Wow, okay, so this is even more of slow burn than Ancillary Justice, and that book was a slow damn burn. I saw a previous reviewer call this "Downton Abbey in space" ... while I wouldn't go that far, there really is a lot of tea drinking and harping on points of etiquette, to the point where I was wondering if there was a point and if we were ever going to get there. But just as in Ancillary Justice, there was a lot going on below the surface, and once it all comes boiling to a head, the slow burn of the previous pages is worth it. 
 This book is a little less complex, since the female-but-not-actually-gendered pronouns are established in book one and there isn't as much jumping through various timelines, so maybe that's why it felt slower. But if anything, the more streamlined nature of this book gives Breq a chance to really shine as a character, and I'm more in love with her than ever. There's such pain under her detached coldness, the pain of losing 99.9% of yourself and knowing you'll never get it back ... and yet she's more human than most of the Radchaai we meet. A wonderful character. I will definitely be reading book three of the trilogy at some point in the near future! 
 2016 reading challenge: a trilogy (2/3)