A review by aseaoftomes
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This was such an interesting book and I really liked it.
For those of you who know me, you know I have a weird and somewhat complicated relationship with sci-fi in book format, but I really liked this.
This book is kind of complicated to explain, but this is a space opera and it takes place thousands of years in the future in this planetary system that is run by these AI's called Ancillaries. Our main protagonist is Breq who encounters someone from 1,000 years ago named Seivarden and their journey goes from there. This is told in multiple timelines - one from a thousand years ago that explains what happened and one from the present day and things go from there.
The writing is pretty easy to follow, but it does take time to settle into the world because of the timelines. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on, but it all comes together really nicely and flowed really well. Once I settled in and understood what was going on a little bit better, I had very little trouble immersing myself into the story.
The plot was interesting. I think I'm coming to realize that I like space operas. Dual timelines can be a bit of a hit or miss for me, but I really think it worked well here. You need to understand the before in order to have a better picture of what's happening in current day. And I loved the mystery of figuring it all out because you don't know everything for various reasons and I loved getting to experience that as the story moved along. But the basic plot is what I mentioned above.
The world building was very interesting and I loved how rich it all was. A large part of the book takes place in an expanded system on an ice planet that is run by these beings called Ancillaries. I loved getting to see their culture and traditions and learning a bit about how they're different from other cultures. The discussion of gender in this was also great and I really enjoyed what the author did with it. Also the portrayal of AI was great as was identity in general. I'm really looking forward to how the other books expand on all of this.
Finally, the characters. While this book is quite plot driven in some ways, it's more of a character centric book because relationships are at its core. Interactions with different people - culturally, emotionally, etc are central to this. Those relationships are really what drives these characters. I loved the dynamic between Breq and Seivarden - their friendship was delightful. I really liked the side characters as well. They were all really interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing where they go from here.
Overall, I really enjoyed this - it took some time to settle in to, but the world building and characters really made the whole experience worth it and I look forward to continuing.
For those of you who know me, you know I have a weird and somewhat complicated relationship with sci-fi in book format, but I really liked this.
This book is kind of complicated to explain, but this is a space opera and it takes place thousands of years in the future in this planetary system that is run by these AI's called Ancillaries. Our main protagonist is Breq who encounters someone from 1,000 years ago named Seivarden and their journey goes from there. This is told in multiple timelines - one from a thousand years ago that explains what happened and one from the present day and things go from there.
The writing is pretty easy to follow, but it does take time to settle into the world because of the timelines. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on, but it all comes together really nicely and flowed really well. Once I settled in and understood what was going on a little bit better, I had very little trouble immersing myself into the story.
The plot was interesting. I think I'm coming to realize that I like space operas. Dual timelines can be a bit of a hit or miss for me, but I really think it worked well here. You need to understand the before in order to have a better picture of what's happening in current day. And I loved the mystery of figuring it all out because you don't know everything for various reasons and I loved getting to experience that as the story moved along. But the basic plot is what I mentioned above.
The world building was very interesting and I loved how rich it all was. A large part of the book takes place in an expanded system on an ice planet that is run by these beings called Ancillaries. I loved getting to see their culture and traditions and learning a bit about how they're different from other cultures. The discussion of gender in this was also great and I really enjoyed what the author did with it. Also the portrayal of AI was great as was identity in general. I'm really looking forward to how the other books expand on all of this.
Finally, the characters. While this book is quite plot driven in some ways, it's more of a character centric book because relationships are at its core. Interactions with different people - culturally, emotionally, etc are central to this. Those relationships are really what drives these characters. I loved the dynamic between Breq and Seivarden - their friendship was delightful. I really liked the side characters as well. They were all really interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing where they go from here.
Overall, I really enjoyed this - it took some time to settle in to, but the world building and characters really made the whole experience worth it and I look forward to continuing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, and Grief
Minor: Vomit