This is the third - and final? - installment of this utterly fascinating space-opera trilogy. When I read [b: Ancillary Justice|17333324|Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)|Ann Leckie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397215917s/17333324.jpg|24064628] I was still new to the world and the characters, and the pronouns tended to confuse me. By the second and this third book I had no more of those troubles and could concentrate on the beautiful story, fascinating technology and the characters.

Despite what some people may say, the use of only female pronouns - at least while people talk in the language of the Radch - does not dominate this series. It's just one of the myriad choices Leckie made when creating the Radch culture around which this plot revolves. Much more fascinating to me is the concept of the ancillaries and how Anander Minaai is fighting with herself. The way AIs can see into people is scary, and how Breq uses this for quite some time in conjunction with both Ship and Station. In Mercy "Station" really comes into its own as a character.

If you enjoyed the first two, you are going to like this one. It's a quick read, and a beautiful return to the Radch. But why no 4 stars ... a minor spoiler: The ending is kind of sudden. One moment the fight goes on, then everything resolves into shiny happiness, at least for the local system, and they live happily ever after. But of course the war is not over ... it tastes wrong as if the author wanted it to be done and over with. But up to those last pages it's a very enjoyable story.