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Ancillary Justice

by Ann Leckie

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Imperial Radch (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
5,5973481,713 (4.01)1 / 576
Now isolated in a single frail human body, Breq, an artificial intelligence that used to control of a massive starship and its crew of soldiers, tries to adjust to her new humanity while seeking vengeance and answers to her questions.
  1. 92
    The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (lquilter)
    lquilter: Fans of either Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness or Leckie's Ancillary Justice should enjoy the other. In common, the pacing, character-centered perspective obscuring aspects of the universe, political machinations, far-future setting, and treatment of ethics; also interesting for its simultaneous foregrounding and backgrounding of gender.… (more)
  2. 60
    All Systems Red by Martha Wells (chlorine)
    chlorine: Main protagonists are at least somewhat AI, and both books have a neutral take on gender.
  3. 40
    Ghost Spin by Chris Moriarty (libron)
    libron: Ancillary Justice is great - but for a nuanced, riveting treatment of AI, Moriarty has her beat, hands down. I hope to see more rigorous explorations in future of what Leckie has limned in her first outing.
  4. 40
    A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (g33kgrrl)
    g33kgrrl: Both books feature complex, political space sci-fi with amazing characters and world-building.
  5. 41
    Embassytown by China Miéville (electronicmemory)
  6. 30
    The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (RidgewayGirl)
    RidgewayGirl: Utterly different in tone, this also features the "mind" of a ship and the people she interacts with.
  7. 30
    Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh (sandstone78)
    sandstone78: Leckie has said that Cherryh's Foreigner books were a big influence on Ancillary Justice and sequels
  8. 30
    Ring of Swords by Eleanor Arnason (libron)
    libron: Arnason's depiction of an alternative (alien) gender/social structure is awesome. I hope Leckie can flesh her own ideas out further beyond pronoun ambiguity in forthcoming books.
  9. 20
    A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (electronicmemory)
  10. 31
    The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (souloftherose)
    souloftherose: Both are optimistic space operas that focus on the characters and their relationships.
  11. 20
    A Matter of Oaths by Helen S. Wright (sandstone78)
    sandstone78: Some of the dynamics in Leckie's Ancillary Justice remind me of the much more obscure single-volume space opera Wright's A Matter of Oaths about two warring immortal emperors and a protagonist with a mysterious connection to them- if you like one, you may like the other.… (more)
  12. 20
    Fool's War by Sarah Zettel (Dilara86)
    Dilara86: Sentient AIs and spaceships
  13. 10
    Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (g33kgrrl)
  14. 10
    Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (souloftherose)
  15. 10
    Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones (CelestiaJK)
    CelestiaJK: Both have interesting AI themes and a great understanding of human nature.
  16. 10
    Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky (aulandez)
  17. 00
    The Lazarus War: Artefact by Jamie Sawyer (dClauzel)
  18. 00
    Lock In by John Scalzi (sturlington)
  19. 00
    Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume--Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin (sturlington)
mom (591)
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» See also 576 mentions

English (351)  Dutch (1)  French (1)  All languages (353)
Showing 1-5 of 351 (next | show all)
This is a super good read.   An AI spaceship's mind ends up in the body of one person named Breq, one of its ancillaries.   The AI mind is out for a bit of revenge after its spaceship, all it's crew and the rest of its ancillaries are destroyed.

Really well written with a great protagonist, it's a real page turner.

But don't just take my word for it being a great story: Ancillary Justice won the following awards:

Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of the year, 2014.
British Science Fiction Association BSFA Award for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novel from the World Science Fiction Society, 2014.
Kitschies Golden Tentacle for best debut novel, 2013.
Locus Award for Best First Novel, 2014.
Nebula Award for Best Novel from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 2013.
Seiun Award for Best Translated Novel, 2016.


The novel was also nominated for the following awards:

Finalist for the Compton Crook Award for best first science fiction/fantasy/horror novel from the Baltimore Science Fiction Society.
Named to the James Tiptree Jr. Award Honor List, for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender.
Shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished original science fiction paperback.


It does kind of remind me of Murderbot by Martha Wells, so if you liked those books you'll probably like this, and vice versa.

And now i'm diving straight into Ancillary Sword:   #excited

Bye for now. ( )
  5t4n5 | Sep 13, 2023 |
Marvellous read. This is as good as any other sci fi that I've read. Highly, highly recommended. ( )
  ropable | Aug 20, 2023 |
Given that many of my closest friendships were forged in the fires of shared literary interests, actually, I have very little overlap in tastes with my real life friends. So despite the fact that my best friend and I both obsessively read science fiction and fantasy, her recommending this to me was not particularly encouraging. She convinced me to read it by pitching the agender society and neurodiversity of the main character, but reading it I found the things that I would have used to pitch it to her in abundance: a deeply created society, such that every utterance of a character was pregnant with meaning, songs and poems that had built up layers of nuance over generations and elaborate rituals. Unlike the sorts of books she typically reads, most of this was implied so that Leckie developed the feel of an intricate created society without the burden of pages and pages of exposition. So I, who hate slow books actually quite enjoyed it.

I liked the exploration of how do very diverse societies clock gender, what does it mean to be an entity (is continuity of consciousness real?) and how do societies change over time ( )
  settingshadow | Aug 19, 2023 |
The idea of a split awareness, of “self” being distributed among multiple bodies drew me in, but I think I enjoyed the concept more than the story itself. I found the present-day story in the first half slow going. I don’t know how necessary the dual timeline was. The Radch (Radchaai?) culture was interesting, with its rituals, religion, tea and inter-house politics. That said, many of the cultural details seemed there more as unrelated background, and the story could have played out in a similar way in a very different setting.

The characters and there decisions didn’t always make sense to me, which maybe kept me from being fully engaged. Overall, I’m glad I read this, but I’m not in a rush to pick up the sequel.
  MHThaung | Aug 17, 2023 |
Damn, I love a good space opera, and Ancillary Justice hit almost all my niche loves in the genre. The play on gender-neutral language/culture was enough to be interesting and thought provoking, without dominating the narrative. The central "mystery" of the story is unraveled in a pretty appropriate timing so you aren't lost but kept waiting to learn more. I'm glad there's more to this series and setting so I can keep going. ( )
  James_Knupp | Aug 14, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 351 (next | show all)

» Add other authors (18 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Ann Leckieprimary authorall editionscalculated
Andoh, AdjoaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Benshoff, KirkCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Harris, JohnCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kempen, BernhardTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nunez, BillyCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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For my parents, Mary P. and David N. Dietzler, who didn't live to see this book but were always sure it would exist.
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The body lay naked and facedown, a deathly gray, spatters of blood staining the snow around it.
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Surely it isn't illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Now isolated in a single frail human body, Breq, an artificial intelligence that used to control of a massive starship and its crew of soldiers, tries to adjust to her new humanity while seeking vengeance and answers to her questions.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance. - Goodreads.com
Haiku summary
It's alive... or dead.
A.I. or human? Who cares!
She, or he, is BREQ!
(pickupsticks)

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