Ancillary Justice

Ann Leckie

Oct 2013 · Imperial Radch Book 1 · Sold by Orbit

About this ebook

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards: This record-breaking novel follows a warship trapped in a human body on a quest for revenge. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey. 

"There are few who write science fiction like Ann Leckie can. There are few who ever could." -- John Scalzi
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, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

Ratings and reviews

This is the worst book I've ever tried to read. The intricate names used are off-putting, unpronounceable even in thoughts, and make it hard to concentrate on the story. The story is choppy, going back and forth to different times and places confusingly. Unfortunately, I bought all three books in the series before reading the first and I feel cheated. It's very pretentious and I hope others will take my warning before buying these 300 page books for way too high a price.

An unsubtle, heavy handed, and overwrought book which screams its values at the reader. If certain readings (e.g. reading Leckie's stylistic choices as being echoes of how a possibly traumatised AI might think and what it might narrate) are valid and can help to "save" the book, they did not help to sway my opinion in the slightest. Still, Leckie's novel has found an audience and will continue to do so.

Half the book is spent setting up the story. Most is flashbacks that don't become relevant until around 2/3 through. Too many names are too similar and confusing. The gendering and pronouns os just heavy handed, and inconsistencies are simply confusing. I think they were meant to set and illustrate a many gedered, weakly gendered, or gender fluid society. LeGuin did this masterfully, others interestingly, but here it's just incoherent and diatracting. It's impossible to visuallize the characters and their society is an amorphous uninteresting blob. The AI in many bodies concept is getting tired, same with AI becomes a real live human. I usually have a hard time putying down good sci fi. This was hard to pick back up. Tedious and bland.

About the author

Ann Leckie is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, and British Science Fiction Award-winning novel Ancillary Justice. She has worked as a waitress, a receptionist, a rodman on a land-surveying crew, and a recording engineer. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.