Ancillary Justice

I struggled through almost the entire first half of this book. I couldn't understand what the point of anything was supposed to be and found my attention wandering. The second half became easier to follow, but I was just not very interested in what was happening

I'm not sure where the cycle started, but I was bored by the subject matter, then spaced out and didn't pay enough attention to details, then didn't remember enough to gain interest, then was bored, and on and on. This book felt like it went on forever and I'm still not sure anything really happened? It was also a huge missed opportunity to discuss gender from a really unique perspective.

No, i did not like it. Why?
See my full thoughts here: https://youtu.be/JV5FdcTRO18
Will not continue this series.

This was a tough book.

The Radchaai have been on a several thousand year long campaign of violent expansion and have a complex culture centered around family houses, social standing, and religious devotion. Ancillary Justice is story told from the perceptive of a ship AI serving the Radchaai, who is, for all intents and purposes, omnipotent until her primary vessel is destroyed and only a fragment of her once vast consciousnesses survives in a human body. The author (Ann Lecke) throws you into the middle of that drama without any preamble. You are in the mind of Justice of Toren and as the reader you are forced to piece together a very alien universe from her perceptive.

This book took me almost all summer to get through, and there were times when I almost put it down and walked away. I didn't find the plot to very engaging (at first), and everything about the setting and narration was complex and difficult to follow. I'd find myself reading pages and paragraphs several times just to understand what was happening. I felt very dumb.

Although it was a challenging read, it was also incredibly rewarding. It takes place in a rich universe, the characters are complex and flawed people, and it touches on some really profound philosophical topics. What is the “self” when it is spread across thousands of minds and bodies?

I can't really recommend this book to everyone, but if you want to take on something that will really make you think you should give this one a shot. I didn't really “enjoy” the book until about 70% of the way through, but I was engaged and interested the entire time.

Given that many of my closest friendships were forged in the fires of shared literary interests, actually, I have very little overlap in tastes with my real life friends. So despite the fact that my best friend and I both obsessively read science fiction and fantasy, her recommending this to me was not particularly encouraging. She convinced me to read it by pitching the agender society and neurodiversity of the main character, but reading it I found the things that I would have used to pitch it to her in abundance: a deeply created society, such that every utterance of a character was pregnant with meaning, songs and poems that had built up layers of nuance over generations and elaborate rituals. Unlike the sorts of books she typically reads, most of this was implied so that Leckie developed the feel of an intricate created society without the burden of pages and pages of exposition. So I, who hate slow books actually quite enjoyed it.

I liked the exploration of how do very diverse societies clock gender, what does it mean to be an entity (is continuity of consciousness real?) and how do societies change over time

It ended really well but I had a hard time getting in to this book. I was very confused at first, which I understand is somewhat the point, but it detracted from the story. I also personally had a hard time getting used to the gender neutral characters, not that I have an issue with it, it just made it hard for me to keep track of the characters. That being said by the end of the book I barely noticed anymore and I look forward to seeing how the series progresses.

This review can also be found on my blog.

I wish I had more to say about this, but it unfortunately didn't leave too much of an impression on me. Aspects of it were certainly interesting. The implication of AI having free will, and being intelligent and independent enough to pass as human beings was intriguing to consider. The mundanity of gender. A few other things that I can't delve into without getting into spoiler territory. The issue mainly being that this is such a slow burn, making it feel unnecessarily long at parts. I found myself getting confused relatively easily at some points and just didn't feel like whatever I got out of the book heavily outweighed the work I was putting into it. Still, I do find it intriguing and would like to see where the series goes so I plan to continue.

It was time to get back to science fiction, so what could be better than one that one the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Arthur C. Clarke awards!? (The only book to win all three). This was a cool story that made it easy for me to put away my smartphone and keep picking up the book. Got a little confused at times but that tended to clear up as I kept reading. Looking forward to finishing the rest of the trilogy.

A good piece of space opera with an interesting setting, as well as a decent revenge plot at the heart of it. Much of the book flips back and forth between the “present” and the backstory, revealing the central character's motives as we go - I often find this annoying, but in this case, it worked perfectly, adding to the story rather than diluting it.

The most notable feature, of course, is that, since the book is ostensibly being translated from a language that has no concept of gender (something the central character also struggles with) it uses the feminine form throughout. That's most obviously the pronouns, although it extends to words like “niece” and “sister” as well, so that we have no idea of the biological sex of the great majority of the characters. This feels like something of a contrivance, although I got used to it after a while, and there's an in-world reason, so it's fine by me.

Very interesting... Not only puts a light on Earth's history of colonisation and it's so called justifications for violence and inhumane treatment but also the troubles one might have as a distributed Altered Carbon being. Also the gender pronoun flips really highlight what stereotypes we have floating around in our head.

For the 2018 Read Harder Challenge category of sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author. This was a challenging book! It had a wealth of details about worlds and space travel, elaborate military titles and family names, puzzling hidden meanings within conversations, but also a great climactic ending. Most interesting to me was the skillful way the author represented gender fluidity throughout. “She” is used as the default pronoun, and the main character is often chagrined when she happens to select the wrong pronoun when referring to individuals she doesn't know. That is, I think the main character is female...

Smart and beautiful.

Would have been better if the plot were more follow-able.

Okay, okay, the hype was worth it. Now I'm excited to read the others.

The most imaginative book I have read in long time.

Amazing book. It's like Leckie is playing chess with this novel. You'll feel a ripple of satisfaction each time a bit of mystery unfolds.

Really good for a first novel and the concept is really interesting.

But it's a little preachy at points. It reminded me a lot of The Left Hand of Darkness and Consider Phlebas, but not as subtle or thoroughly developed.

Second read, this time without me training speed reading so I actually enjoyed the book a lot more. It has some very original ideas and following one AI that's at the same time a ship and (theoretically) hundreds of ancillaries (AIs in human bodies) is quite refreshing even when the idea is utilized only in the first third of the book. The rest basically follows one of those ancillaries, the last surviving one. The best thing about this concept was that some of the dialogues happen parallel to each other because the AI can be in many places at the same time. It's a gimmick but I like it a lot.

Characters are three dimensional, especially One Esk/Breq/the AI but of course the novel would hardly work without the main character having emotions despite being AI. World is also very interesting, a space empire that uses ancillaries to conquer worlds. It's a mix of Orwell's 1984 and Roman Empire with a pinch of Indian castes.

Empire of Radch uses its own language and has actually only one pronoun for both genders which makes things incredibly confusing until someone from outside of Radch mentions the genders of main characters “in different language” that uses pronouns. It's ballsy on paper but falls flat in execution. Especially when the AI has issues recognizing the gender even based on facial and body features. That is simply ridiculous! Makes me wonder how the doctors treat patients when they have only one pronoun but genders need different treatments in some cases. Why even go through the trouble and making it so unless it was to score some cookies with the woke feminist crowd. It's confusing for the reader and must be even more for people living in that world.

It would be 5 stars if the author made it less confusing - if Breq, as a super smart AI, was able to identify gender at least for us readers and if the ending didn't skip one or two weeks when Breq was unconscious and basically everything important happened then. It's lazy writing to push the story forward and when it nears the climax to knockout the main character through whose narration we see the world only to wake her up after everything is resolved.

Few books have the power to transform the way you think about reading. Ancillary Justice raises deep questions about the nature of personality and of social roles; questions that may remain with you long after you've finished reading and may affect how you think about language. (Note: the reading itself may be tough going at times. Stick with it). I can't say much more without spoiling your experience, and this is one voyage you need to take your time on.

Clumsy in places: some plot elements involving superstition, religion, military command structure, and family intrigues were hard to swallow, and IMO detracted slightly from the story, but they're forgivable. Worth taking off one star but the rest of the book is so damn good (6-7 stars) that it balances out to 5.

Incredible space opera. Combines the wide and narrow scope of Dune, the intriguing tech of Asimov, and the challenging gender play of Octavia Butler.

Totally unique characters and world. Some of the political convolutions of the plot were slightly hard to follow. Really really interesting read though.

Increíble. De las mejores novelas de CF que he leído en tiempo. La historia, los personajes, el universo. No es una lectura para nada fácil, pero te atrapa poco a poco.

Para explicar el uso del género, cito la review de Fantifica:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/941217412?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

“Uno de los aspectos de Ancillary Justice de los que posiblemente ya habréis oído hablar es su uso de los géneros gramaticales para referirse a las personas. Los radchaai —ciudadanos del Radch, que es como se llama el imperio romanogaláctico en que se ambienta la novela— se preocupan muy poco del sexo de los individuos, y la traducción al inglés utiliza arbitrariamente el femenino para referirse a todo el mundo, como estoy haciendo yo en esta reseña. Y aunque hay pistas que permiten averiguar el sexo de muchos de ellos, porque a veces se emplean los idiomas de planetas conquistados, llega un momento en que comprendes que estar continuamente atento a lo mismo te saca demasiado de la historia. Y lo dejas estar. De verdad lo dejas estar, aparte de algún «anda, qué cosas» suelto, porque sale más a cuenta dedicar tus ciclos mentales a los temas mucho más interesantes que toca el libro, como la indecisión, la voluntad o la misma consciencia.”

Espero que editen los otros dos tomos de la trilogía.

Me ha encantado. Mucho.

Great concept, great world building. Loved how the reader slowly learns why its protagonist is so special. Which, as I now discover, is even mentioned on the jacket sleeve. Still. The characters are mysterious and complex, hard to read, no one is to trust. And even once our POV is cleared up and alliances are uncovered, nothing becomes simple. If I had to criticize something, then it would be the existence of that unbeatable weapon.

3.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

One segment of a ship-mind, in a human body, is cut off from her ship, and pursuing a mission of vengeance against the power that did it to her.

At this time last year, I'm not sure I'd heard of Ann Leckie. At the latest by the summer and the WorldCon, I'd heard quite a lot about her and about Ancillary Justice - the multiple-award-winning novel that starts off her Imperial Radch series about artificial intelligence in human form. I tend to be suspicious of fads - too often they don't pay off - but I finally decided to find out for myself what all the fuss was about.

And the answer is...a decent, well-plotted space opera with military overtones. It takes a somewhat novel approach by combining AI and hive-minds, and by deliberately confusing genders - both done quite well. What the book doesn't do as well is to establish its world clearly. The narrative jumps back and forth between several distinct times, but their exact temporal location and sequence aren't well established. Terms and hierarchies are noted without much explanation, and the plot is scattered for quite some time. It needed an editor with a firmer hand for the basic structure.

Once our feet are somewhat planted (I never did get the timeframe straight), things move better. Leckie's writing is confident and smooth, and mostly works. The characters feel genuine and sympathetic. The wide-spread culture is largely credible. It feels a bit like Orson Scott Card, though without the same depth of character. Despite the fact that it's got a toe firmly in the political fiction pool, it's effective, but not compelling.

At many points in the book, and from the very start, protagonist One-Esk-Nineteen acts without knowing why she does. I tend to distrust that in most stories, and if it happens more than a few times, there had better be a good reason. In Ancillary Justice, there never is, though there is the possibility it will come out in some later book. I only have this one, though, and I found it dissatisfying, especially when there are things the character has hidden from herself. The very first ‘unknowing' thing she does, and that shapes the entire book, is never explained. When an action hijacks 300 pages, a vague hint isn't enough.

I'm glad to have read the book. It's good, and Leckie handles the innovations well. I don't see why it's been such a big hit, but I enjoyed the book and see why others have. I don't feel compelled to buy the sequels.

I don't think this book was for me. Which is surprising because the synopsis would argue otherwise. The main character is an AI, a two thousand year old star ship trapped for the past two decades in a single human body, on a quest for answers and revenge. That's gold right there. But this book consistently felt like work, and while I like my reading to be challenging, I'm not too proud to recognize when something is just a little bit out of my league.

What gets talked about the most about this book is the setting and the language, specifically that everyone is referred to a gender-neutral “she.” Which is disorienting and kind of exciting. You can essentially imagine any character as any gender you feel like, or keep them all genderless if that's your fancy. The only characters with specified genders is Breq, our hero, formerly the Justice of Toren, who has a woman's body, and Sevairden, a man she rescues from a drug habit for no other reason that he was a former officer of hers. Breq and Sevairden's relationship is a fascinating one. He (he is referred to as she in the book, obviously, but I'm going to try to be a little less confusing here) was not one of her favorite officers, as she consistently states, and she feels no real attachment to him. Over the course of the book, the feeling is clearly not mutual. Whether its because Sevairden subconsciously recognizes his former ship or because he fell in love with a person who selflessly cared for him when they didn't have to is hard to say- like many things, Leckie leaves this intentionally ambiguous.

In Ancillary Justice, you have to consistently think about what you're reading. You have to think about what it means for an AI to have “favorites” and overturn an entire empire out of grief for a lieutenant she was forced to murder, you have to question your assumption that all figures of authority are male even when they're referred to as “she” (I learned some shit about myself in this, for real), you have to keep track of what the fuck is going on when an omniscient all-powerful AI splits into multiple parts and starts acting against itself. When the climax hit, it was exciting and intense, but a big part of me was just like “I have no idea what they fuck is happening.”

There's also a lot of talking. There's exploration of cultures that consistently feel alien, discussion of morality and philosophy between an ancient AI and humans who don't understand its value. Everything feels at an arm's length, and the use of pronouns has a bit to do with that. When you're constantly questioning how you've interpreted character, its hard to just be in the moment and get absorbed into the story. There are great emotional elements to this - the fact that Breq is so stoic makes when she does get emotionally invested so much more valuable, and the story of Lieutenant Awn is gripping and sad to say the least - but mostly I felt very detached.

I'm really torn about whether I want to read the next book. I really like Breq, or Justice of Toren. I want to see her interact with other AI (the interactions with Station and a Mercy were really interesting but brief), and I want to see where her relationship with Sevairden goes. But I think I might read something a little more straight forward next.

Story: 4 / 10
Characters: 9
Setting: 6
Prose: 6

Really impressive concept. Sadly, not a very good delivery. The plot doesn't develop until well over halfway through, which leaves the story wandering aimlessly.

Tags: Ancillaries, AI-human interaction, mind control, houses, families, birthright, privilege, class, imperialism