Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

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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Sep 30, 2013 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sf, wwe-women-of-genre-fiction

This is a hell of a first novel. A protagonist who is also a thousands-years-old ship, which is also the thousands of troops (so-called "corpse soldiers") on board, and is also one particular subset of those troops. A narrative that jumps seamlessly between past and distant past and present, and between the "I" of Breq, chasing a particular gun, and the "I" of the ship Justice of Toren, and the many "I"s of One Esk. The result is a peculiar first person narrative that can describe events that ta ...more

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Sep 30, 2013 Nicky rated it really liked it

Shelves: queer, speculative-fiction

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this one. It swept the awards for the year it came out, and many of my friends adored it, but the first time I tried to read it I bounced off, and my partner wasn’t a huge fan. Fortunately, I did really like it; enough that I’m in a hurry to read Ancillary Sword, at least. I’m not sure if it’s a five star read — that might have to await a reread — but it is definitely a solid four star.

It did take me at least 50 pages to really get into it, maybe even ...more

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May 19, 2014 Martini rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: z-challenge-lies-mich-2015, science-fiction, female-author, borrowed, female-protagonists, series-complete-finished, tawites-recommendations

Four stars for the story and one extra star for the translator, who did an awesome job, since translating this one from English to German must have been quite difficult.
I am not going to address the story itself; there are enough reviews that have done this. Instead, I have some other things to get off my chest, especially regarding the translation and certain aspects of gender related grammar. The book has a foreword by the translator which addresses some of the points I am referring to.
So, if ...more

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Oct 01, 2013 Kara Babcock rated it liked it

Shelves: 2014-read, space-opera, own, science-fiction, hugo-winner, nebula-winner, posthuman, artificial-intelligence

Can you imagine being in two places at once? It’s a common image to conjure, but actually imagine it. Weird, huh?

Now try imagining being two people in two places at once. Or two people, in the same place. That’s even harder, and even weirder. But it’s exactly what Ann Leckie asks of us in Ancillary Justice, a book about a person who was once and is still but isn’t any more a ship, Justice of Toren. Reduced, through grave misfortune, to a single ancillary—a no-longer-human body, one of thousands, Can you imagine being in two places at once? It’s a common image to conjure, but actually imagine it. Weird, huh?

Now try imagining being two people in two places at once. Or two people, in the same place. That’s even harder, and even weirder. But it’s exactly what Ann Leckie asks of us in Ancillary Justice, a book about a person who was once and is still but isn’t any more a ship, Justice of Toren. Reduced, through grave misfortune, to a single ancillary—a no-longer-human body, one of thousands, used an avatar for the ship’s AI—it takes on the name of Breq and sets off on a quest for revenge. Its target: no other than the most powerful person in the entire Radch, an interstellar empire Justice of Toren was once sworn to protect and expand.

For the majority of the book, Leckie alternates between Breq’s present-day adventure and a re-telling of the events leading up to the Justice of Toren’s destruction. In the latter events, Leckie undertakes the task of presenting the multiple, simultaneous viewpoints available to Justice of Toren. She switches between these viewpoints without any overt markers to signal the changes. At first, this can be confusing, even overwhelming. But it’s about as close to simultaneity as one can get in a linear medium like a novel. Slowly, it becomes possible to form at least an inkling of what it must be like to have access to so many different perspectives of the same event, all at once.

Breq’s adventure is easier to follow, because on the surface it feels like a traditional narrative. Almost immediately, however, there are some unique qualities that make it more interesting. Breq uses the feminine third-person gender pronouns exclusively when referring to other people. Regardless of actual sex or gender, everyone is "her" and "she". This is an artifact of the Rad’chaai language that Breq speaks, for it has eliminated the idea of gendered pronouns, and Breq in fact has trouble telling the difference between sexes during her travels. Additionally, Leckie doesn’t often deign to describe her characters in a way that makes their sex or gender clear. So it’s interesting to see my underlying gender biases take over and try to fill in the gaps. It’s amazing how much we depend on simple pronouns to form a mental idea not only of how someone looks but how they move, speak, act.

Rather than physical description, Leckie relies a great deal on what people do and how they speak to portray their personalities. The Radch is an empire in the classical sense; its culture is stable enough to last thousands of years and still be vaguely recognizable to Seivarden, who has spent most of that time in suspension. People are very aware of their social standing, tied inextricably to their House, and things like fashion and the sociable nature of tea-drinking have become essential parts of the daily posturing for standing. As a result, one can tell a great deal from a person by their type of accent, how they dress, who they take tea with, and of course, the House they’re from.

This is all well and good, but I still feel like Leckie could have spent more time creating a more nuanced picture of Rad’chaai society. I would like to know how the majority of Rad’chaai civilians make a living. What is the economy like? What is their art and culture like, beyond the same soap operas on television that are apparently so recognizable they haven’t changed in millennia? I have a good idea of what the military side of the Radch is like, but I wish I could understand its people better. And I would like to better understand the ways in which Anaander Mianaii has managed to keep the Radch intact over millennia of rule. That seems like a dicey proposition.

If space was a concern, I could think of some passages that could have been removed. Did Breq really have to spend so much time at that cabin? Many of those scenes seemed like they only existed as a buffer from one of the scenes set in the past until the next. Although the plot itself is gripping, the pace at which it unfolds varies from glacial to merely temperate. It isn’t until we get to the climax of the novel, as we approach Breq’s inevitable confrontation with Anaander Mianaai, that events start moving smoothly and seamlessly.

Ancillary Justice satisfies, but it doesn’t leave me with linger impressions and thought-provoking questions. The unique nature of the protagonist is a draw, and Leckie occasionally seems to come close to exploring the interesting ramifications of Breq’s existence as the fractured remnant of a ship AI. But this book feels more like a rough cut than a polished gem. And I’ll take that any day over something that instead aims for the derivative, or the popular, or the safe. Not everything that Leckie tries here succeeds with me, but the fact that she has tried is itself quite impressive. Perhaps the best thing I can say is that it reminds me a lot of the science fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, enough that I’ll keep my eye on Leckie and on the next book in this series.

...more

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Nov 07, 2013 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, queer-characters

The narrator was once an AI powering not just a warship, but thousands of soldiers. Now the AI's brain is contained in one single fragile cyborg body. Breq won't let that slow her down, though--somehow, she will get vengeance for her captain's tragic end, even if it means destroying the entire Radch empire.

I loved the world building here, loved the changes to the empire over time, loved the perspective on colonization, and especially loved Breq and Captain Awn. ...more

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Nov 18, 2019 Carolyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: strong-female-lead-character, science-fiction, 2019-read

4.5 stars. Lived up to all the hype, I’m sorry it took me this long to read it.

Interesting that in a society that doesn’t recognize gender, whose totalitarian leader is female, the default pronouns used are she/her for everyone, unless another culture/language requires another gender pronoun. Was a little confusing at first, until I caught on, then it made it more interesting to read.

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Nov 05, 2013 Suz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-men-sff-authors, space-opera, science-fiction, kindle, feminist, award-winner, tiptree, amazeballs, other-planets-whee

I received this book as a gift, was told I really should read it, and threw it in Mt. TBR. Then the Hugo list went out, and I was reading about the books (I either have read them or have absolutely no interest in wasting my time), except for this one. Which I hadn't read, and was going to purchase, when I was roundly reminded that it had already been purchased for me. Oops.

And I read it. And sweet baby octopus, I adore it.
I had a bit of a rough start getting into this book. I read on the bus, i I received this book as a gift, was told I really should read it, and threw it in Mt. TBR. Then the Hugo list went out, and I was reading about the books (I either have read them or have absolutely no interest in wasting my time), except for this one. Which I hadn't read, and was going to purchase, when I was roundly reminded that it had already been purchased for me. Oops.

And I read it. And sweet baby octopus, I adore it.
I had a bit of a rough start getting into this book. I read on the bus, in 20 minute gulps, and I firmly believe this is not the book to be doing that with. I actually had to skim the first few paragraphs to get a handle on what the hell I was reading. It's just not a "few minutes at a time" kind of book.

This book is phenomenally well written. The world building, I believe, is some of the best I've seen in SFF/spec fic in a long time. The plot was solid, the switching between back history and current events was smooth and easy to follow. It's sci-fi with an interesting militaristic bent without being a hard military-sci fi. It's space-opera without the cheese. There are humans and "humans" and things that are most definitely not humans-dressed-as-aliens. They're truly alien in their physiology as well as philosophy.

And I really liked and connected with the main characters in the story.

This novel is about a future/different/whatever space-faring expansionist society and what happens with a rather interesting breakdown in the despotic leadership. What happens when a machine, who is or is not human, is forced to go against their feelings but with their programs. What *is* human, what side are you on when your leader is on different sides. It's delightfully complicated.

This novel has already won several awards, and I really believe (and hope), wholeheartedly, it should win the Hugo. And I'm not lying when I say that when I read that this is the first of a series (whether it's linear or just in the universe), I actually squealed with happiness. I may have lost Iain Banks, but now I've got Ann Leckie. ...more

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Dec 26, 2013 Michelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, book_club, war_is_hell

a solid 3.5 stars.

this book is getting heaps of praise, and will most definitely end up on a whole bunch of awards lists, very deservedly so. it's an exceptionally well written bit of world building, where an rigidly class-structured, expansive space empire is torn about their past and current war crimes, including the use of vanquished people as "ancillary" bodies to warship AIs. it's part revenge tale, part societal history, part buddy-trek, and the setup is completely fascinating.

if that soun ...more

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Nov 03, 2013 Tamara added it

Shelves: female-protagonist, space-opera, space-station, military, gender, sf, travel, author-female, distant-planet, ship

Enjoyable and original. Great mindfuck of a villain and interesting questions raised re. identity, history, loyalty, language, gender. Good characterization. The ending felt a bit clunky, like pieces being moved into place for a sequel, but I want to see where it goes anyway.

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Oct 24, 2013 Daniel Roy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

What a fascinating novel this turned into. It left me a bit cold for the first hundred pages or so, as I found the setting oddly unappealing and I had a hard time identifying with the characters. But once the elements of the plot fell into place and the quiet storytelling revealed its characters to me, the book grabbed my attention and never let it go.

The main character of Ancillary Justice is utterly fascinating. Breq, or as she used to be known, One Esk, is, or was, one of the thousands of bod What a fascinating novel this turned into. It left me a bit cold for the first hundred pages or so, as I found the setting oddly unappealing and I had a hard time identifying with the characters. But once the elements of the plot fell into place and the quiet storytelling revealed its characters to me, the book grabbed my attention and never let it go.

The main character of Ancillary Justice is utterly fascinating. Breq, or as she used to be known, One Esk, is, or was, one of the thousands of bodies inhabited by a living ship's AI. She's simultaneously her own person, and a mere segment of that human army that serves as the extension of an near-omniscient being that can jump between solar systems. The story of how Justice of Toren became Breq makes for one of the most unique protagonists in SF's recent memory, and despite the very post-human protagonist, the emotions she expresses are real and gripping.

It took me a while to get my bearings because, strange as it sounds, the setting itself is understated throughout the novel. Once I understood just what the Radch was and what they were dealing with, I became enthralled by the novel; but Ms. Leckie didn't just throw these elements at me, and took her time to build her setting. It's a work of great restraint that eventually reveals an utterly unique SF setting: part Roman Empire, assuredly, but also alien and original, definitely its own thing. One thing that I found very cool once I got past my initial confusion was the notion of gender roles in the Radch. I won't spoil it here, but suffice to say it's one of these things you can only pull off in the written medium.

If there's one thing I find missing in this fantastic novel, it's a greater sense of resolution once the third act comes to a close. One Esk's character arc gets a satisfying sense of closure, but the novel's events merely lay the way for an admittedly much-deserved sequel. I guess I'll have to keep reading, but considering how much I enjoyed this book, I can't say that I mind at all. ...more

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Mar 05, 2014 Joan rated it it was amazing

Leckie explores issues of individuality, conscience, and gender identity using a traditional space opera format. There are echoes of Ursula K. LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness, but Ancillary Justice is bit more successful in upending gender expectations. Polished and provocative, especially for a first novel. ...more

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