance he has lived for millions of years and has meet with numerous extinct civilisations.

The Priors. Like in other scifi novels I've read, the myths, or ideas about ancient civilisations who existed billions of years before our time. They left the galaxy,  or are extinct,  but their advanced technology is still used by humans.

Not using FTL travel but still be interesting. Fast Spaceships are able to travel just under the speed of light. However still travelling across the galaxy can take hundreds if not thousands of years. Reynolds uses other devices to let his characters survive the pass of time and make the story compelling. There is time dilation due to the fast speeds + stasis technology which allows humans to slow down their perception of time, so they can  travel for hundreds or thousands of years but experience them as a few hours or days.

The immensity of the  novel's scope, in time and space. How the narrative allows for thousands of years to pass and keep the story engaging.

Things I didn't love:

The fantasy like setting in which Abigail, the original human to the Gentian Shatterlings, plays during her childhood. I liked the idea of the game being a mind reading simulation but not the world created by the simulation and the number of pages dedicated to its story. I couldn't understand the connection to the rest of the story.

The Machine People. Their origins and general background was too obscure, being central to the main plot I expected more information about them. Also, for some reason, I couldn't imagine them other way than a 50s robot toy. And here comes another point, I found the concepts and depiction of Artificial Intelligence too simple for  future so far away. Apart from the Machine People (who were just super intelligent and super strong and fast, etc.) The only other AI we see are the spaceship computers something that lacked development and exposure in the novel.

Nova by Samuel R Delany

 Nova is a science fiction novel written in 1968. It is a space opera with comments on race, sexuality, languages and superstition.

The story is about a group of people setting up on a mission to get Illyrion from the center of a star going Nova. It's the 30th century and humanity has colonised a vast amount of the galaxy. The galactic economy depends on access and use of Illyrion, which is a super heavy, but stable element.  Small quantities of Illyrion can fuel starships and entire cities for decades. There are conflicts between different regions in the galaxy which aim to get independence from earth and allies. Possession of Illyrion would definitely tilt the balance on anyone's favour.

Lorq Von Ray has recruited a group of men and women to go on an impossible mission. But the reward will be worth every sacrifice.  Not only will he help the Pleiades federation and outer colonies get economic independence from the Draco empire but most importantly he will finally get revenge from the man he hates the most: Prince Red heir of the Red family, owners of Red - Shift Limited, producers of components for space drives.

Though the plot of the story is rich and interesting, I found this to be a character-driven novel. Delany's description of both main protagonists Lord Von Ray and Mouse (a cyborg stud for Von Ray) is brilliant. The whole Illyrion mission can be thought of personal quests for both. Both men are so different in terms of origins, race, interests but they end up together, one trying to help the other. Also at some point I sensed subtle sexual undertones in their interactions but no more. There were also some insinuations between Mouse and Katin, another interesting character.

Some things I enjoyed in Nova:

. Characters being of different races and origins. Race wasn't an issue at all in the story but I liked Delany's short but informative descriptions of the characters and how the world be built looked like an ideal we may pursue in the present. 

. Characters being polyglot. 

. The transition between different dialects of English. The main character is able to easily switch between standard English and the Pleiades dialect. 

. Some lightweight science. Delany's explains how rare Illyrion is in nature and how it is created in Novas's extreme temperatures. We also get an explanation of how someone could flight through the centre of a Nova!

. Delany's beautiful prose. There is a passage I loved when a character, Idas, explains what Illyrion means to him. Short after, Katin, gives lecture on history and chemistry of the heavy element,  Idas shakes the reader with a personal account on how Illyrion has impacted his life and his family's.  

The Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

This story takes place in the far future (I think), a group of nuns travel through space to spread the word of God a among human colonies. 

The story follows a group of Catholic nuns on board of the Our Lady of Impossible Constelations. They are on their way to a small colony to perform a wedding and a baptism. Their ship is alive. Organic material breed for the purpose of space travel. Though not sentient the ship has organic needs. At some point the nuns debate whether to allow it to mate as it seems to be in heat. As the ship was consecrated, would it be a sin to allow it mate?

Some things have not changed much. I mean in terms of religious beliefs and customs. The ship is a convent in space, with a silent mother superior. We get to know some of the nuns, and their religious order. Of course being in space some of them are technicians and scientists. I enjoyed the description of live a board the ship, and the ship itself but I found something was lacking. There was hardly any internal conflicts depicted in the story. Those kinds of coflicts where science questions the existence of God. I sort of expected a bit of that being nuns in a bioship. There is one character though who questions her commitment to the order and her life as a nun. Not necessarily because she doubts her faith but because she is not sure she is cut out for the job anymore. 

Sometime after the wedding and baptism, they receive a distress call from the same colony reporting an outbreak of a deadly disease. The nuns decide to go back and help. And here is when it gets exciting. The nuns switch to "hero" mode and at the same time dark secrets are revealed. There is some action which contrasts with the slow paced, convent-like atmosphere of the first part. 

This was a fun read but I would have liked the author to provide more background (how the church and Vatican ended up sending nuns to space?) and explore the themes of religion v science much more. 

An okay read.