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Ancillary Justice

(Imperial Radch #1)

Ann Leckie (Goodreads Author)

3.97 · Rating details · 85,318 ratings · 8,685 reviews

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswe ...more

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Paperback, 416 pages

Published October 1st 2013 by Orbit

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Nov 16, 2014 Patrick rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-would-blurb

This book caught my eye mostly because it's been winning just about every award ever this year.

So I picked it up when I was on tour. And as soon as I started it, I could see why it was getting such attention. It's exceptionally well-written. I was almost immediately pulled in.

I should mention here, it's Science Fiction. I don't review much sci-fi these days because I mostly read fantasy. For the most part, what's where my taste lies these days.

But that wasn't always the case. When I was young ...more

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Sep 27, 2013 Mpauli rated it it was ok

Shelves: genre_space-opera, orga_read-in-2014, genre_sf

Most of my friends are married now and have 1 or 2 kids. I like kids, but once in a while you meet one of those kids that everyone adores and that is very clever and friendly, but for some reason I simply don't get along with that particular kid. Unfortunately, for me "Ancillary Justice" is that kid.

In "Ancillary Justice" we're following 2 plot lines for most of the novel. In the present storyline we follow Breq, the last physical manifestation of the ship "Justice of Toren's" complex AI. In the ...more

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Jan 23, 2017 Rick Riordan rated it it was amazing

Ann Leckie's series drops us right into a universe both familiar and terrifyingly different. It may take you a while to understand what is going on, because many of your assumptions about point-of-view will be stripped away. This is because the main character Breq is an ancillary -- a human body that has been 'slaved' to the artificial intelligence of a giant spaceship, in this case Justice of Torren. In the empire called the Radch, each spaceship is sentient, crewed by legions of ancillaries wh Ann Leckie's series drops us right into a universe both familiar and terrifyingly different. It may take you a while to understand what is going on, because many of your assumptions about point-of-view will be stripped away. This is because the main character Breq is an ancillary -- a human body that has been 'slaved' to the artificial intelligence of a giant spaceship, in this case Justice of Torren. In the empire called the Radch, each spaceship is sentient, crewed by legions of ancillaries who are all connected to the same central mind. Because of this, Breq can be in a thousand places at once, watching events unfold all across the surface of a planet, wherever her soldiers are stationed, or on the ship orbiting above.

Where do ancillaries come from? The Radch is a military empire. It exists by annexing other star systems and enslaving huge swaths of the native population, putting them in cryogenic storage until those bodies are needed -- their old minds wiped away and reprogrammed as part of a ship's AI. If that sounds horrifying, it is, but Breq knows no other life -- until a terrible event separates her from her mothership, which is destroyed in hyperspace, leaving Breq alone, the last remnant of Justice of Torren. An ancillary is not considered to be human, but now Breq must find her way through space, hiding and pretending, until she can find a way to discover the truth about how her ship was destroyed, and take revenge on the person she blames -- who happens to be the leader of the empire.

There are three books in the Radch series, and I read them all one after the other. Once you are sucked into this world, you don't want to leave. Another really cool thing about the world which Leckie creates -- the Radch do not pay attention to gender. Gender exists, but their language does not even include words for 'he' or 'she.' Because of this, all characters are labeled 'she' and you can't really be sure, nor does it really matter, what gender they are. Breq struggles whenever she is in another non-Radch culture, since she has to look for subtle clues and remember not to insult males by calling them female and vice versa. I just loved this. I found the second two books a bit more slow-moving than the first, but that was okay. By that time, the story was a drama I cared about, and the Radch are all about taking time, observing propriety, and having tea. You have to accept them on their own terms at their own pace. If you are looking for a brave and terrifying new world to immerse yourself in, definitely give this series a go. ...more

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Oct 24, 2013 David Sven rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, favourites

Unexpected. When I started this book I thought I was looking at a 3 to 4 star book. Even by halfway I was still thinking 4 stars at the most. But really, it was always going to be a five star book and it took me to the 80% mark to grudgingly acknowledge this deserves a five star. I say grudgingly because this book is not my usual cup of tea.

Call me shallow and infantile but generally speaking, I like my space operas to have lots of space battles, lots of fighting/battle scenes with a plethora o Unexpected. When I started this book I thought I was looking at a 3 to 4 star book. Even by halfway I was still thinking 4 stars at the most. But really, it was always going to be a five star book and it took me to the 80% mark to grudgingly acknowledge this deserves a five star. I say grudgingly because this book is not my usual cup of tea.

Call me shallow and infantile but generally speaking, I like my space operas to have lots of space battles, lots of fighting/battle scenes with a plethora of pew pew and viscera with smoldering slag in the aftermath. I like my protagonists to have a sense of self assured cool about them. Instead of cool I got ethereal (and still a bit of cool) – Instead of the hero that shoots from the hip while watching a multitude of alien heads go pop pop pop – this protagonist sings.

WHA...!? How does singing-dancing-Broadway wannabe beat scary-but-cool tough guy with big gun that makes pew pew noises? Well, for a start there’s no dancing – but more importantly our protagonist is a spaceship AI. Furthermore, not only does our protagonist inhabit a warship, but it also inhabits thousands of “corpse soldiers” or “ancillaries” –human bodies that are reanimated and incorporated into the single consciousness of the ship. THATS FREAKING INSANE!!! And when this machine intelligence, thousands of years old sings through her multiple human voices, everybody listens. That’s the ethereal part – and it’s pretty cool as well. That’s not to say there is no violence – but Leckie uses it sparingly – and though it may not be as gratuitous and visceral as I generally like, it really didn’t need to be. When Ann Leckie does violence she times it for maximum punch and impact.

Leckie also does a good job of communicating what a multi-bodied intelligence would feel like from a first person perspective. The story is told from the POV of the ship “Justice of Toren” mostly from the perspective of her human bodies. So you have a first person POV that is not limited to a single perspective and often does the job of an omniscient perspective and in a single coherent passage we can get multiple conversations and activity through bodies that are separated by distance – all alongside the perspective of an intelligent warship operating and monitoring from orbit. We also get those instances where one body will be doing something from the first person POV while a separate body is watching from a distance also still within the same first person POV.

The other mind bending concept in this book is that the Radchaai (the culture our ship AI belongs to) don’t emphasize gender, and they use gender neutral pronouns. Leckie opted to use “She” as the English proxy for the Radchaai gender neutral pronoun so as a consequence, the protagonist’s narrative voice always uses “she” regardless of whether referring to male or female. Also, the ship AI has trouble identifying gender and is constantly misgendering characters who are non Radchaai and often uses the wrong pronoun (still usually “she”) until corrected. This left me with a few Oh moments when discovering characters I thought were female were actually male. There are still some characters in the book that I’m not sure about – not that it matters. But I found that fun rather than confusing.

I also like how Leckie gradually opens up what turns out to be a complex universe with complex cultures and concepts without info dump or spoon feeding. This means there is a little disorientation at the beginning, but the process of discovery as the book progresses makes it all worthwhile and very cool. Plenty of “Aha” moments.

Mind spinning concepts aside, this is very much a space opera set in a universe which features galaxy spanning Empires in a Universe where Earth is long lost to memory. The story was interesting, the pacing perfect and the concepts were well executed with plenty of meat for contemplating the nature of consciousness, freewill and what it means to be human.

This is the first book in what is to be a series. It can be read standalone but it has definitely wet my appetite for the next installment. All of my various segments with one mind and voice rate this....

5 stars
...more

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Jan 10, 2014 Doctordalek rated it did not like it

Shelves: librarything-first-reads

This really seems to be a case of a bandwagon gone insane. I was looking forward to this book after seeing very high recommendations from a lot of high-profile people: Veronica Belmont, John Scalzi (I think?), Felicia Day, NPR books, I know I am forgetting more... and nearly every review here is five stars. How could I not love this one? Well, recently, I have discovered that I am really not fitting in with the mainstream. I have had terrible luck lately with ridiculously popular books and Ancil This really seems to be a case of a bandwagon gone insane. I was looking forward to this book after seeing very high recommendations from a lot of high-profile people: Veronica Belmont, John Scalzi (I think?), Felicia Day, NPR books, I know I am forgetting more... and nearly every review here is five stars. How could I not love this one? Well, recently, I have discovered that I am really not fitting in with the mainstream. I have had terrible luck lately with ridiculously popular books and Ancillary Justice is no exception.

I was excited to see Ann's treatment of gender due to the now famous use of "she" as the default pronoun in the book. Unfortunately, it doesn't work at all. What could have been a very interesting take on gender became a gimmick that just didn't fit. "She" in this case comes across as a mistranslation. It is a word that, in English, is very closely associated with the feminine. There are a few exceptions, like boats, guns, or cars, where people will refer to the genderless object as a she. If translating from a language or culture that doesn't recognize a difference between masculine and feminine, one would definitely not choose "she". Sure, it doesn't make for such clever marketing. However, before I get drowned out by cries of "misogynist!", one would not use "he", either. We already have a word for the neutral gender: "it". If that seems too impersonal, one could refer to "the person" throughout the book. It doesn't flow very well and definitely doesn't hold any gimmick value, so it is a lame choice, but it would still make more sense.

Now, aside from the gender issue, the book was a muddled mess. Ann apparently had terrible difficulty with descriptions, using "angry" or "anger" just about a hundred times by my count. She used the word "gesture" a hundred times, as well. There were gestures for everything: polite gestures, gestures of "ambiguity" - whatever they would be, apologetic gestures, negating gestures, more gestures of ambiguity, "abortive" gestures, gestures showing a lack of concern or helplessness. It really came across as what it was: an author's first time at bat.

The story seems to have been thrown together by the writer making angry gestures while holding a pen. Characters would be walking along, talking - and then falling, suddenly. Ok, so you needed to get the story going, but just a sudden fall down hundreds of meters? Maybe my copy was missing a few pages? The story focused on local, regional and galactic/universal politics. If that is your bag, give it a shot. In my mind, though, it read like Tom Cruise's movie Mission Impossible: convoluted story lines going everywhere but nowhere at the same time, characters that were undeveloped to the point where I was indifferent to their fates and actions, and a stupid plan that was the foundation of the whole plot.

Stupid plan? That isn't nice! Honestly, the whole idea of the book is that a guy has a terrible plan. Somebody wants to steal a gun and kill thousands of bad guys, yet she (see what I did there? Gimmick!) knows she may only successfully kill a small handful? To make it worse, there are mind-reading ships that can tell if you are stressed or sweating, which just may be significant if your goal is the assassination of one thousand clones of the galactic empire's supreme leader! Conveniently, though, these clones all seem to hang around common ships and hang onto the outside of escaping ships, trying to shoot their way in. Lazy. Wow. This is the last Ann Leckie book I am going to waste my time on. Sorry, Ann, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but I am sure that my review certainly won't sink your next book or movie deal.

I have written low star reviews of popular books before and have received angry messages from fanboys intending to intimidate me into giving more stars (really!), so I feel it necessary to provide this explanation of what a book review site is: it is a collection of different opinions. If you don't like somebody's opinion of your favorite book, sending messages to that person to give a better review completely reduces the value of the review site as a whole. If every offended person here got everybody else to give a book give stars, every book would have five stars. How does that help you find your next book to read? Instead, there are a billion five star reviews for Ancillary Justice and a few low ones. If you agree with the tastes of the low star reviewers, maybe the book isn't for you. If you want to play the numbers game, read the book, you will probably love it. ...more

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Jan 27, 2014 Felicia rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

I'm almost wanting to give this five stars, because I LOVED it, but the first section of the book is very confusing ( in some ways by choice) and I think that could put some people off so there you go. 4 1/2 stars, ha!

This is a great sci-fi adventure following a character who is not man nor woman, and don't even try to figure it out, that's the confusing part. But the character is fomerly HUNDREDS of people, and a spaceship. All at once. Yeah, ok once you can wrap that around your head, it's SO ...more

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Mar 21, 2015 J.L. Sutton rated it it was amazing

“If you’re going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance you should make it a good one.”

Lots of fun! Before reading Ancillary Sword (the 2nd book in the Imperial Radch Series), I decided to re-read Ancillary Justice, a thoroughly compelling space opera and debut novel from Ann Leckie. I enjoyed Leckie’s depiction of One Esk whose story is told over three different time periods spanning a thousand years. There are also different versions of One Esk, who is both the consciousness/sentience ...more

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Oct 11, 2013 Zen Cho rated it really liked it

Shelves: sff

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Things I liked about ANCILLARY JUSTICE: a list

- Everyone is she (not everyone is actually she)

- The protagonist is a SPACESHIP

- There is a scene where a space station is mad at the protagonist and the space station throws a tantrum and a spaceship who likes the protagonist is like, “omg space station is such a jerk” and it is super cute omg

- A spaceship with FEELINGS

- People are hostile and angry at each other but then they become friends and then they are super LOYAL AND DEVOTED

- The spaceships ...more

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Dec 03, 2014 Lyn rated it liked it

Standing on the shoulders of giants, author Anne Leckie has produced a mature, post-modern sci-fi gem.

Coming out of the gates with her debut novel, but with a lifetime of science fiction knowledge building and percolating up to the top, Leckie hit a home run and, more accurately, won the science fiction triple crown by grabbing the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Arthur C. Clarke, as well as a host of other awards and nominations.

So what’s all the fuss about?

Linking influences from Ursula Le Guin, Fra ...more

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Oct 19, 2013 stormin rated it liked it

NOTE: I feel bad changing my rating and my review after so many people have liked this review, but one of the commenters below convinced me that the central arguments I made in my original 2-star review were invalid. And, at risk of breaking the entire Internet, I decided to listen to a reasonable argument and evidence and consider changing my mind. In addition, I decided to reread (listen to, actually) the book in preparation for reading the sequel Ancillary Sword as my due diligence as a 2015 ...more

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May 02, 2014 Will M. rated it it was ok

Shelves: books-i-own, 2015, sci-fi, space, war

I hope no one kills me because I know most of the people who read this really enjoyed it in the end. This is another one of my unpopular opinions, so bear with me as I try to explain what went wrong, for me.

Every time I pick up a sci-fi novel, I always read the synopsis. I like my sci-fi brutal and heavy on battles and politics. It's the mixture of both that made me really like the genre to begin with. The premise of this novel didn't seem like it was going to offer no action at all till the end I hope no one kills me because I know most of the people who read this really enjoyed it in the end. This is another one of my unpopular opinions, so bear with me as I try to explain what went wrong, for me.

Every time I pick up a sci-fi novel, I always read the synopsis. I like my sci-fi brutal and heavy on battles and politics. It's the mixture of both that made me really like the genre to begin with. The premise of this novel didn't seem like it was going to offer no action at all till the end. Ancillary Justice was all talk, and unfortunately the talk wasn't even interesting.

The idea of artificial intelligence will always be interesting for me. That reason alone made me want to read this novel already, so it's safe to say that I'm quite disappointed in that aspect of the novel. I didn't get what I wanted because Leckie didn't really tackle much on A.I the way that I wanted her to. I wanted to see how A.I. could really mess up humanity, and while it did mess up humanity in the novel, it wasn't adequate. I was underwhelmed with the overall plot.

Speaking of the plot, did it really develop? For me, it didn't. To begin with, the alternating timelines were tremendously confusing because what was happening didn't interest me. How would I continue reading enthusiastically if the plot wasn't even engaging. My attention span was of a five year old while reading this. I wanted to do other things, anything to be honest, just not read this novel. The only reason why I finished this was because I wanted to get it over with. I didn't want to put this on my did-not-finish shelf because I know that eventually I'd be giving it another go anyway.

The characters were also terrible. They were dull and underdeveloped. No one really made an impact, or even appeared as interesting. I didn't care about those who died, and I wouldn't have cared if the main character and her companion died. What could be worse than a boring plot? Terrible lifeless characters.

After all the hatred mentioned I still gave this a 2 star rating. I honestly don't think it deserves a one star, and my current mood might have influenced my experience with this one. You see, it was boring, but not bad. There's a difference for me. Most of my 1 star novels received such a rating because the ending was disgusting, or the plot was useless. This one was boring, but I see why people loved it. They loved the plot, and the issues tackled by Leckie. I personally didn't, and honestly that's why I didn't enjoy this.

2.5/5 stars. Will I be reading the sequel? Yes, because the ending of this first novel was good. Not a genuine cliffhanger, but engaging enough to make me want to read the next one in the future. ...more

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Feb 25, 2014 Chris rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: Pretentious sci-fi fans

Shelves: 2014-sffbc-challenge, scifi-fan-group, fof-reads, made-my-eyes-bleed, abandoned

Chucked at 10%. I should have known better. How many times have I seen all those awards listed in a blurb and been suckered into trying a book?

I'm just not doing it. Maybe it gets better, but no. I'm not getting trapped into losing a couple of months of my life because I'm determined to finish a China Miéville/Gene Wolfe-type experience. Maybe I'm not smart enough to grasp this genre.

Or more likely, I just don't give a damn. ...more

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Jul 31, 2016 Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller rated it liked it

I’ve been systematically devouring as many of these sci-fi series as I can get my hands on (fueled by James S.A. Corey, Ann Aguirre, Martha Wells, and Rachel Bach, to name a few), and I’d been saving Ancillary Justice for a rainy day. I was certain I was going to love it… but unfortunately it fell a little short of my expectations.

For the first third of the book I thought I was having an issue with my ability to concentrate. I found the writing really dense and it was often difficult to figure o I’ve been systematically devouring as many of these sci-fi series as I can get my hands on (fueled by James S.A. Corey, Ann Aguirre, Martha Wells, and Rachel Bach, to name a few), and I’d been saving Ancillary Justice for a rainy day. I was certain I was going to love it… but unfortunately it fell a little short of my expectations.

For the first third of the book I thought I was having an issue with my ability to concentrate. I found the writing really dense and it was often difficult to figure out what was happening. Sometimes rereading passages would help, but more often than not I felt like I was missing something. It distanced me from the story and made me feel disconnected from the characters. Around the 30% mark, it finally started to draw me in with a few action scenes and got better from there. By the time I finished, I was glad I’d read it, but holy cow that was a rocky start. My conservative rating is a reflection of that and the fact that the book lacked some depth.

The potential for political intrigue was one of my biggest motivators to keep reading. The dynamics were so interesting early on that I really thought it was going to expand into something profound. All the ingredients were there, they just didn’t get manipulated enough for any sort of payoff. It lacked a nefarious edge to really get me down and gritty with the story, so I came away feeling like I’d just read a whole lot of fluff (with potential).

I did have some positive takeaways: The book started with a great concept and maintained a strong voice throughout. It also boasts one of the more fascinating POVs I’ve come across (non-human, which was a delightful surprise). Those items alone saved it to a “I liked it” rating.

I’m kind of an outlier when compared to the mass majority of stellar ratings, but I do have a Goodreads friend who had similar issues with this book, but explained them a lot better [see his review]. He talked about his theory for it’s success based on people being fascinated by the various stylistic elements and I’m not ashamed to admit I’m one of those people – I really love when an author can show me something I’ve never seen before. But the rest of his points were spot-on with my impressions of this book (nice review!).

Recommendations: I’m not as wide read with sci-fi as I’d like to be (yet), but I’ve definitely read several I liked better than Ancillary Justice. Despite that, it’s still recommendable for its interesting concept, characters, and overall story. It’s not the first book I’d hand you in the genre, but it would certainly come up in conversation. Keep this one in mind after you’ve read my other sci-fi recs first. ;)

Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.NikiHawkes.com

Other books you might like:

Perdition (Dred Chronicles, #1) by Ann Aguirre

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1) by James S.A. Corey

Fortune's Pawn (Paradox #1) by Rachel Bach

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) by Martha Wells

Beholder's Eye (Web Shifters, #1) by Julie E. Czerneda

...more

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Oct 14, 2013 Kyle Aisteach rated it it was amazing

OK, Ann Leckie owes my students an apology.

I picked this book up at Barnes & Noble because I know Ann and wanted to help make sure she moved copies of the book early in its release, knowing full well that I don't have time to do any pleasure reading until the semester is over. Well, I made the mistake of flipping it open, and now I'm four days behind in my grading. And it's all this book's fault.

Ann Leckie has a real gift for clarity which I admire greatly. This book should have been a muddled OK, Ann Leckie owes my students an apology.

I picked this book up at Barnes & Noble because I know Ann and wanted to help make sure she moved copies of the book early in its release, knowing full well that I don't have time to do any pleasure reading until the semester is over. Well, I made the mistake of flipping it open, and now I'm four days behind in my grading. And it's all this book's fault.

Ann Leckie has a real gift for clarity which I admire greatly. This book should have been a muddled mess -- two braiding timelines plus flashbacks, a POV character who is capable of being a thousand places at once in one timeline and a solitary individual confused by the concept of gender in the other, and a story which hinges on nuances of several nonexistent languages -- and yet it's clear and engaging from the first page. The story hovers somewhere between space opera, military science fiction, and feminist literature and really warps perception in fun and interesting ways.

This is the story of a woman who was once one of a thousand "ancillaries" -- mindless human bodies linked to and controlled by a ship's artificial intelligence -- but has been cut off from her ship and is now its only remaining consciousness left in the real world. Set thousands of years in the future and spanning generations, the main character finds herself caring for a man (though she can't see him as a man as everyone to her is female) who is addicted to drugs while trying to arrange revenge on the person who caused her separation.

Now, I have to put in the obligatory "who won't like this book" section. Despite the space-opera setting, if you're fond of epic space battles and two-dimensional characters, this book isn't for you. Also, be warned that the inciting incident is a coincidence of mind-blowing proportion (personally, I'm willing to roll with that in an inciting incident, but this one would make Charles Dickens blush). Because the main character has a hard time perceiving gender and the descriptions of characters don't conform to our gender stereotypes, the effect is deliberately confusing and may be off-putting to some readers. But, really, it's a good story with characters I care about, and is a rare example of a book that has me excited about it.

Strongly recommended. ...more

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Feb 10, 2014 Gavin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

This was the best sci-fi book I've read in a long time. It was one of those rare books that got the blend of ideas and story perfect. It made you think but also engaged and entertained.

The premise of the story was a good one. On a remote icy planet a lone individual is closing in on the tools that will finally give them a shot at the vengeance they have longed for for nearly two decades. Any stranger would assume the women going by the name of Breq was ex-military. They would be right. What the ...more

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Nov 14, 2013 Lee rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

Never have I gone into a book with so much expectation to be utterly disappointed. I think that if I hadn't seen all the rave reviews and up talk about the story and I went in unencumbered with expectation, it might have, maybe got a 3 star. For being a bit different.

The concept and idea is sound, it ~~has~~ had potential. Ship and her ancillaries soldiers, the political games and omnipotent tyrant. But it all fell very flat for me. I understand that part of the issue I have in the complete lack of Never have I gone into a book with so much expectation to be utterly disappointed. I think that if I hadn't seen all the rave reviews and up talk about the story and I went in unencumbered with expectation, it might have, maybe got a 3 star. For being a bit different.

The concept and idea is sound, it ~~has~~ had potential. Ship and her ancillaries soldiers, the political games and omnipotent tyrant. But it all fell very flat for me. I understand that part of the issue I have in the complete lack of emotion and unremarkable character is the fact that the POV character is an technically an AI robot. But the other characters just didn't do anything for me either.

I listened to this on audio and that probably ruined any chance of a 3 star because I really didn't like the narration. Yes, I understand the expressionless tone was technically correct for a ship AI, but gods it was hard to listen to for 8 hours long. The other main characters; Lt Ahn had loads of potential to work with, but the narrator voiced her into a whiny high pitched seemingly weak person, at odds with how I would have read her in my own head. Sauvardin (or however you spell it) was poor, I didn't like the way the character was written, basically a tag along key for the end story, with a not really believable storyline in the middle. Probably Anander Meania (probably spelt that wrong too) was probably the only character with any interest and the complications of that character certainly made me listen with a little more attention.

And there is the crux of it all. I couldn't concentrate on the story, it meandered and dribbled along with inane chats and conversations with little emotion. Often I found myself thinking of other things to suddenly come back to the story. There was very little world building. The earlier part of the story being recalled wasn't too bad in describing and setting a scene. But the present day part was completely without description of anything but the two characters, it seemed not part of the story and I felt like we just had two characters in a bubble drifting to the end chapters.

Which when we got to the end chapters added some action, emotion and interesting dialogues. The last 20% of the book held my attention and really developed a great storyline and I don't just mean by means of an action scene. The interaction between characters improved and there seemed a sense of something actually happening and coming to a moment of importance to the overall plot. Alas, I needed to read the other 80% to get there.

I can't see myself reading book two to be honest. I want more from my stories and I want to be a lot more engaged than I was with this. I do wish I had read this, rather than listened to it as I do think that it probably would have given me an additional star.
...more

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Oct 19, 2013 Beth rated it did not like it

Shelves: reviewed

What's the point? Admittedly, science fiction isn't my favorite genre, but if you're looking for a novel with a concept that would be intriguing were it not the the novel's centerpiece, and completely unsupported by story - well, this is your book.

Ancillary Justice is barely more than its concept. The slim plot unfolds oh so slowly over over hundreds of pages, and the book ends just as the conflict is starting to heat up. Characterization is no more than actions and memories, and the concept its ...more

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Jan 12, 2014 Mir rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Mir by: Martha Wells

Shelves: science-fiction

One of the most intelligent, original, and complex works of science-fiction I've read in ages. ...more

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Aug 19, 2014 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, favorites, science-fiction, space-opera, artificial-intelligence

The pleasure I got from this far future tale from the perspective of an AI on a mission ripened over time. One reader friend found it missed some spark in the characters or emotional engagement that muted his satisfaction. But you have to expect an AI to fall short in endearing human characters. Thus, the mind bender for me was in how far I was led to identify with the hero as a fellow self up to a noble effort in life’s challenges. In the line of sci fi that makes you question what it means to The pleasure I got from this far future tale from the perspective of an AI on a mission ripened over time. One reader friend found it missed some spark in the characters or emotional engagement that muted his satisfaction. But you have to expect an AI to fall short in endearing human characters. Thus, the mind bender for me was in how far I was led to identify with the hero as a fellow self up to a noble effort in life’s challenges. In the line of sci fi that makes you question what it means to be human, the innovations Leckie pulls off have progressively dawned on me over the weeks since completing my reading.

The lead character, One Esk, renders her story from three different time points over more than a thousand year span. At the early phase, when the artificial intelligence is the brain behind an imperial government spaceship, we also get the viewpoint of several different instances of its self in the form on “ancillary units” all continually linked into one computer entity. This spread of self over time and space in the narrative presentation was a fresh and marvelous performance to me. When the destruction of this ship leads to the ancillary unit going it alone, the sense of diminishment and loneliness makes her feel more human.

The premise is that once death removes a human consciousness, the body and brain can be recycled with the right hardware implants as an all-purpose soldier and crewman under governing control of an AI. From Asimov on down, we’ve seen many imagined versions of self-conscious computers and robots, with some trying hard to achieve human ethical sensibilities like android Daneel Olivaw and Star Trek’s Data, but most sinister from missing key emotional values, like Hal or Skynet. Leckie’s creation feels emotions, which is in line with recent inferences in artificial intelligence science that simulation of feelings is needed to motivate a software intelligence and allow it to valuate choices, and thus put it on a path to the grail of becoming a conscious entity.

But just when we begin to get comfortable in the mind of One Esk, she will speak of consciously controlling her facial expressions, and a bit of a chill over her being a robot of sorts sneaks through. That she is capable of lying and faking motivations make her a bit alien and human at the same time. I got a similar reaction from experiencing her efforts of reading people’s intentions and motivations in the same inferential way we all do, by interpreting facial expressions, gestures, body postures, and verbal intonation. Even more odd, I got a sense of her superiority over humans from seeing their concern with gender and class differences as effectively arbitrary factors that govern human social interactions. The programming to be loyal to serving the empire, the military, and the greater good of mankind seems not too far from the human kind of programming. How she deals with conflicting loyalties is the core of this tale and pushes boundaries when we find ourselves rooting for her over her human adversaries.

But what of the world building, the human characters in this story, or what to expect on the plot trajectory? They were satisfying to me on all counts. We are in a situation of an imperial colonization of a human society with rural-urban social differences and a hierarchy based on class and wealth similar to our own. Like the Roman Empire Leckie admits to borrowing from, giving the locals citizenship and commercial privileges is the carrot and the rest are traitors to be crushed. One Esk serves a lieutenant in the transition force she admires, and both make friends and appreciate the provincials, especially their music. A threat by apparent subversive elements sets the stage for tragic events and choices that put them both in trouble. The Emperor herself is a major character and dangerous prime mover One Esk must outwit and harness to the good of humankind. She is human, but has the same features of a distributed self that made One Esk’s multiplicity with her ship so weird. The Emperor works through many clones throughout the empire, kept in self unity and registration through automated tech implants. That such a system for omnipresent dictatorship might be unstable and subject to breakdown is a welcome prospect, but when it happens, it makes for a supreme purpose for One Esk to overcome somehow.

In the end, I have to up my rating over this for its mind-bending journey and for getting me into thrilling action situations with a lot at stake where I root for an AI over humans. I applaud the choice for Hugo and Nebula awards and look forward to the next in the series. I leave you with a sample of Leckie’s prose that reveals the engaging qualities of One Esk’s mental struggles to make sense of her selfness:

It seems very straightforward when I say “I.” At the time “I” meant Justice of Toren, the whole ship and all its ancillaries. A unit might be focused on what it was doing at that particular moment, but it was no more apart from “me” than my hand is while it is engaged at a task that does not require my .full attention.
Nearly twenty years later “I” would be a single body, a single brain. …It was something that had always been possible, always potential. Guarded against. But how did it go from potential to real, incontrovertible, irrevocable?
On one level the answer was simple—it happened when all of Justice of Toren but me was destroyed. But when I look closer I begin to see cracks everywhere. Did the singing contribute, the thing that made One Esk different from all the other units in the ship, indeed in the fleets? Perhaps. Or is anyone’s identity a matter of fragments held together by useful or convenient narrative, that in ordinary circumstances never reveals itself as a fiction? Or is it really a fiction?
...more

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Oct 21, 2016 Manuel Antão rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2014

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Warning: Rant follows.

Knowledgeable responses to SF require a certain apprenticeship; it’s impossible to approach SF criticism without a certain familiarity with many SF texts. Just as a wonderfully articulate casual reader cannot simply pick up “The Divine Comedy” or “The Name of the Rose” and begin a nuanced enjoyment of both books, a SF newbie must work her or his way into the specialized narrative structures and vocabulary of SF. ...more

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Sep 27, 2013 Ryandake rated it it was amazing

Shelves: the-good-shit

you know, one shuffles up and down the stacks at the bookstore and hopes each time that the next sf book one reads will:

be well-written
have at least one character you care about
be well-plotted
have intelligent commentary
include some aliens who are really alien, or,
include some humans who are not quite human and
leave you with something really knotty to think about.

actually finding one happens about once a year, and it feels like a gift from the gods.

in this case it's a gift from Ann Leckie, whom i ...more

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Mar 01, 2014 Penny rated it really liked it

Shelves: bookclub, scifi-and-fantasy-club-bookshelf, nebula-nominee, space-opera, award-winner, aliens, scifi-fantasy-club-2014challenge, series, science-fiction, military-scifi

I thought this had some really brilliant ideas that were cleverly executed. It's fantastically well written, particularly for a debut novel. It fell short of the five star mark for me because it just missed some element I can't quite put my finger on and I felt the ending didn't quite round off the way I would have liked it to.

The ancillary concept is really awesome. It took a while to figure it out but I've always preferred the style of world building that lets the world come to life around th I thought this had some really brilliant ideas that were cleverly executed. It's fantastically well written, particularly for a debut novel. It fell short of the five star mark for me because it just missed some element I can't quite put my finger on and I felt the ending didn't quite round off the way I would have liked it to.

The ancillary concept is really awesome. It took a while to figure it out but I've always preferred the style of world building that lets the world come to life around the protagonist rather than have things explained in what is usually a fairly unnatural manner.

I enjoyed the time split from two points of view. (No not like that). I found myself enjoying one time frame more than the other at certain times during the book and I enjoyed the fact that every second chapter bounced between the two. I also thought it was a very good way to slowly explain how Breq had ended up where she was.

The gender question was interesting and I'm not sure I fully understand why it was significant. Everyone was called "she" although not everyone is in fact female. The second realisation came later than the first and some people may find themselves uncomfortable with a book made up entirely of female characters. It raises a question of why. We then discover that not everyone who is called "she" is in fact female so the reader can breath easy. It did help to distinguish where you were from if you could easily identify gender, so it did play a role in the novel itself, but I think it might be more powerful in the external reader reaction context.

There were also interesting questions of morals and ethics in terms of war and murder. Ann Leckie exposed some of the fundamental hypocrisies of who we're ok with killing and how vs what is going over the line.

I'm excited to read more in the series. I'd like to meet some of the alien species we've heard about but haven't encountered as of yet. I'm also very excited to see where this is going next. I have high hopes for this one. ...more

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Dec 30, 2017 Kaylin (The Re-Read Queen) rated it did not like it

Shelves: sci-fi, didn-t-finish, unpopular-opinions

DNF @ 34%

Whoops, it's my first DNF of the year. I WAS JUST SO BORED.

---------------------

Buddy Read with Courtney! Nothing like starting the new year off with a little sci-fi! 🤖👽 ...more

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Jan 22, 2017 Caro the Helmet Lady rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Caro by: i09

Shelves: s-f, 2017-reads

I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my toes
Imperial Radch is all around me
And so the feeling grows
It's written on the wind
It's everywhere I go, oh yes it is
So if you really love me
Come on and let me finish the damn trilogy!

Silly, I know. Ok, adding some seriousness here just in case you're still reading and expecting me to come to my senses.

This is a very good sci-fi story, with very interesting ideas and if plot drags on you a little bit in the beginning because of all "she/her" (literally) go ...more

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Jun 17, 2014 Althea Ann rated it it was amazing

A new favorite author? It could be!

This is just exactly the kind of hard sci-fi that I like: it’s got the right balance of compelling, believable characters, serious examination of both theoretical and relevant social issues, and plenty of pure action with spaceships and blaster guns, all in an original and fascinating universe.
I am so glad that my book club decided to read this, because the initial description of the book I’d read didn’t capture my imagination at all. Somehow, with the review’ ...more

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Oct 10, 2013 Ashley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: addictive, lgbtqia, political-plots-and-maneuverings, space-opera, favorites, class-gender-race, speculative, the-robots-will-kill-us-all, award-winners, sci-fi

August 2019 re-read: Upping this to five stars. Breq makes me feel feelings.

I remember where I was when I read this first time, and I distinctly remember reading the first third or so of this book and just being profoundly confused about what was going on, but also thinking to myself, when I re-read this, it's going to make so much more sense, and that turned out to be true. But what did surprise me on re-read is that not everything is completely clear, and I don't think it's meant to be. This ...more

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Apr 08, 2018 Ashley Nuckles rated it liked it

School book! 3.5 stars!

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Sep 27, 2013 Nathan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, read-2013, author-female, rated-5-star, wwe-2013-challenge

Fantasy Review Barn

A book picked up purely on the hype, I would have skipped it otherwise. The cover blurb sounds ridiculous, the main character used to be a ship? What could that even mean? But in came the early reviews. They talked about many different things but seemed pretty unanimous in one aspect; the book was praised everywhere I looked.

But hype is a funny thing, and while it has often been enough to get me interested it just as often disappoints. Was this going to be one of those books Fantasy Review Barn

A book picked up purely on the hype, I would have skipped it otherwise. The cover blurb sounds ridiculous, the main character used to be a ship? What could that even mean? But in came the early reviews. They talked about many different things but seemed pretty unanimous in one aspect; the book was praised everywhere I looked.

But hype is a funny thing, and while it has often been enough to get me interested it just as often disappoints. Was this going to be one of those books in which everyone fell in love with the uniqueness and ignored obvious flaws? Perhaps some fell in love with the gender bending society and overlooked a lack of plot? In short, is the book going to be more idea than execution? Let me put minds to rest, oh hell no.

Excuse the language here, but “Ancillary Justice” is one glorious mind fuck. Every preconceived notion a reader has going in has to be reset. Get used to she as the default pronoun, understand how little it matters in Radch space. Then try to refigure it all out when in a society that does; suddenly the right gender pronoun matters to avoid insults and we have no more knowledge on how to recognize the clues than Breq.

“The impending arrival of her first grandchild hadn’t yet been announced to the neighbors, so I pretended I didn’t know either, and used only the simple respectful address toward a male person.”

Turn your brain in knots as One Esk describes everything going on around the Justice of Toren; through a dozen sets of eyes, all in a different place. No convenient setting changes to help us along here (meanwhile, back on bridge B is not the kind of thing you will find here), it is all one mind and one stream of thought.

“Actually I was doing the guarding, seven of me ranged along the corridor”

The early portions of the book may move slow and seem to have a lack of focus but it is a slow burn to a great payoff. The story follows Breq, or One Esk; one single Ancillary from The Justice of Toren. She is also The Justice of Toren, or what’s left of its mind after a betrayal left her the only surviving appendage. An Ancillary is basically a drone, but made from a living human. Breq wants revenge for her betrayal and wants to kill the immortal Lord of Radch. Who is not really immortal, but rather is living in many different bodies. She doesn’t even travel with body guards; the loss of a single body means nothing. How would one kill her then? Ha, if only it was that easy.

One glorious mindfuck. Especially as everything I just said is simplified well beyond what is really going on. I mean, what if someone with many bodies has multiple minds? What does a culture based on expansion and domination do when there is no more expansion? What if all these things take thousands of years to develop?

I hate to be that person. I don’t want to feed the hype machine, jump on the bandwagon, raise expectations so others can’t help but feel let down when they come later to the party. But just read the book. Tell me I am wrong. All the space adventure goodness a person can ask for; incomprehendible aliens, action, technology that is completely out of the world. All that, wrapped in amazing writing, amazing ideas, and a certain uniqueness that is rare.

5 Stars. One. Glorious. Mindfuck.
...more

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Sep 13, 2013 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it liked it

Shelves: arcs-and-galleys, science-fiction, review-copy, netgalley

3.5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...

There are so many things I want to say about this debut novel by Ann Leckie, but first I just have to express my awe and admiration for some of the themes and concepts in this book. I went into Ancillary Justice after having heard a lot of praise for its originality and imaginative ideas, and now that I've finished it, I can only echo those sentiments.

The book follows Breq, a soldier who is more (and, I suppose, also less) th 3.5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...

There are so many things I want to say about this debut novel by Ann Leckie, but first I just have to express my awe and admiration for some of the themes and concepts in this book. I went into Ancillary Justice after having heard a lot of praise for its originality and imaginative ideas, and now that I've finished it, I can only echo those sentiments.

The book follows Breq, a soldier who is more (and, I suppose, also less) than she seems. An "Ancillary", Breq was formerly one of many corpse soldiers all linked up with an artificial intelligence as part of a massive starship called the Justice of Toren. So in a sense, she is the Justice of Toren. Breq as well as all the other corpse soldier "segments" who were treated as appendages connected to the Justice of Toren were collectively considered part of the ship. It's a complex but incredibly elaborate concept to wrap my head around, but reading about it made me exultant.

Anyway, after an act of treachery, Breq was the only one who made it out of the subsequent disaster, making her the last surviving remnant of the Justice of Toren, left alone and isolated in a human body. Now she sets herself on a path of vengeance to track down and kill Anaander Mianaai, the multi-bodied and near-immortal Lord of the Radch who was responsible.

As I said, I think the ideas here are very inventive and original, and the way they are executed is also quite clever, if confusing at times. Breq's narration reflects the fact that she is a part of a ship, a bigger whole. In chapters where she is linked up to the rest of the Justice of Toren, we see through the eyes of multiple Ancillaries, which in essence are all one entity. Because the ship's Ancillaries are everywhere, the narrator is aware of things happening around all her different segments who are in different places at the same time. This "omniscient effect" is no doubt a challenge to write, and I think Leckie did as well as anyone possibly could.

There were many times, though, where this book made me feel completely out of my depth. The style of the narration I described above is one reason, but also because of other factors such as Breq's approach to using only the female pronoun to refer to other characters. This gender ambiguity is another point to the innovation and cleverness of this book (and since we humans refer to our ships and other vessels as female, seeing it happen the other way around is so deliciously apropos!) but it also made reading this book a slow and purposeful experience, since I did not want to risk missing anything in the writing.

Added to this is the skipping back and forth in time, as well as the massive amount of information piled upon the reader to digest in the first part of the book. To be fair, lengthy explanations and commentary are probably unavoidable given a book with a premise like this, and a part of me also wonders if Ancillary Justice might be better suited for readers with more experience with science fiction, who'd be better able to adapt to the peculiar pacing. I love this genre, and the details don't get too overly technical here, but I still couldn't help but feel overwhelmed and out of my comfort zone at times.

As such, it wasn't until deep into the later chapters that I finally felt settled into the rhythm of the book. Once the time switches come to an end and the plot moves forward, I found myself a lot more engaged with the story. And indeed, this is a compelling novel, and it raises some interesting questions and themes about freedom, identity, independence and choice.

I think I would have liked this book a lot more if I didn't hit so many speed bumps in the beginning, but working my way through to the end was worth it. The finale was pure action and suspense, and as a character, Breq has certainly made herself memorable. The ideas in this book will stay with me for a long time, and this is overall a great debut. ...more

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Oct 27, 2014 Apatt rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

This Hugo / Nebula / Clarke combo winner just demands to be read. I have been putting it off for a while on account of the price, new books cost more on the year of publication and I'm a skinflint. However, this book is just so damn hard to ignore. People keep going on about it in sf forums and now it is going to be a TV show! How am I going to keep up with the sci-fi Joneses if I don't read it?

Allow me to ramble on for another paragraph, I have a theory about sci-fi books which are suitable fo ...more

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Quotes from Ancillary Justice

“Luxury always comes at someone else’s expense. One of the many advantages of civilization is that one doesn’t generally have to see that, if one doesn’t wish. You’re free to enjoy its benefits without troubling your conscience.” — 154 likes

“Thoughts are ephemeral, they evaporate in the moment they occur, unless they are given action and material form. Wishes and intentions, the same. Meaningless, unless they impel you to one choice or another, some deed or course of action, however insignificant. Thoughts that lead to action can be dangerous. Thoughts that do not, mean less than nothing.” — 134 likes

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