The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Section 4

Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of Chapter 14 - Chapter 17.

No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling this for your good read friends.

Please do not discuss events from later chapters/books. Referring back to events from a previous section/book is fine.

Hmm. Guess I forgot to comment yesterday.

I find the book very interesting/enjoyable so far, but it all seems so insignificant. We see how awful Fosyf and Raughd are. Fosyf may pretend to be better, but Raughd is a clone.

Both mistreat their workers. They are essentially slaves. But it all seems "small". This highlights issues of the empire, but what does it have to do with the fued of the emperor?

Or even the smuggling? What's behind the ghost gate? What's going on in this sector?

All of those things are largely ignored to deal with petty crap of insignificant self entitled people oppressing other citizens who are angry and bitter.

The explosion seems to have ramped things up, but again, it seems small.

And no matter what Breq does, she can't win.

Rob wrote: "And no matter what Breq does, she can't win. "

I think you have it precisely backwards. No matter what Breq does she can't lose.

She's got more legitimate power than any other entity in the system. She can directly order both ships in orbit and her authority comes directly from Anaander Mianaai. On top of all that her enhancements give her greater intelligence (as in surveillance) as well as strength and reflexes.

At what point is she actually at risk in this book?

I agree it's all too small. I can't help but think of:

"Turmoil has engulfed the
Galactic Republic. The taxation
of trade routes to outlying star
systems is in dispute."

What I mean is, she's getting shit from everyone no matter what she does. You're right in that they have to go along with her anyways, but it was more a comment about all the grief she gets for things she had nothing to do with.

You are right - it does seem small in the scheme of things. If I remember the last book correctly (and it has been a little while) the theme may was similar (and one of the reasons I liked the book). Breq had a mission that she knew would change nothing, but felt that as one person she still had to do what she could anyway.

Lindsay I like that summary - ha.

I feel the same, I keep finding myself wishing that the scope of this book was a little more epic. After about chapter 13, I was ready to say that I was getting bored with all the petty stuff going on on the station/planet; nothing really seems to be happening. Also, while I appreciate a book with a social/moral/ethical theme or message, I don't like being bludgeoned over the head with it, which this book felt like it was doing for a while. Then the bomb went off, finally moving the plot forward a little, and I thought the handling of the whole class warfare thing started getting a little better too. Hoping things continue to ramp up and improve in the final act.

I think we finally found out Raughd's gender in these chapters too, because the people (Valskayan, are they called?) that Breq was talking to do recognize gender and Breq referred to Raughd as "she" in her conversations with them.