Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Apr 24, 2017 Seán rated it it was amazing

It's easy to see why Ancillary Justice won every major sci-fi award when it was released - this is an incredibly well-written and fascinating book that deals with some complex ideas, but manages to communicate them effectively to the reader. I devoured this book once I got going with it and feel like I absorbed every single word of it without losing attention.

Ancillary Justice follows Breq - once the AI of a large military ship, now finding herself in a single human body far away from civilisati It's easy to see why Ancillary Justice won every major sci-fi award when it was released - this is an incredibly well-written and fascinating book that deals with some complex ideas, but manages to communicate them effectively to the reader. I devoured this book once I got going with it and feel like I absorbed every single word of it without losing attention.

Ancillary Justice follows Breq - once the AI of a large military ship, now finding herself in a single human body far away from civilisation after an act of betrayal. As far as main characters go, we are already off to an interesting start. Through flashback chapters we see that Breq was once known as the Justice of Toren, embodied not just as the ship itself but also in a multitude of other human bodies - the 'ancillaries' of the series' title. We are treated to some extraordinary writing which captures the displacement of Justice of Toren through multiple bodies; conversations happening in multiple areas flow into each other during the text, but are controlled expertly by Leckie so that there is never any confusion on the reader's end. Instead of being overwhelmed by the different strands of information, I found myself reaching out to the different ancillaries with the writing creating an actual sense of displacement as I read it. As a student of Phenomenology, this was a fascinating experience and I can only commend Leckie's writing for being able to create such an experience without impacting my ability to follow along with the plot.

Another writing 'trick' that Leckie uses throughout the book is by playing on our assumptions when gender pronouns are used: for the main culture in Ancillary Justice, gender isn't distinguished among individuals, with the default 'she' being used in all cases. So from Breq's perspective, we meet a number of characters, all of whom are referred to as 'she.' But occasionally we meet someone from outside of this culture who will distinguish genders, and find that a character who has been referred to as 'she' suddenly referred to as 'he.' This is not used as a tool to open up a discussion about gender politics or drag an unnecessary discussion into the book - it is a simple and thematic move which has you constantly changing your image of certain characters in your head and really allows you to experience the difference between the various cultures encountered. The first time it happens it is so innocuous that I had a small double-take, but I really appreciated what it added to the book. Again, it doesn't come across as an 'edgy' way of dealing with modern gender issues, but it is rather a simple use of language that has a profound effect on the reading experience, and I was incredibly impressed with it.

All of this is getting a bit wordy, and certainly there are difficult concepts dealt with in Ancillary Justice. But this is not a snobby piece of writing - concepts are communicated and reinforced so effectively to the reader that there should be no problems following along or having to sit back and double-check information. I haven't even touched on the main plot which complicates the above issues even further - I don't want to spoil anything - but even when things are at their most complicated, Leckie has made sure that everything is explained clearly and with an appropriate amount of repetition. I cannot stress just how good the writing is here!

Luckily there is a fascinating world and plot to experience as well, making this a must-read for anyone with an interest in the genre. The fact that there are two more books in the series is just icing on the cake, but even if I were never to pick them up, I would be glad to have read Ancillary Justice on its own terms. Truly one of those 'why haven't I read this sooner?' books.

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Oct 29, 2014 Paul rated it liked it

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie is one of the most loved science fiction books in the recent years and won every award possible in 2014. Approaching a book like this is always difficult for me because I don’t want all the noise in the background to color my impression of the novel. I don’t want to take a firmer, more critical stance on it just because it is loved by many, but at the same time I don’t want to heap undeserved praise onto something I might not have enjoyed much. In the end I found Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie is one of the most loved science fiction books in the recent years and won every award possible in 2014. Approaching a book like this is always difficult for me because I don’t want all the noise in the background to color my impression of the novel. I don’t want to take a firmer, more critical stance on it just because it is loved by many, but at the same time I don’t want to heap undeserved praise onto something I might not have enjoyed much. In the end I found it to be a passing science fiction book that I just kind of liked.

Ancillary Justice is a story of revenge from the viewpoint of Breq, a non-human A.I., with sentience. Breq used to be a part of an ancillary, an A.I. with many bodies, that controlled a large ship called a Justice. Bad things happen and Breq becomes the only survivor of the Justice she was a part of and moves towards attempting to get revenge on the person responsible. This is a split narrative of the past, right before Breq’s Justice ship was destroyed, and the events that led to that destruction, and also the present where Breq is attempting to exact her revenge.

Ancillary Justice is a science fiction story that is told in the first person but because the narrative in the past has Breq as a multitude of shared artificial intelligences that are connected, we get multiple point of views, at the same time, but from the same person. I found this omnipresent first person story style to be amazing and easily my favorite part of the entire novel. Through the use of this narrative style we got the large picture of events surrounding everyone involved in this part of the story. Omniscient third person is very much out of style in SFF but this omnipresent first person story style is a great way to limit the scope of knowledge without limiting the canvas. I did find that Leckie’s short sentence structure to be very choppy to read at times.

The main issue I had with Ancillary Justice is when it came to the present storyline, it seemed all so constructed. Breq makes decisions that really makes no sense, as an A.I., at the very beginning of the story, that the entire plot is based upon. A lot of this can be described as Breq having an emotional reaction that isn’t quite rational but I feel that Leckie did not focus enough on Breq’s struggle between being an A.I. and experiencing human emotions enough to justify the irrational decisions. The focus on the gun that Breq has to get, when rationally to get that gun makes no sense, is something I wish was not involved in the story. Also, not until the very end of the book was there a little blurb about how Breq has all the money that she has. Her vast wealth is the main way she accomplished her goals in Ancillary Justice and it was only vaguely alluded to how she got that wealth. This annoyed me greatly.

I found that I liked only one character in the entire story, and that was Lieutenant Awn. Breq had too many inconsistencies for me to appreciate her as a character. I’m hoping for some serious character growth from her in the next two books. Seivarden was a prop used by Breq and not really even a character.

The world-building was something I enjoyed. I really enjoyed the idea of ancillaries and shared A.I. and what that means for individuality within that ancillary grouping. The Radch culture was interesting and I liked how there wasn’t gender in the culture but it was very underutilized. I must say that the gender/pronoun thing was more gimmicky for me than anything. It reminds me when directors make a movie that is obvious Oscar bait, and so I found the pronoun thing to be obvious Hugo bait. It was more of an afterthought for me while reading and added absolutely nothing to the story. I just accepted it right away, imagined almost everyone as a female, and was fine with that.

I liked Ancillary Sword and I’ll be continuing on with the series because I think my main issues might be resolved as we get deeper into Breq’s human vs A.I. struggles. I think the story would have worked a lot better as a more infiltration, work from within type story instead of a, get a magic gun and get lucky, type of story, but it was still a decent read. I’m hoping to enjoy books 2 and 3 much more.

3/5 12/25 Possible Score

Plot – 2(O.K.)

Characters – 2(O.K.)

Setting/World Building – 3(Good)

Writing Style – 3(Good)

Heart & Mind Aspect – 2(O.K.) ...more

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Oct 05, 2013 Joel rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

Ancillary Justice was an odd book for me to pick up while finishing up The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin. From the get-go, it shared some similar, albeit not totally relevant, traits when it came to gender and societal identification. Ancillary Justice goes quite a bit beyond that, however, into human nature, into hypotheticals about what may happen in a future where the lines between humans and machines is a lot more blurred.

There's been plenty written about this book, and plenty o ...more

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Nov 10, 2013 Victoria Hooper rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star-books, science-fiction, artificial-intelligence

This is a book that was quickly gaining a lot of hype and some incredibly good reviews, and so it moved right up my ‘to read’ list even before both online book clubs I’m a member of decided to choose it as their November pick. There was a lot to live up to – practically every review I read mentioned that this was bound to be nominated for all kinds of awards. Was it as good as everyone was saying? Yes!

Ancillary Justice just clicked with me. I loved the universe that the author created, the plane ...more

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Oct 07, 2014 Shellie rated it really liked it

For those honing writing skills, read this to see just how well perspective can be put to use as a tool.

I can understand why so many readers find this alienating, why others who appreciate the techniques being used enjoy it so much.
Read it and stick with it, it's worth it. ...more

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