Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

But... but... 

I love this series.   It is my new crack.   Artificial intelligence, a full, political world, and characters that I absolutely adore.   What more could a girl ask for?  

Breq continues to dig into the huge conspiracy: the Lord of the Radch has made Breq her 'cousin' by giving Breq her last name.   Anaander Mianaai has declared Breq to be Breq Mianaai, which gives her a lot of leeway - and occasionally causes problems.   And while the storyline that includes Anaander is at the heart of this story, it's also somewhat on the outskirts.   Anaander herself doesn't make an appearance, and this is smart for a variety of reasons, the first and foremost being that at one point Breq claims that what Anaander wants means absolutely nothing at all to Breq.   How better to display this than focusing on Breq and leaving Anaander as a, quite literally, silent partner in this whole affair?

Isolated, on a planet where there are caste and class tensions brewing, Breq comes up against enemies at seemingly every single side of the conflict.   Unruffled, she does what she does best: tries to see it from every point of view, bucks tradition and slums it up, and barrels through, trying to resolve as many of the conflicts as possible.  

Look, I'm not very good when I try to synopsize a book.  I'm better at analyzing what works, and telling what I liked.   I'm going to stick to that.   

First of all, Leckie fleshes out the caste system and classes.   By showing us the poverty stricken races, and people, so clearly, she not only made me feel more keenly for this population, but also made the world richer.   It's more clear how these people are kept down, kept slaves, and I'm not sure I would have bought how they started to free themselves without how Leckie had built up the societies in the first place.  

She also has more reliable and sympathetic characters here, and that makes this far more pleasant to read.  I cared more about this cast of characters, and Leckie used this to draw me into the story she was telling.   I was far more invested in all the characters, as opposed to caring for Breq and not really caring that much for anyone other than Seivarden in the first novel. 

Other than that, Leckie pretty much does what she did so well in the first novel, and then added to it: she already had a rich world, and she simply expanded on it.   While she did reference the gender issues at one point, it was pretty much forgotten here.   It made sense, since she was, for the most part, dealing with Radchaai, or people who didn't care about genders and what you called them.   It was a smart move, as it wasn't distracting, but it didn't feel like she completely ignored the rules she'd set up earlier.   (Although it did feel like she just wasn't going to mention it at all for like three fourths of the novel.)

There were so many more moments where I was angered on behalf of the characters, or felt joy along with them, or wanted to cry for them.   By adding that emotive aspect, Leckie expands on the world she's built, the stories she's telling, and made me feel connected to them. 

I didn't think the second book could get better.   People told me that, but I figured they were just fangirling.   I don't say this as a bad thing: I build things up in my head, and then think they're what I imagine them to be at times.   I fangirl, I give things I love, or creators I love, too much credit at times. 

And I've known the sting of that failure to meet my expectations, or to reread something, and realize that I must have been out of my mind when reading it the first time.   So I approached this book with a bit of caution, figuring it would be as good as the first, and if it was only that?   It would still be top notch.  

It's not.   It's better.   All those fangirling things people said?   They're all true.   All of them.