audbaum's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I loved this book! The world building was great, and I especially enjoyed the linguistic choice that our pov character spoke a language that doesn’t use different pronouns depending on gender, so she uses she/her pronouns for everyone within her internal monologue and also while speaking her first language. It did mean that to me as a reader I saw every character as a woman, which I found fun. I also liked the complexity of Breq, who used to be an entire ship (like a hive mind in effect) and still holds that as part of her identity to an extent, but now has to grapple with being alone. Or, not alone, but without most of her present. Losing a large part of herself was obviously not fun for her, and she doesn’t really know what to do beyond her quest for revenge. The relationship she develops with the captain she rescues is interesting to me as well. She has a history with this person, she didn’t like them before, but she finds it in herself to care for her nonetheless. Of course, the rescuee is not immediately on board with Breq, but I love how their relationship forms and changes throughout the book. It’s really what kept me so engaged.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Violence, War, Addiction, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, and Xenophobia
ekcd_'s review against another edition
In terms of world building and general plot style, this book is very similar to Gideon the Ninth - author just throws you into the middle of the world and trusts youll find your way. Its confusing but rewarding once you figure it out... theoretically. Personally I dont like books like this. But I loved GTN because it had good characters and an intriguing premise. Ancillary Justice on the other hand has the most boring, uncompelling, one dimensional characters, an incredibly slow introduction, etc. I spoiled it for myself and was even more unsatisfied so fuck it, this is going to be a DNF.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Deadnaming, Confinement, Blood, Drug abuse, Medical content, Murder, Gore, Drug use, Genocide, Xenophobia, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Medical trauma, War, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Police brutality
kylieqrada's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I loved this!! It reminded me of Ursula K. LeGuin mixed with Murderbot?? So much interesting discourse around gender. Can't wait to pick up the next one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Genocide, Drug abuse, and Addiction
Minor: Body horror, Vomit, and Religious bigotry
pvbobrien's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Gun violence, and Death
Moderate: Classism, Violence, Xenophobia, Genocide, Addiction, and Drug abuse
Minor: Murder, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, War, and Medical content
minechatz's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, War, and Gun violence
Moderate: Drug abuse and Genocide
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Religious bigotry
emilyplun's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Addiction, and Colonisation
Moderate: Racism, Police brutality, Genocide, Gun violence, and Drug abuse
queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
So hard to read. Like Harrow the Ninth hard. The AI flashback chapters with multiple shifting POVs was a huge challenge. The POV being an AI character made it feel like instances of an unreliable narrator. For example, character descriptions from an AI perspective weren't normal literary depictions, so as a imaginative reader it was hard to form a normal picture.
All of that being said, it was an extremely interesting read. The characters were very well-defined, the plot was intriguing and original. Awesome twists! The beginning was a bit of a drag, but the end picked up so fast I immediately rented the next book in the series. I think it'll be like LOTR, where Fellowship is 90% set up and the rest is faster paced.
All of that being said, it was an extremely interesting read. The characters were very well-defined, the plot was intriguing and original. Awesome twists! The beginning was a bit of a drag, but the end picked up so fast I immediately rented the next book in the series. I think it'll be like LOTR, where Fellowship is 90% set up and the rest is faster paced.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Cultural appropriation, Death, Drug abuse, War, Grief, Colonisation, Racism, Addiction, and Torture
ameliebir's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and War
coffinfinite's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Returning to the world of Ancillary Justice was not as easy as I expected. The world Leckie has created felt as obstuse and confusing to me as it did on my first read, and I now believe this is to the book's detriment. In order to get to the meat of the story the reader is asked to juggle too many unknowns and too many unfamiliarities; most authors struggle with too much exposition, while Leckie would do well to explain things a little more. Working out the structure of the main character ship, Justice of Toren, was a real struggle, throwing up questions like what is a decade? How are they organised? Which units are composed of ancillaries and which are now human? What do the names like Esk, Amaat and Var mean, and why? Many of these details are never directly addressed, leaving the reader half blind. The book therefore veers between exciting set pieces following Breq and Seivarden in the current day, and far more confusing flashbacks to Toren that slows reading to a crawl.
Deciding how much of this difficulty is the fault of the author and how much is the fault of me, the reader, is a gnarly task. I am well versed in science fiction and familiar with many of the tropes and traditions of the genre. I don't think Ancillary Justice could be read by someone who hadn't already got a few other science fiction novels under their belt first. On the other hand, perhaps my confusion reveals a weakness in my own cognitive abilities, and a gap between Leckie's ambitious vision and my own competence as a reader. Regardless, the fact remains that while this book is undoubtedly excellent, my experience reading it did not match up. The pace gathers speed towards the climatic finale, tripping over itself a little and coming to an abrupt end that jars against the lethargic first two thirds.
However, the characters and universe are vividly realised, with the Raadch a galactic empire that operates in a flawed meritocracy with a taste for tea (which sounds oddly familiar...) and a love of bright colour, flowers and elaborate statues and stained windows of their deities. It sounds like a terrifying place in which to live, with other cultures being annexed and incorporated into the Raadch's territory in a seemingly endless expansion, until the events of this book. The book deals with issues of classism and colonisation without being condescending or preachy, and the absence of gender identifying language means our perspective of the characters lies more in behavioural interpretation than the pre-conceived norms of the read world. Every character being a "she" in this manner was a refreshing departure from the male-centric notions of more traditional science fiction.
Despite my issues with this book, it is clearly a very important text in the landscape of science fiction as we know it today, and it is an excellent read if you are willing to work through its issues.
Deciding how much of this difficulty is the fault of the author and how much is the fault of me, the reader, is a gnarly task. I am well versed in science fiction and familiar with many of the tropes and traditions of the genre. I don't think Ancillary Justice could be read by someone who hadn't already got a few other science fiction novels under their belt first. On the other hand, perhaps my confusion reveals a weakness in my own cognitive abilities, and a gap between Leckie's ambitious vision and my own competence as a reader. Regardless, the fact remains that while this book is undoubtedly excellent, my experience reading it did not match up. The pace gathers speed towards the climatic finale, tripping over itself a little and coming to an abrupt end that jars against the lethargic first two thirds.
However, the characters and universe are vividly realised, with the Raadch a galactic empire that operates in a flawed meritocracy with a taste for tea (which sounds oddly familiar...) and a love of bright colour, flowers and elaborate statues and stained windows of their deities. It sounds like a terrifying place in which to live, with other cultures being annexed and incorporated into the Raadch's territory in a seemingly endless expansion, until the events of this book. The book deals with issues of classism and colonisation without being condescending or preachy, and the absence of gender identifying language means our perspective of the characters lies more in behavioural interpretation than the pre-conceived norms of the read world. Every character being a "she" in this manner was a refreshing departure from the male-centric notions of more traditional science fiction.
Despite my issues with this book, it is clearly a very important text in the landscape of science fiction as we know it today, and it is an excellent read if you are willing to work through its issues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Genocide
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, and Gun violence
ailsaod's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I've been picking this book up in my local Waterstones, reading the first chapter, deciding it sounds cool and then putting it back for a couple years now and decided to finally get it as a present to myself.
This book is a strange one - taking place in a universe that contains a vast intergalactic empire headed by a leader whose rule is absolute and clones themself and has some kind of hive mind situation going on. Also gender who? - the Raadchai don't do gender and in a refreshing turn of events use the pronoun 'she for everyone. I have come across gender neutral/agender characters before (the Fool from Robin Hobb's 'Farseer' series is the best example I can think of) but 'he' is used as the default pronoun which kind of blots out that aspect of the character - although in newer works 'they' or neopronouns are sometimes used which avoid this. Using 'she' as default is not something I've come across before and initially I thought it would come across in that kind of annoyingly overstated "#GIRLPOWER" way but it's fine. It does result in some double takes when characters are accidentally misgendered but I found it very interesting to read. I think we generally place wayyyy too much importance on gender - although I'm not about to take much life advice from the Raadchai as lack of gender aside every other aspect of their society is kind of yikes and they have a worrying tendency to commit horrible war crimes.
The book takes place over two time lines, almost twenty years apart, and while I generally don't get on well with that format ('Haze' by L.E. Modesitt, one of my least liked books I have chosen to read has a dual time format almost exactly the same as this book) I really enjoyed it here. Leckie has interesting things happen in both timelines (wowee!) and when things begin to kick off it happens in the present time rather than the past, as I find usually happens in this kind of book, which was much more exciting as you have no way of knowing how it is going to be resolved.
I'm finding it difficult to put into words how good I think this book is - I haven't even touched on the interesting world building details that are scattered about and make me want to know more or how the more you think about this book the more you realise. It is obvious from the beginning that the past time line is going to go poorly but how it does and the impact it does - or rather doesn't have - makes you think. Also the characters make the mistakes of people that don't know what their future holds rather than puppets that the author is directing which makes the events feel particularly real.
It is just a very good book and while I'm not sure how the rest of the trilogy will match it I'm looking forward to finding out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Medical trauma
Moderate: Colonisation, Slavery, Murder, and Genocide
Minor: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, and Death
So many war crimes. A lot of potentially disturbing themes arising from the use of 'ancillaries' - humans from colonised planets that have been 'wiped' of their previous existence and made into cyborg soldiers for AIs to operate.