I am not at all convinced this will actually go back together in any sort of meaningful way.
Sphene, talking about a tea set. Ann Leckie, not talking about a tea set.
Ancillary Mercy takes place shortly after the decompression of the garden on Station that nearly kills Justice of Toren and Lieutenant Tisarwat. Repairs begin on the supports in the Undergarden and someone is found hiding there. Another Translator arrives from the Presgers. Then Anaander Mianaai herself arrives. Clearly things are going to hell. Shenanigans ensue.
I was, at first, not hooked into the story. Then I became EXTREMELY hooked. I liked the craziness of the Translator quite a bit. I even started to warm to Sphene. Seivarden had a pretty good character arc. Tisarwat has *extremely* worrying tendencies and needs watching. I enjoyed the realistic times and distances. When ships arrive in the system it doesn't take them two minutes to get to the station: it takes weeks, for example. Communication delays to distant places is measured in hours and days.
There are some really painful sentences in the book that give insight into just how sad Justice of Toren is, how much it misses its other selves, and will never be whole again. There are terrifying sentences showing just what Tisarwat is capable of. I think, in the whole series, Tisarwat is the most terrifying character. It's the potentiality that is scary. Even the Translator isn't as frightening as Tisarwat.
So the beginning of the book was about 9/10. The middle of the book was 9.75/10. Then came the ending.
To say it was lacklustre and disappointing would be an understatement. It was written like the others: the main storyline of the individual book brought to a conclusion, but with tons of loose threads. But then....there is no sequel. One imagines that, with the ending of a trilogy, the entire storyline would be finished up neatly. Nope. There are threads dangling everywhere, some of them pretty important threads. Like Anaander Mianaai sized threads. Really frustrating. I couldn't believe it when the book ended. Like....seriously? You're just going to leave it like that? WTH man? The ending gets a solid 5/10. Extremely disappointing. I almost feel like not recommending the entire series because of it. And let me tell you, these books are FANTASTIC! I've been going on and on about them ad nauseam to anyone who'll listen. But that ending?
I was able to get the audiobook at almost the same time as the e-book, which I was at first happy about because it meant I could do other things while reading. I soon gave up that idea because HOLY COW the voices the narrator gave the characters were AWFUL. A good narrator can really elevate a book (Anthony Heald reading Crime and Punishment, for example. And Kyle McCarly reading The Goblin Emperor. RC Bray reading The Martian. I've also heard the narrator for Dungeon Crawler Carl *really* knocks it out the park, though I haven't unfortunately had the opportunity to listen to those books) but this narration was like nails down a chalkboard. The voice Seivarden was given was just awful. Ekalu's voice was quite lovely. But everyone else? SO SO bad. and the voice of the medic on Station.....that's where I quit listening. Maybe if I'd listened all along....but I'd had a good 2.5 books under my belt by the time I started listening, and the characters already had their own voices in my head. And those voices did not include a bunch of painful screeching.
Overall, if you can handle an ending that is not really an ending then I recommend this trilogy. I absolutely loved the books and really love many of the characters. But that ending? Oy vey.
Author: Brandon Sanderson Begun: June 21st 2025 Finished: June 22nd 2025 Type: e-book on Libby Rating: 9/10 Silence tries to keep free...
