The Sword and Laser discussion

We'll be having Ann Leckie on November 25th during our Ancillary Justice wrap up episode! Please post your comments here (and remember to use spoiler tags, since we're not finished the book yet!).

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1. Does Breq, the lone remaining ancillary, have male or female genitalia?

2. What are you favorite female bad asses in scifi novels?

When is the deadline for questions? I haven't started yet but hope to today or tomorrow...

How many books are there going to be in the series? I'm pretty hooked

The idea of a gender-neutral society is unique in my experience. Where did Ms. Leckie come up with the idea? Is there some prior work that she built on or was influenced by in coming up with the general shape of the culture?

Does the Lord of Radch consider itself to be human?
Does the Lord of Radch consider itself a "citizen" and/or "civilized?"

Your treatment of religions in the novel is really interesting- for example, how Breq talks about the translation of one religion to another when a people is conquered, the difficulty of translating cast omens into proper scripture references, and the influence radchaai religion has had on connotations of words like "coincidence" in the radchaai language.

I was wondering what you find interesting about religion/comparative religions, and was also wondering what you honk is the ultimate relationship between religion and language?

In "Ancilliary Justice" you have subverted some science fiction/fantasy tropes, especially concerning gender.
So I would be interested in you favourite and least favourite science fiction or fantasy trope.

Do you think that the differences in the sexes are overstated in science fiction and/or fantasy literature?

... and one further question: If you got the offer to sell you book so that a major motion picture would be made, would you take the offer and would you trust the current movie makers to get your ideas right?

Currently I am enjoying your book sooo much and I am looking forward to your next novel. :)

How does clientage work?

What does it mean to wear a token of clientage?

The relationship between Breq and Seivarden is interesting, particularly when they're on the Radchaai world. Seivarden is obviously deeply loyal to Breq because of her actions on the Nilt world and beyond. Is this just friendship? Or is this the Radchaai equivalent of a romantic relationship (that Breq is completely oblivious to)?

This is kind of related to Josh's question above, but in the recent hangout with Daniel Abraham and Rachel Bach, you spoke briefly about the way that gender pronouns are used in Ancillary Justice as resulting in a challenging book for readers.

Many commenters on the forum have also cited the split perspective between Justice of Toren and the ancillaries of One Esk as another element that took some getting used to.

Could you elaborate on the decision to, in your debut novel, deliberately create such a challenging work? Were you ever tempted to or advised to 'dumb it down', and if so, what was your motivation for sticking with this approach?

For what it's worth, I'm glad you did, the end result is something distinct among a lot of recent SF and I think the novel will be a real contender for some major awards.

How did she come up with the names for the various civilizations / races? Rrrrrr is one of my favorite.

Stephanie wrote: "How did she come up with the names for the various civilizations / races? Rrrrrr is one of my favorite."

I assume she fell asleep on her keyboard while writing..

It is hinted in your book that the homeplanet of humanity is far away, lost or otherwise unknown. What happend to good old mother Earth?

Kind of a cliche question, but who are your biggest influences in literature in general and sci-fi in particular? What historical cultures influenced those that appear in the book, if any?

In the knife fight in your heart between plot and character, which is the colder killer?

In a world where books hand everything to you on a silver platter, it's refreshing to reaf a book that makes the reader do someof the work. How did you keep from using too much exposition? It's clear that youdid a lot of world-building in the background but aren't sharing it in the text.

You got one of your stories before you published Ancillary Justice in Electric Velocipide. This year will see the last issue of the magazine out this winter. Do you have any thoughts about this?

Even though you avoided descriptions of Breq, do you have a picture of her in your mind?

Again with the gender issue: Was any part of you (or instance of you, if you prefer) intentionally trying to stir up gender discussion with the readers? Did you use the gender neutrallity of the Radach to provoke people into reexamining their own thoughts on what defines women and men? If not, are you rolling your eyes at all the hullaballoo?