Ancillary Sword

[sawyl]

Having just finished Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, I've realised that I neglected to write up the second book, Ancillary Sword, when I read it last year. Although it lacks the narrative complexity and wide-screen setting of the first book, Ancillary Sword may be better novel in its own, quiet, focused way and is a superb addition to one of the best and most thoughtful recent series.

Opening immediately after the events of Ancillary Justice, it begins with Breq Mianaai, now a fleet captain and adopted cousin of the Lord of the Radch, ordered to take her new command, Mercy of Kalr, to the Athoek system to quell any possibility of rebellion. Among Breq's officers are Seivarden, her long-time friend, Lieutenant Ekalu, promoted from the ranks, and Tisarwat, an untried lieutenant parachuted in at the insistance of the part o Anaander Mianaai responsible for promoting Breq.

It is obvious from the outset that although Breq has accepted Anaander Mianaai's formalisation of her position as a citizen and her place as the Lord's cousin, and rejected the opposing faction of the Lord of the Radch, this does not make her her Lord's creature. Thus she is immediately suspicious when her Lord insists on placing a green lieutenant aboard her command and sets about using the limbo period while the ship is in transit to address the problem. While this leaves Tisarwat in a very mixed up state, it increases her drive to help Breq as best she can.

Arriving at Athoek Station, Breq takes up residence in the Undergarden, a damaged section that lies outside the station AI's ubiquitous surveillance. Her she meets members of the underclass, mostly Ychani, while Tisarwat mixes with the ruling Xhai. The two worlds collide when Translater Dlique, a human emissary constructed by the very alien Presger, is killed and the station, along with Captain Hetnys of the warship Sword of Atagaris, attempt to pin the blame on Sirix Odela, a re-educated Ychani with a history of involvement in labour disputes.

Breq refuses to accept this blatant injustice and reveals the true culprit, the daughter of a powerful local tea planter, only for Hetnys to shift the goalpost and attempt to explain the whole thing as a youthful amusement that got out of hand. Breq gives this response very short shrift indeed, standing up for equal treatment as she does throughout the novel:

"What amusement," I asked, my own voice carefully even, "could youthful high spirits have anticipated? Watching Sword of Atagaris Var arrest completely innocent citizens? Putting those completely innocent citizens through interrogation to prove their innocence, or worse not interrogating them at all, convicting them without any evidence beyond Raughd Denche could never have done that? Further alarming you, and the governor, and Captain Hetnys at a time when things were already tense? And if, for the sake of argument, we pretend those are harmless amusements, then why has no one said of Citizen Sirix, It's nothing it must have been a prank?"

Worried by the Presger's potential reaction to the death of their ambassador, Breq decides to observe full funeral rites for Dlique. Insisting that Hetnys join her in the necessary period of seclusion, Breq accepts an invitation from Citizen Foysf Denche — the mother of the young vandal — to sequester herself on the latter's planation on the planet. Breq ensures that Sirix Odela and Raughd Denche accompany the party to Athoek, where she can keep an eye on them.

But the Daughter of Fishes tea plantation does not provide a great deal of peace. From landing, Raughd Denche goes all out to seduce Breq who too wily and too aware of Raughd's psychopathy to be caught. Then Foysf reveals an antique tea service that predates the foundation of the Radch and, when questioned about its origins, reveals that she bought it from Captain Hetnys, implying that Hetnys has been in contact with people she shouldn't have been. Further Breq comes to realise that all the heavy manual work on Foysf's planation — and it is Daughter of Fishes great selling point that it is produced by hand — is carried out by Valskaayan workers rather than locals; and even though the Valskaayans are Radch — their annexation was on the last Breq was involved in — any attempt to withdraw their labour ruthlessly crushed by the local authorities, reducing them to such effective slavery that to all practical purposes they're unable to anything but pretend to tolerate their abuse at the hands of their employers and their employer's overseers.

The planation provides the first real insight into Radch society and the deep fracture lines that exist within it. Given that the Radch is a post-scarcity society anything that can be bought holds little value, so value has come to be found in the things that cannot be bought. Thus Daughter of Fishes is not sold, so the only way to obtain it is to be granted the favour of the plantation's owner; something which gives Foysf Denche great influence within the Athoek system. It also explains why Foysf — and Breq and, most of all, her steward Kalr Five — value the three thousand year-old tea service above all other things: it is a unique artefact of a bygone age and completely irreplaceable.

The planation also shows the ugly side of the Radch and its policy of annexations. For all its pretence that all citizens are equal once they've been civilised, it's clear that annexation often simply cements the existing power structures into place, with only the addition of the Lord of the Radch at the top to mark the change. Consequently the work on Daughter of Fishes, where once it was provided by the Ychani overseen by the Xhai, is now carried out by the Valskaayans, brought in from another system and denied access to education and other services provided by the Radch to allow its citizens to better themselves, who are now overseen by the Ychani, with the Xhai continuing to cream off the benefits at the top.

Where Ancillary Justice was concerned with questions of identity, Ancillary Sword investigates ideas of equality and justice, and how the lack of these can allow bad people to profit. The book introduces some intriguing characters — the briefly seen Translator Dlique is particularly good — and fills out others, such as Basanaaid Elming, sister of Justice of Toren's favouri