Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie)

26 November 2014

Ancillary Justice

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.

Average Rating:

Sinclair Manson (16 December 2014 21:40)

It's hard to know where to begin, this book was both very enjoyable and quite thought provoking. The cunning obfuscation of gender and skillful presentation of a mind with many bodies have been mentioned. I think my favourite element is the motivation of the central character. She never really explains why she wants to keep shooting Anaander Mianaai (and bonus points for that name, I love saying it to myself) and there's never anything so blunt as an heart to heart about it. It seems both more complicated and simpler than vengeance. I like the idea that shooting Anaander Mianaai was the last thing that Justice of Toren did as a whole being and that the remaining fragment is stuck in that moment like part of a broken machine.

Marc Reynolds (16 December 2014 14:05)

Probably the best book I have read this year. It truly deserves all it's accolades. Not only is it an interesting story of vengeance, but it also manages to ask a lot of questions about how we view gender, without being blatant about it and breaking the immersion in the story. A virtuoso piece of writing!

Graham MacDonald (13 December 2014 16:21)

Superb and different space opera / cyberpunk novel which manages to do that rare thing for a first book of cramming in about a million ideas without feeling overloaded. Brilliantly paced and cleverer than a fox that's just been given a clever transplant at the world renowned Clever Institute for Clever Things. I'm not sure I've seen the multiple minds / viewpoints from one character thing done better and the way gender is handled is really smart. The plot tends to stay just on the right side of overwhelming throughout which is exactly how I like my scifi; sometimes playing catchup but never getting completely lost.

Often you read these multiple award wining novels and think meh... it's not that great (especially the case with Hugo winners although this won everything else going this year too) but this really lives up to the hype.