Ancillary Justice

So this is the book that over the last year or two has been sweeping awards throughout the sci-fi community. It's certainly true that I had high expectations of this book and yes, it is good but certainly not great.

So, in the back cover blurb we learn that Breq is an ancillary soldier but also a huge starship called Justice of Toren. I found this central idea quite fascinating and to be honest was struggling to comprehend how this would play out within the narrative and characterisation. I have to say that Leckie succeeds in making both the AI of 'Justice of Toren' and her identity as the ancillary soldier Breq entirely believable and authentic. 'Toren' is a spaceship of the Radch Empire (a galactic human empire with more than a nod to the Roman Empire). It's essentially expansionist and needs further annexations and co-opting of other planets into it's Empire in order to feed it's populace and fuel it's economy, leading to inherently more annexations...

Essentially when a planet is subjugated swathes of the human population are effectively enslaved and put into cold storage on spaceships like 'Toren'. The people then effectively have their memories and identity removed and the AI of the spaceship assumes control of the people. These ancillary soldiers are effectively part of the spaceship and the ships AI. This leads to an interesting scenario where Toren narrating as 'I' describes what multiple ancillaries are doing (even looking at each other and interacting). Toren is effectively wherever her ancillaries are. This allows multiple viewpoints but from one perspective. I really liked this and I think it was handled well.

Another interesting point in the discussion is that the Radch do not recognise gender pronouns so everyone is referred to as 'she'. I've seen comments which range from this being a gimmick to a feminist statement. I suppose it is a contrast to the idea of male-centric sci-fi (but to be honest I'm of a view that speculative fiction belonging to boys is pretty outdated). Although biologically the Radch are biologically male and female it's clear that romantic relationships are polysexual and styles and fashions amongst the Radch are interchangeable amongst the biological sexes. I thought the lack of gender pronoun was cute because I found myself early on trying to imagine certain characters as male or female (we do know of one or two sexes of characters) but after about a third of the book I stopped bothering because I realised it didn't matter. I found the thought processes in my head quite interesting in that I imagined certain characters as male or female with no evidence other than my own cultural bias to determine this. It did make me think about how easily one can slip into identifying characteristics as male or female.

The world building is generally good and at times the reader has to work a little bit to put the various plot strands together. I appreciated not getting any info dumps and the last third of the book does bring the Radch empire to life. Radch society - as essentially brutal it is with strict hierarchies also seems beautiful. The people seem beautiful and there is a real sense of colour. Since one of Toren's hobbies is singing (the idea of 20 ancillaries singing together or humming a tune is lovely) this is a novel that appeals to the senses I think.

It is not a perfect book though - the pacing is pretty pedestrian at times and it does feel like not a lot happens for 100 or so pages. There is a supporting character who does go through some significant development but seems to spend much of the novel asleep, it's almost as though she is dragged through the novel.

And then there is the central plot thread - that of Breq and her mission. It's essentially a stupid plot and a stupid plan. Breq accepts that her mission is likely to fail and will be futile but does it anyway. The ending is very 'space opera' but if I'm being honest I just found it a little silly and ridiculous.

I think I would like to read the sequel Ancillary Sword but it's not going to the top of the must-read list.