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Oct. 12th, 2015 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsIs it time to talk about Ancillary Mercy? Probably yes!
That was really good? THAT WAS REALLY GOOD. I did not see the resolution coming, but as soon as it happened I felt like I should have because it made perfect sense and was really the only thing that could have tied together all the disparate threads -- the Presger, the ghost ship, the question of AIs and AI relationships (SHIP SHIPS) and One Esk Nineteen's own unquestionable personhood. (I was especially impressed by the Presger thing, because I really could not see how she was going to work the Presger in narratively in the space that she had left, but if the Presger weren't going to be important then why Dlique and Zeiat?)
(Though it did kind of reinforce my feeling about the second book, that it's mostly there to set up plot points for the third, and that One Esk Nineteen's conflicts there just don't feel as central to her as a character as everything that she's dealing with in the first and third. Like, Sphene, the ancillary issue, the AI cores, the question of whether AIs can and should be self-determinating and self-driving and whether people can care about them as individuals and whether they can care about each other as individuals -- One Esk has a stake and a voice and a reason to be at the center of these issues, in a way that's just not quite true for most of the stuff that's going on in the second book.)
Also everybody grew as people but got to go on being incredibly flawed in the way that they were always deeply flawed? BUT GREW AS PEOPLE NONETHELESS. Well done, team. Man, I laughed SO HARD at the ships-sorting-out-ship-feelings scene --
MERCY OF KALR: I'm going to use Seivarden as my proxy to express my affection for you!
ONE ESK: ...? first of all, feeling affection for me is unpossible --
MERCY OF KALR AND SEIVARDEN: There is nothing in the world less true than this.
ONE ESK: Second it seems kind of ... unhealthy .... for Seivarden ..... to be the human proxy for the relationship between two AIs ........
MERCY OF KALR: No, no, it's fine, it's fine! Seivarden is cool with it!
SEIVARDEN: I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE COOL WITH ANYTHING IN MY LIFE.
Admittedly Seivarden is not really cool about anything in her life. WHAT A DILLWEED. <3 <3 <3 I mean I could try to talk a good game about the implications of AI intelligence and civic personhood, the fundamental alien-ness of the Presger, etc. etc. but we all know that really I am here for Seivarden failing at life. Also One Esk's total and hilarious feelings-blindness, Tisarwat's fumbling occasionally well-intended ambition -- darling child!! -- and Sphene's awkward bonding with Kalr Five over pottery and all-consuming desire to punch Anaander Mianaai in the face.
That was really good? THAT WAS REALLY GOOD. I did not see the resolution coming, but as soon as it happened I felt like I should have because it made perfect sense and was really the only thing that could have tied together all the disparate threads -- the Presger, the ghost ship, the question of AIs and AI relationships (SHIP SHIPS) and One Esk Nineteen's own unquestionable personhood. (I was especially impressed by the Presger thing, because I really could not see how she was going to work the Presger in narratively in the space that she had left, but if the Presger weren't going to be important then why Dlique and Zeiat?)
(Though it did kind of reinforce my feeling about the second book, that it's mostly there to set up plot points for the third, and that One Esk Nineteen's conflicts there just don't feel as central to her as a character as everything that she's dealing with in the first and third. Like, Sphene, the ancillary issue, the AI cores, the question of whether AIs can and should be self-determinating and self-driving and whether people can care about them as individuals and whether they can care about each other as individuals -- One Esk has a stake and a voice and a reason to be at the center of these issues, in a way that's just not quite true for most of the stuff that's going on in the second book.)
Also everybody grew as people but got to go on being incredibly flawed in the way that they were always deeply flawed? BUT GREW AS PEOPLE NONETHELESS. Well done, team. Man, I laughed SO HARD at the ships-sorting-out-ship-feelings scene --
MERCY OF KALR: I'm going to use Seivarden as my proxy to express my affection for you!
ONE ESK: ...? first of all, feeling affection for me is unpossible --
MERCY OF KALR AND SEIVARDEN: There is nothing in the world less true than this.
ONE ESK: Second it seems kind of ... unhealthy .... for Seivarden ..... to be the human proxy for the relationship between two AIs ........
MERCY OF KALR: No, no, it's fine, it's fine! Seivarden is cool with it!
SEIVARDEN: I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE COOL WITH ANYTHING IN MY LIFE.
Admittedly Seivarden is not really cool about anything in her life. WHAT A DILLWEED. <3 <3 <3 I mean I could try to talk a good game about the implications of AI intelligence and civic personhood, the fundamental alien-ness of the Presger, etc. etc. but we all know that really I am here for Seivarden failing at life. Also One Esk's total and hilarious feelings-blindness, Tisarwat's fumbling occasionally well-intended ambition -- darling child!! -- and Sphene's awkward bonding with Kalr Five over pottery and all-consuming desire to punch Anaander Mianaai in the face.
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Date: 2017-11-09 02:55 am (UTC)