Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Justicia Auxiliar by Ann Leckie

41 reviews

birdofalltrades's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Colonisation, War, and Classism

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sofipitch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

This did, in fact, live up to the hype. Not only is this book having a conversation with Le Guin's "Left Hand of Darkness", there was a lot about Leckie's writing that reminded me of Le Guin. This is mostly in how she balances heavily wanting to discuss themes and concepts, with plot and characters, created a well rounded book. The only big difference I would say is Leckie doesn't have the occasional line that leaves you on the floor like Le Guin, but we can't all be her. The discussions of gender and culture were really interesting, taking LHoD further than it went. 
What I found really interesting was the topic of selfhood throughout the book. As Breq is one part of a larger AI she often toggles between seeing herself as an individual vs seeing herself as part of a whole. The fact that that whole is a ship in an expansionist empire. I'm going to refrain from talking about the other character who is built like this, as it contains spoilers, but what was especially interesting was the struggle to decide if one component did something bad, was the whole polluted or just that segment? Again this applies not only to individuals, but also entire cultures. Breq is Radchaii and loved parts of her culture, but she also recognizes the harm it has done through colonization, and struggles with how those things can coexist and what she wants to do about it. Blow it all up and start over or try to preserve the good and eliminate the bad. Super excited to see how the next book continues that convo. 
Also I would be remiss to not mention that part of the appeal isn't all the intelligent themes but also Breq and Servidan are compelling characters, I enjoyed their journey throughout the story. This is what is considered "hard sci fi" so get ready to be super confused at the beginning as you get your bearings. But it is worth it, and the characters are what helps you hold on while you're confused. I already went ahead and put book 2 on hold with the library

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

abookwormspov's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Violence

queenkath32's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, and War

selfsoulfriend's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Addiction

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

philamot's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Ancillary Justice follows the story of an intelligent warship at two different points in its existence, 20 years apart. The switches between timepoints are well-handled and create a coherent story, with neither timepoint handling the bulk of the reveals. 

I felt like the non-human intelligence was handled in a really fun way - it was like a semi-omniscient first person narrator, and really affirmed the fact that this was not a human narrator.  

The worldbuilding is layered and does not feel like a renamed sci-if version of an Earth culture. Which can be fun, when done well, but I enjoyed novel societies. 

One of the most arresting bits of worldbuilding is the adherence to she/her/hers as the default pronouns for a society that did not consider gender a meaningful linguistic or societal marker. A fun inversion from the traditional use of he, and one that still surprised me, as I would assume the use of they/them/theirs. Since the main character was generally confused by gender markers, almost all characters were referred to using she/her/hers. Further, different characters from gendered societies would refer to the same characters with different pronouns - implying to me at least that different cultures had conflicting interpretations of a characters gender markers.  Sometimes, it came across as a bit heavy handed, and I’m not sure if using she/her feels like kind of queer or like a doubling down on the binary from the opposite directions. I’m generally a fan though, as I’m into any playing with gender into science fiction tbh.  

In general, a fun read! Good for fans of the Murderbot series for sure - read it in about 4 hours on a plane hahaha. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, and War

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Genocide, Violence, Xenophobia, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

starlitpage's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Grief, and Alcohol