It's rare that the second book of a trilogy is better than the first but this is one of those rare occasions. And maybe it's because it took me a fair bit of the first book to figure out what was going on exactly, but in this sequel it seemed there was more action, more interesting characters, and plenty of plot twists, or at least unexpected surprised.

Following the events in book 1, Breq - formerly the ancillary of the destroyed Justice of Toren - is now captain of her own ship, Mercy of Kalr, and despatched to Athoek Station to ensure it's safe and protected from the imminent civil war with Anaander Mianaai, supreme ruler of the Radch empire. Breq agrees to go, because the sister of her beloved and now 20 years deceased Lt. Awn is a horticulturalist on the station there. They arrive to find the ship Sword of Atagaris under Captain Hetnys acting strangely, and severe class inequalities, corruption, and exploitation being covered up or ignored by those in power.

As Breq digs deeper into the problems both on the station and off, more and more problems come to light and when a diplomat is accidentally killed due to a spoiled child of an influential house, Breq has the opportunity to go into a 2 week mourning isolation on one of the wealthiest family's tea plantation along with several of the problematic people she's having to deal with.

There are so many interesting layers in this book and this world that Leckie has created, I could probably reread this several times and keep getting more out of it. As mentioned in the first book, the Radch make no linguistic distinction between genders so everybody is just arbitrary "she" whether male or female. While not a particularly relevant plot point, just the absence of that distinction and the fact you'll find yourself trying to figure it out make it impossible not to face how very gendered our own language is and how meaningless that actually is.

Breq's loneliness as she is now part, but not part, of a ship like what she once used to be is poignant; and her empathy for the officers and crew who now serve on that ship comes from the fact she once had a crew herself and the ability to read their emotions and understand them completely. This also leads her to strongly identify with the Station (also an AI entity) and with the various oppressed minorities of the station and the tea plantation as well. Her perspective on this also leads to a lot of layers in the book highlighting class privilege, discrimination, and elitism, all through the perspective of an AI and a fictional alien society, but still very recognizable.

And of course, at the bottom of it all is the strategic political game being played by Anaander Miaanai, which is mostly in the background in this middle book of the trilogy but still ever-present as Breq tries to figure out what influences are acting where and on whom, in all the webs of conflict and local politics. Excellent series so far!