Reviews and Comments

I read this book knowing nothing of Ann Leckie's books. The collection is broken into 3 parts.

The first part is a few short short stories not linked to any of the book series the author has written. The story which the book collection takes its title from was the best out of those. The author was great at crafting a world with a mixture of sci-fi and spirituality in that story.

The second part contained stories from her sci-fi Ancillary series. They were interesting, but I had the sense I was missing a larger picture somehow so it was a little difficult to get into without having read the series.

The third part contained stories based off the Raven Tower universe, which is more fantasy based. I enjoyed all of those stories very much. The author was able to establish simple rules of the world and create a variety of stories with them. They all had different tones as well, which left the stories feeling more contained despite being set in this larger whole. I am very interested in reading the Raven Tower to see what the author comes up with using a longer format.

This collection was definitely worth a read, even for someone like me who knows nothing of the author's other works.

This book's genre is a comedic science fiction. The author created a group of characters and placed them in a setting called Tabula Ra$a.

The city is said to be governed by free market capitalism. The author seems to want to leave it to the reader as whether that is a good thing or bad thing, as he depicts the wide gap between rich and poor. The main protagonist, Zoey, is briefly described as poor in the beginning but then is thrust into a position of wealth and supported by the rest of the cast to help her navigate that new world.

While there is no definitive stance of morality in such a world, the characters are fun enough to make you want to finish reading. The author does a good job of playing with expectations of a more upbeat comedy, and lands a few twists in the story to want to read the next chapter.

The chapters are short, which I tend to like since I get to choose whether I read for a short stint or plow through chapters for a longer sit down.

I give it 3 stars for the lack of depth, which makes a longer book like this a little harder to enjoy, but the comedy and twists make it worthy of a read.

This book starts off with a fairly comedic feel, but it does a good job of letting the reader know there will be dramatic things coming ahead.

The author does a good job of building up from slice-of-life to a full on murder mystery. It mostly takes the first person POV of the teenage girl, Vera, but it occasionally takes on the perspective of others to great comedic or dramatic effect. The one thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars was that the main antagonist, a "rival" teenage girl, was mean without any context, and it would have been good to change to her POV to help flesh her out more.

The book touches on a some difficult subjects (alcoholism, domestic abuse, sexual exploitation, bullying) without resorting to being overly graphical. The characters' struggles to cope with all of their traumas is used to help the reader feel the impact.

It is a good read for those that enjoy young adult novels with a good balance of comedy, drama, and discussing some heavy subjects.

This book was a pretty decent read, not only in terms of quality but as in length; coming in at nearly 500 pages. This book lays the foundation of a new world with dragons, gods, and magic.

In the story the main setting is across a few points of interest in the country Kiata, but there are cursory mentions of other nations beyond the sea. Each setting has a distinct impact on the main character and her growth.

The romance tropes trickle in slowly until the faucet is fully opened by the end, at which time I felt glad that the book was over.\

The rules for magic were easy to follow at first, until, again, at the end where the exceptions seem to either be poorly explained or simply put in place to give the main character plot armor. Those trip ups were jarring considering that with almost 500 pages there shouldn't be this feeling of being rushed to reach the conclusion of everything.

However, even with it's flaws at the end, it was a very enjoyable to follow the journey of the main character and watch her grow. I would totally be interested in reading the sequel to learn more about the other countries use of magic and the influence the dragons have over the human realm.

The book is a general fiction that is more slice of life than anything else. It is about how relationships are effected by the lived experiences of the people in them. This is punctuated by the fact that the first half of the book focuses on the separate experiences of the two leads, who don't even meet until the latter half of the novel. Even then, the timing for them isn't quite right (much like it plays it in real life sometimes) and they don't actually form a relationship until a little after the first half.

I actually felt that narrative structure worked really well. I was so involved by each of their own stories that by the time they actually met I had forgotten that the novel was about their relationship. It was very interesting to see how their trauma, which we learn so much about, effected the relationship.

The only criticism I have is that since the novel took so much time to explain their backstories, it seemed to rely "love at first sight" to get them to form a close relationship quickly; but maybe that is just me being a cynic. Other than that, I highly recommend this book looking for realistic fiction.

This book is more of a slice of life from various cultures than a full on mystery book. The characters and various cultures they come from are really entertaining and relatable, which made me enjoy the read. This book is the first of a (future?) series, and I am curious to see how these characters will grow and change in the future.

There aren't really enough clues to really have any possibility of solving the mystery yourself, which I feel is the backbone of any true mystery novel. You can still piece together the gist of what happened, even if you don't know with any real certainty who did what. The twist is satisfying enough and I still found myself wanting to know what the answer was.

If you are looking for a gritty or suspenseful mystery then this book is not for you. If you want to kick back, relax, and get a peek into different cultures along with their food, then this is the perfect book for that.