Book Review: Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie (Book One in the Imperial Radch Trilogy)

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Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie, Book, Book Review, Imperial Radch, Reading, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Space Opera

It sure feels like a long time since I last read a space opera, so here I am making my triumphant return to the genre!  This series first caught my attention a few years ago on account of the high praise it had been receiving since it began back in 2013.  The downside to that critical success, at least as far as I am concerned, is that it meant the e-book spent quite a lot of time sitting on my library queue before I was able to get my hands on it.

Note: For the purposes of this post I am going to refer to our protagonist as “she.”  This is problematic for reasons I get into below, but it is the best information I have to go on and it is at least consistent with the pronouns the character would use.

The story is told from the perspective of a character officially designated Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen, though she is more commonly referred to by her alias, Breq.  This rather complicated situation arose on account of Breq beginning her existence as a being called an ancillary, a mostly artificial construct created to serve the military arm of the powerful Radchaii Empire.  As an ancillary, her physical body was part of a collective consciousness headed by the AI of a troop-carrier (the Justice of Toren) that spread itself out across a number of augmented host bodies re-animated from fallen enemy soldiers.  That existence is in the past, however, as certain events have separated the One Esk Nineteen host body from the ship’s AI, leaving her to stand alone as an individual entity.  We are first meet her on an outback planet where she is trying to locate an elusive person she suspects to be in possession of a powerful artifact. As the story unfolds, we gradually learn from a series of flashbacks what happened to separate Breq from her ship and how she intends to confront the political intrigues and betrayals that led to her current circumstances.

It took me a few chapters to really get settled into this world, but once I did I felt very rewarded for sticking with it.  The main point of confusion for me was adjusting to Breq’s habit of referring to everyone around her using feminine pronouns on account of her inability to identify gender.  While this perspective initially made it difficult to picture the characters in my head, I did eventually get used to it and was able to apply this view accordingly.  What I found particularly interesting about this was that Breq’s outlook was shaped primarily by the society in which she lived.  She doesn’t grasp the concept of gender because it is not particularly relevant in Radchaii language, culture, or mannerisms despite the fact that, to her frequent amazement, the people around her remain aware of such differences anyway.  Once I got used to it though, I found this to be a rather fascinating perspective that added a unique dimension to the novel that really gave me something to think about.

Going beyond this, the book offered plenty of other things to keep me engrossed as well.  The story was exciting, fresh, and mixed everything one would want in a space opera – action, intrigue, memorable characters, and exotic sci-fi settings – with some thought-provoking looks at language, gender, and the uses of wealth and power.  As a result, I was left facing a dilemma upon finishing it: Am I really ready to start another series with so many books already on my reading list? My answer is a resounding yes! This book lived up to the hype and with the rest of the trilogy already in print I am hopeful that I can finish it off pretty quickly.

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Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project – East Kent Saison

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Beer, Beer Review, Massachusetts, New England, Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project, Saison

Hi again everybody!  Sorry that I have been fairly quiet this November, but life has been pretty hectic lately and after all the blogging I did back in October I needed to step back for a bit.  Anyway, I wanted to make sure I got this review up since this was a special beer for me. I said a little while ago that I had probably had my final beer from Pretty Things, but then some friends from out of state went and surprised me!

Beer Name: East Kent Saison

Brewery: Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project

Style: Saison

ABV: 5.6%

Description: Bottled back in October 2015, this was brewed with pale malt, English ale yeast, and Whitbread Goldings hops.

Appearance: It poured a cloudy yellow/light copper body that got topped off by a thin white foam.

Smell: Sweet malts with some yeasty notes on the end.

Taste: The sip began with sweet caramel malts.  The sweetness then gave way to some mild yeasty notes and a mild floral bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Just about medium-bodied with a consistent bubbly carbonation.

Hype: High levels of nostalgia, though more for the brewery than this particular beer.

Overall: While I think this might have shown some signs of age in terms of how the tastes all came together, I still found myself really enjoying this.  Considering how well this 5.6% saison was tasting over three years after bottling, I really wish I had more of this one when it was still rolling off the bottling line.

Equilibrium Brewery – Dhop 15

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Beer, Beer Review, Craft Beer, DIPA, Equilibrium Brewery, New York

Not sure why, but I’ve had this review sitting around for a couple of weeks before getting around to posting it.  I think with the cold weather setting in I have my sights set on some bigger beers, but I did want to make sure I got this one in.

Beer Name: Dhop 15

Brewery: Equilibrium Brewery (Middletown, NY)

Style: New England Double IPA

ABV: 8.2%

Description: The 15th entry in the brewery’s series of DIPAs experimenting with hop varieties.  This one focused on Enigma and was canned on October 2.

Appearance: Poured a golden/medium amber body with some white lacing across the top.

Smell: Opened with a burst of juicy tropical fruit and berry sweetness followed by a hazy pine background.

Taste: Sweet tropical fruits, especially mango and pineapple, mixed with melon and berries upfront with a warm piney bitterness on end that slightly warms the throat.

Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body that just a hair short of creamy.  The carbonation level was fairly moderate.

Hype: My usual elevated level upon opening an out-of-market beer from a well-regarded brewery.  The friend that gave it to said, on very good authority, that this was one of their favorites to come out of Equilibrium lately.

Overall: A very, very nice example of the style.  The beer had a nice juicy sweetness upfront combined with a warm bitterness on the end that came right to the edge of being too raw without crossing over.  If I lived near this brewery, I would definitely stay on top of this series.

Book Review: Barrel Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business, by Josh Noel

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AB-Inbev, Beer, Book, Book Review, Chicago, Goose Island Beer Company, History, Josh Noel, Non-Fiction, NonFictionNovember, Reading

Once again my interests in beer and books unite!  Recently published in June 2018, this book was written by Chicago Tribune writer Josh Noel who, over the course of its 400-plus pages, guides the reader on a behind the scenes look at how Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Company became one of the country’s top craft breweries and how its sale to the Brazilian/Belgian conglomerate AB-Inbev, the parent company of Anheuser-Busch, Grupo Modelo, and many, many other breweries across the world, in 2011 shook the American beer industry.  For any readers that may not know, this was huge news in the beer world at the time as Goose Island was one of the first major American craft breweries to be acquired by Inbev, and many consumers and craft brewers alike loudly accused Goose Island and its founders of selling out to the bad guys in Big Beer.

I found this to be a really interesting and informative read as Noel presented a thoughtful and engaging narrative about Goose Island and the people behind it.  I’ve had my share of their brews over the years, highlighted by a visit to the Wrigleyville brewpub before going to a Yankees-Cubs game several years back, and appreciated getting some additional background about the company’s beers and history.  In the earlier chapters that focused on the brewery’s origin story, what I most enjoyed reading about were the difficulties the owners faced introducing their brand of beer to consumers who, in the mid-80s, were for the most part conditioned to think that the yellow, mild lagers pushed by Budweiser and Miller were the be all and end all of beer.  It is amazing to think about how far the American beer scene has come in that time and it was fascinated to read about the changes Goose Island helped usher in.

As for the second part of the book, in which Noel examined the cultural and economic impact of the brewery’s sale on the American brewing industry, I particularly enjoyed how he framed the concerns about this, and subsequent acquisitions by Inbev, in the context of production and distribution.  I felt made for a very tangible and compelling argument against Big Beer. These are probably the aspects of the industry most consumers think about the least, but they are so vital to understanding what is at stake here. The threat to the craft beer industry, and by extension its consumers, from AB-Inbev is that it can use its vastly superior finances and (often borderline illegal) clout with distributors to muscle in and push smaller breweries off of shelves and taplists.  This, in conjunction with purposefully obfuscating ownership of their umbrella brands, puts them in a position to deceive consumers into thinking they have a choice of brands when in reality they might not. To cite an example from the text:

Few people would recognize a draft list of Goose Island, Elysian, 10 Barrel, Widmer, Stella, and Bud and Bud Light as the absence of choice.  Yet, quietly, that’s what is was.

And that’s only a small sampling of the possibilities, especially as AB continues to acquire new brands.  This strategy, combined with a disingenuous campaign urging consumers to focus solely on the beer in the glass as opposed to who puts it there shows the lengths Inbev will go in order to cash in on America’s love of craft beer.  While there is certainly some merit to this argument, its real aim is to distract consumers from the fact that AB is spending a whole lot of money in an attempt to be the only company putting beer in your glass.

Again, I really enjoyed this book and learned quite a bit of new information about the beer business.  It also gave me with a few things to think about next time I am out and looking for a drink, especially with the annual release of Goose Island’s popular (and undeniably delicious) Bourbon County Brand Stout lineup coming up on Black Friday.  People are, of course, free to drink what they like, though I think I personally may take a break from that beer for little while knowing what the money goes to. I know it’s ultimately not the most serious of issues facing the country at the moment, but it is one that I do have interest in.

Lawson’s Finest Liquids – Knockout Blonde

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Beer, Beer Review, Craft Beer, Lawson's Finest Liquids, New England, Vermont

It’s been a little while, but I am settling in with another gift beer.  The friends we met up with the weekend before Halloween had also made a trip up to Vermont recently and this is one of the goodies they left me with.

Beer Name: Knockout Blonde

Brewery: Lawson’s Finest Liquids (Waitsfield, VT)

Style: Blonde Ale

ABV: 5.0%

Description: Listed as blonde ale packing an extra punch of Cascade and Centennial hops.

Appearance: It poured a see-through, slightly cloudy golden/light amber body topped by a thin white head.

Smell: Sweet light malts with resinous hop oil bursting through on the end.

Taste: Sweetness upfront as mellow citrus flavors combine with a light malt backbone.  The ending, however, was intensely bitter with resinous, oily hops dominating the brew.

Mouthfeel: Roughly medium-bodied with moderate-plus carbonation.

Hype: Elevated.  Lawson’s is one of the breweries that helped put Vermont beer on the map and built up the state’s beer-hype in the first place.  Although two of the brewery’s core beers now see pretty regular distribution in my area, the rest of their offerings just don’t come down this way.

Overall: Very aptly named, this is easily the most intense blonde ale I’ve ever had.  In all honesty, I would have to say I found the closing bitterness a bit too and would have preferred something either slightly more balanced or at least less aggressively hoppy.

Banded Brewing Company & Orono Brewing – Hangry

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Banded Brewing Company, Beer, Beer Review, Candy, Craft Beer, Halloween, Maine, New England, Orono Brewing Company

Happy November!  I’m back after taking a bit of break following all those posts I made in the build up to Halloween.  My original plan for this next beer was to drink it on or around the holiday, but, as crazy as this sounds, I ended up running out of time.  Hopefully no one’s too sick of candy yet to think about this one!

Beer Name: Hangry

Brewery: Banded Brewing Company (Biddeford, ME) & Orono Brewing (Orono, ME)

Style: Porter

ABV: 7.8%

Description: Playing on both the taste and recent ad campaign of a rather well-known candy bar, this porter was brewed up in Maine with nougat and peanut butter.

Appearance: Poured a black body with a thin, creamy light tan head.

Smell: Notes of chocolate, nougat, peanut butter, and I want to say vanilla.

Taste: A very close approximation of the smell.  The beer opened with notes of chocolate that were soon followed by a mix of nougat and peanuts, with perhaps some grains thrown in as well.  Chocolate came back for the finish, but was slightly more bittersweet than

Mouthfeel: Smooth, medium-plus body with low-level carbonation.

Hype: Not really any external hype on this one, but I was pretty sure it would either be amazing or a big miss with little room in between.

Overall: I of course sampled a Snickers bar while drinking this beer so I could make a comparison between the two.  Overall I would say that while the beer was not quite as sweet as the candy since it replaced the latter’s caramel sweetness with a more roasty/bitter chocolate taste, the brewers were actually close to the mark with this.  It was a pretty good novelty brew and while I don’t think this was something I would reach for on a regular basis, it did make for a very enjoyable post-Halloween treat.