Ring of Swords

I've been doing a thing with books lately; when I find an author that sounds interesting or I read short stories by, or however I hear about new authors (how do you hear about new authors?), I go to Goodreads and look up their most highly rated books. (And I should probably talk sometime about how really ambivalent I am about rating books, but I do it anyway). Then I order that book or put it on my wish list or request it from the library. I usually don't even read too much of the review, to find out what it's about – I don't mind spoilers on TV shows, but I don't like them on books. (Who would have read the first A Game of Thrones book, if they had known what was going to happen?) And so that's what I did with A Ring of Swords. And seriously, if I had just read the description space ships, alien encounters, possible interplanetary war, I would have thought, this so not my thing.

Friends of the Internet, this book was not really about those things AT ALL.

Things this book was about: types of intelligences, matriarchal societies, the problem of male aggression, birth control in various cultures, alternate sexuality, asexuality, the significance of material culture, how on earth would a human even have sex with (no, sorry, that sounds more like a tumblr tag).

Books this book was sort of like: The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell; The Gate to Women's Country, by Sheri S. Tepper

Books this book was really like: Not anything else I have ever read.

Who would enjoy this book: People who like thinky books, even if they are not good at articulating why they like them so much. That would be people like me. Also, people who are good at articulating stuff like that would like it too.

When Ann will learn to write a useful book review? Probably never.