Ancillary Sword

Good but lacks the impetus of the opening volume.

This is an extremely well-written book with excellent character development and very smart dialog. You really have to pay attention to what is being said as much of the plot is revealed by inference in the dialog between people. Leckie once again proves that she can write complex characters that interact convincingly.

With all this going for it, the book still suffers from both a lack of action and lack of forward plot movement. Sure, some things do happen and it's all very, very interesting but, at the end of the day, we are not a whole lot further along in seeing the big picture than we were at the end of Ancillary Justice.

Despite the slow plotting, the writing style still pulled me in and kept me reading. And Breq is such a cool character that I find myself just enjoying spending time in her head, (and all those other heads - real and figurative - that she has access to).

Had there been a bit more forward movement, this would have easily been a 4-star read for me. As it stands, I rate it 3.5 as I go into wait-mode for the next installment.