While Then Play On is first and foremost a music blog, I’ve spilled plenty of ink on my thoughts on various movies and television shows. In the same spirit, I’ll occasionally write about a book or book series that particularly stands out to me, and tell a little about what makes it so worth checking out.

As I’ve made clear before, I’m a big fan of science-fiction. Not only do the often futuristic and astral settings make for some cool stories, but the genre is particularly adept at investigating nuanced and far-ranging ideas in novel ways. At the same time, so much of popular SF falls into the same cliches that have been explored for decades by more inventive writers. When someone comes along with something truly creative, you can’t help but take notice.

Such is the case with Anne Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy. The series has been completed for six years now, but I read through it over the period of the past couple years, with a few other books in between each title. The trilogy is imaginative, challenging, and fun; it examines thought-provoking themes while still telling a gripping space opera.