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

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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Sep 13, 2013 Mogsy rated it liked it

Shelves: review-copy, arcs-and-galleys, science-fiction, 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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Feb 23, 2015 Maryam rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, favorite-2015

I really liked this book and soon will read the second sequel for sure.The story, plot and characters are definitely well processed and you slowly realize what happened thousand years ago, twenty years ago and how those events matters in what is going to happen now.

Having an AI with emotion is not actually a new idea but the way the writer use it is kind of new to me.Also it's the first book I'm reading that in a non gender based language use the feminine words to define people.AT first it was a ...more

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Sep 11, 2013 Liviu marked it as started_finish_later

the book seems very interesting but the prose does not work for me in the least; will try again later, maybe will have better luck then

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May 17, 2015 Julia Sarene rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, 2-scifi, 1-women-in-sff

This one took me quite a while to read. It was simply the wrong book at the wrong time.
I took it back up a few days ago, and then devoured it right away - apparently now was the right time!

I really enjoyed the main characters POV. I always liked the non humans like Data or the Doctor (the Timelord one as well as the Star Trek one...), so that wasn't a big surprise.

I especially liked that the societies were different enough to actually feel alien, and not just like a different kind of culture on ...more

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Feb 04, 2016 Blodeuedd Finland rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, military-sci-fi

I am gonna be totally honest here. I was lost for like the first 100 pages. My brain was one big ? I had no idea what I was reading. And when I finished I was still a bit ?!?!?.But the book was still so good, so even though I was lost in a cloud of confusion I could still not put it down. Weird...so weird.

I am just gonna simplify the shit out of things so my brain can keep track even years after so I know wtf I am talking about.

Ok, we have a spaceship. We have lots of bodies, I forgot, all dead ...more

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Oct 12, 2014 Benni rated it it was amazing

Review: http://bennitheblog.com/bookbiters/an...

A soldier known only as Breq is on the last part of preparing for her quest. To others, she seems like a Radchaai, but in reality Breq is the last surviving ancillary of the spaceship, Justice of Toren. In Radchaai history, many of its ships had “ancillaries”—prisoners of war whose bodies were appropriated to install a ship’s artificial intelligence. One ship would have many, many ancillaries that helped maintain it and act as the ship’s eyes, ears ...more

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Aug 15, 2017 Scott Marlowe rated it liked it · review of another edition

Just ok. Not great, not bad, but I did finish it. Given all the hoopla (3 major awards and all), I was expecting much, much more.

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Oct 25, 2015 Elise rated it it was amazing

This book was so GOOD. I loved it. I feel like there are extensive reviews on why this book is so great, and I wouldn't add anything of substance to them. So, I will simply say that everything in this book was fantastic, and now I have a lot of feelings about ships. Can't wait to go out and get book 2 & 3. ...more

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