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Very visceral comic that hits a LOT of relatable points re: having a "woman's" body while not being a woman. A much-needed oasis in the desert that is nuanced transmasc (nonbinary!) stories. Deals with a lot of heavy topics so check warnings before you read it.

I got this to read on the plane and it was.. fine. I enjoyed the first half more than I did the second, it felt like a classic british schoolboy goes on adventures to ~strange worlds~ and all of the stuff that kind of story usually entails. I've never really been a fan of those kinds of books and all the more now I'm for sure not the target audiance so! I'll stick with the other Diana Wynne Jones series I enjoy.

So much more fun worldbuilding in this last book of the trilogy! (Just what is up with those Presger translators?) Overall a very nice wrap-up of everything started in the first two books. I don't have too much more new to say, I enjoyed it for the same reason I enjoyed the first two.

I think this was my favourite book in the series (I'm noting them down after finishing all of them). Maybe. If so it's a pretty close call between this and book one! It was fun to see a larger cast of characters in this book and all the dynamics between them. Breq also continues to be extremely entertaining to watch get into trouble without a plan because what is she going to do? Stand by and do nothing? She's had enough of a history of that.

The one big thing that frustrated me continuing from the first book is not enough exposition. It was nice that there wasn't the usual sci fi explaining what Every Single made up technology and system was and how it works but on the flip side telling us nothing and having the reader figure it out from context is difficult to pull off. Even going into the third book I would have to look things up on the wiki (for example, how the ships & naming schemes of ancillarys were structured so I could remeber who is who).

A friend of mine Strongly encouraged me to read this and it was 100% worth it. I always enjoy reading about ai pretending to be human. Other things I enjoyed: - no plan only yolo - the worldbuilding was a lot of fun. The gender thing of course but also all the little details of how status is shown, how people interact, ect. - "I hate this person with all my soul." continues to help them - the way the writing implies a lot of stuff happens that isn't shown or commented on all of the time. Like it's def a series where the narrator's perspective is a clear perspective. Breq's constant singing/humming is a great example of this where based on other character's commentary we know she's pretty much constantly singing for the whole story but it's not actually explicitly mentioned by Breq most of the time. It acts as a great reminder to the reader that to think about what else is going on and what Breq's not telling us!

This is the one book in the series I hadn't read before and I'm really looking forward to it and seeing the series conclusion

whoops my last two book updates weren't posted to the feed but I finished King of Atollia & Conspiracy of kings yesterday and today respectivly. Looking forward to Thick as Theives! I enjoy both Costis and Kamet a lot,

Such a fun book! Well worth a re-read to notice all the litte things (there's so many!) you wouldn't think about the first time round

next up in my re-reading list - The Queen's Theif series (there's soo much in that name) & reading (not re-) the most recent book in the series. Just through chapter one so far but I forgot how much I enjoyed the prose. I get such clear visuals from this series!

re-reading this series for (I think) the third time and falling in love with it all over again. The first book is amazing but were 2/3rds of it was character and relationship focused traveling scenes Rowan is now much more involved and an influence on the events of the story. Don't let that make you think it's any less character-focused! Lots of big dramatic fantasy stuff happens and it's the backdrop for some amazing relationship development, trauma and healing, and character growth.

Read the whole series in one sitting I'd like to say last week but time is constantly uncertain. This is absolutely one of those series I'd like to physically own for my bookshelf one day! Nice queer coming of age story with queer themes & lovely art. I'll actually already rambled a bunch about this series elsewhere and will be organizing that into a full review soon.