Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Ancillary Justice

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.

Content Warnings

tascaraudo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-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

4.5

I enjoyed this very much! Was startled by the

Spoiler

sudden shift in Seivarden's behavior, idk that I believed her allegiance to switch so quickly

but enjoyed the characters and the unique perspective of the MC.
BIG warning for execution/mass murder. The MC is also essentially a slave to the Radch empire.

Content Warnings

ailsaod's review against another edition

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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

rosequarterdrifting's review against another edition

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reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

Content Warnings

katie_the_librarian's review against another edition

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adventurous tense 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

4.5

Content Warnings

urs's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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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reina's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I went in knowing nothing and loved the reveals as you learn about what/who the main character was. I found the world building really interesting, as well as the philosophy and ethics. I also liked the nonlinear storytelling. The impact of events were stronger that way.

Space opera.

Spoiler

Not much spoilers: I hadn't thought of myself as a fan of AI themes, but this made me realize it. I got a low-key Bladerunner vibe. It also reminded me of 'The Ship Who Sang' by Anne McCaffrey. Although it's been a long time since I read it.

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