Good Stuff Recently Read (2/2)
Ancillary Justice – The trilogy that began with Ancillary Justice was an unprecedented award-grabber. The first book won the Hugo, Arthur C. Clarke, and Nebula Awards for Best Novel - the first novel ever to do so. The sequels, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, also collected honors.
Ann Leckie's books are space opera, but very thoughtful space opera indeed. The main character, Breq, is the only survivor of a destroyed starship – and also the only surviving part of that ship. Breq is an "ancillary," murdered by the expansionist Empire and reanimated as a cyborg soldier who was not only an appendage of the lost Justice of Toren but a part of its consciousness as well. Breq remembers being the ship, and wants revenge for its treacherous destruction.
Here's a shout-out to my favorite minor character, Translator Zeiat, who has human ancestors but was created and taught by the very alien Presger. Zeiat is charming, usually confused, always frustrated that the humans can't see the obvious, and very, very powerful and dangerous.
The first novel can stand alone, but you really want to read them all and get the wider story.
Project Hail Mary – I've been an Andy Weir fan since his Casey & Andy webcomic.* With The Martian, he moved on to greater things. That book was excellent, and Hollywood somehow turned into a hit motion picture without ruining it. Now Weir has done it again with Project Hail Mary. (No. I have not yet seen the film. I guess I have to.)
Project Hail Mary is told along two timelines. One is "real time" aboard the starship that just might save humanity. The other comes out in pieces as the protagonist's broken memory returns a bit at a time. Yes, the astronaut gets an alien buddy. Yes, the infestation that threatens mankind will be a magnificent boon if we can just make it through the next few decades. Yes, the first solution to the infestation problem nearly kills our heroes right then and there. Yes, Lego has already released a model of the starship.
"Page-turner" is a cliché, but that's exactly what we have here. Something interesting is happening on the page you're reading, and something else interesting will happen on the very next page, and the next thing you know, you've finished and you want to see the movie.
* And he, along with David Morgan-Mar, wrote a GURPS adaptation, which you can still get here - making SJ Games, as far as I know, Andy's first print publisher!