Hmmm. It's hard to tell what to make of this one until I read the next one (which I should do after what I'm reading now). I felt that the end of the first novel had painted Breq into something of a corner by putting her back into a role inside the imperial military, and I don't think I was wrong there. At least, I'm not really sure what Breq's over reaching motivation is at this point in the story? She seemed pretty set on bad murder killing the emperor in the first one, and she certainly killed a number of emperors, but there's quite a few left to go, and now she's kind of just chilling? In a very anxious, politically involved way, obviously, but feeling to me to lack the kind of drive she had previously. I guess I found that a bit off putting. It felt like moving Breq's plot backwards?

However, setting that aside, I liked a lot about the story we did get: Breq trying to figure out how to live as a single person rather than a spaceship, and also poking at the edges of how the empire functions, plus getting more history and almost getting some aliens. (A+ aliens. More aliens soon, please.) I loved the continued exploration of Breq's identity, and her struggle to be part of the world in this new context, especially with the mirrored journey of a baby lieutenant who joins her crew. I think Leckie's at her strongest with non-human view points, and alternate ways of interacting with reality. Also the found family feels, where Breq continues not to realise how deeply loyal people are to her.

On the other hand, I found the anti-imperial plot a little preachy. The individual characters were great, but the interactions on the planet felt like a by-the-numbers version of what we got in the first book. I also found Breq a little too always-right in this regard? The book simultaneously took shots at characters with saviour complexes, then had Breq showing up and knowing best. Meh.

Hopefully more aliens and trying to murder emperors in the next book.