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    Ancillary Justice
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    Ancillary Justice
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    Ancillary Justice
    Audiobook12 hours

    Ancillary Justice

    Written by Ann Leckie

    Narrated by Adjoa Andoh

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The only novel ever to win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards and the first audiobook in Ann Leckie's New York Times bestselling trilogy.

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateNov 13, 2018
    ISBN9781549174902
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Ancillary Justice

    4/5

    2,009 ratings181 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'm not a science fiction reader, but I'd heard so many intriguing things about Ann Leckie's novel that I had to see what the fuss was about. Told from the point of view of Breq, with chapters alternating from her past and her present, Ancillary Justice tells the story of an ever-growing inter-planetary Radch empire, and what is required to keep control. I spent the first chapters just getting my head around how this society functioned and how the different people and groups interacted. Leckie's world-building is impressive, but she doesn't let that overshadow the action and plot. There are interesting things done with how the Radch language regards gender, and how that affects how I imagined each of the characters. She also does something interesting with who the Radch consider human and who they do not. At it's heart, this is a classic story of a group of misfits trying to change something much larger than themselves, although the main character is less of a charismatic leader than is usual, and more blindly determined to do everything on her own. It was a gripping story and I enjoyed how much I had to readjust my assumptions and scramble to figure out what was going on for much of the book.
    • 4/5
      The famous pronoun thing is an adjustment to make, but wasn't even on the list of things my friend (perhaps less conversant with science-fiction conventions?) mentioned as difficult: the narrator is one body of a detachment controlled by a ship's artificial intelligence (which operates in a way reminding me of the AIs in Aliette de Bodard's Xuya universe) and switches between a multi-pov/pseudo-omniscient narration of events leading to that ship's destruction, and the sequentia some [decades/centuries?] later of this body's quest for - is it revenge? justice? a desire to save the known universe? thirst for what is proper and beneficial?This was the hard part for me - and once I twigged to that, the part I liked most. The narrator is reticent near to unreliability (cf Villette's Lucy Snowe): unravelling the motivations behind where they're heading is as much the story as what happens when they get there.
    • 3/5
      Very solid hard/military scifi with a very interesting take on gender.
    • 4/5
      A memorable first novel. A rescue of a burned out ex-soldier, now junkie, builds slowly towards a clash with the ruthless powers that run a star-spanning empire in the far future. It is at core the story of a soldier's revenge for being used, but the pretty much exclusive use of the female gender works to keep things wrong-footing the reader. The use of people as slaved parts of war machines adds a level of cold horror to what is at heart an old-fashioned space opera.
    • 4/5
      I'm not sure that I have a great deal to add to what other reviewers have noted but if I were going to go "high concept" I'd say that if you've been wondering what a collaboration between Iain Banks and C.J. Cherryh might look like than this is the book for you.As for the author's much-touted experiment with gender identity I have to admit that I found it a little wearing to process at times (though I was also not at my best when I was trying to wrap the story up), but I would also argue that given the context that the main character Breq is stuck in it makes perfect sense.
    • 4/5
      A huge portion of a story takes place in what is unsaid and yet you assume. And it turns out gender is associated with a ton of subtle things which I never even considered.

      In the story, gender is very very ambiguous. In some cultures (there are many in the novel) it is nearly impossible to define gender unless you grew up in the society. In others, gender is irrelevant. So the same character can be referred to as she and he in the same paragraph. It takes getting used to.

      But good writing saved the day. And in the end I enjoyed a novel and had a part of my own cognitive bias challenged. Which is ALWAYS an excellent thing.

      I should point out that the story is not about the gender issue at all. But gender is so inherent to any story that its a huge theme in this entertaining story. There are other more standard themes for sci-fi - what makes civilization, privacy, destruction creating peace, class systems, the rights of sentient AI - etc.

      My only real criticism of the story is that I had a hard time finding tension in the conflict. In another mind bending way, the conflict is ultimately a strange premise and I think that made it awkward to create the sense of division that is necessary for a fictional conflict.

      I am looking forward to the next in the series.
    • 5/5
      A millenia-old former distributed AI now locked in a single corporeal body undertakes a long, difficult and unlikely quest. Besides the spectacularly inventive lead character, the book is peopled with deeply imagined, varied characters whose rich interactions move the plot along briskly, usually, but more slowly when the stakes -- emotional or physical -- are high. And enough tech to place it unequivocally in the science-fiction genre.An extraordinarily good book, deserving of all its multiple awards, and more.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book and soon will read the second sequel for sure.The story, plot and characters are definitely well processed and you slowly realize what happened thousand years ago, twenty years ago and how those events matters in what is going to happen now.Having an AI with emotion is not actually a new idea but the way the writer use it is kind of new to me.Also it's the first book I'm reading that in a non gender based language use the feminine words to define people.AT first it was a little confusing for me but later I got used to it and certainly enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      Leckie reminds me of Iain Banks, but writes a more personal, more compassionate space opera. This being her first book, the setting may not be as developed or grand in scope as Banks', but does not lack for detail. The story unfolds and we also learn why our narrator is so driven to succeed. The style and multiple timelines can be challenging, but the first-person narration brought it together for me.
    • 4/5
      Breq is a human that used to be a starship, Justice of Toren. More specifically, she is an ancillary, which is a human who has been implanted with artificial intelligence, in order to become a part of a starship. Many of the ships in the Imperial Radch military have hundreds to thousands of ancillaries so that they can run the ship and all of its functions, take care of the human crew members and serve as "corpse soldiers." Once someone becomes an ancillary, they are no longer thought of as human, so those selected to become ancillaries are usually newly dead inhabitants of a world that the Imperial Radch is annexing. The ancillaries on a particular ship function as one unit along with the ship, so they are able simultaneously to call up information from any other connected ancillary. As there are so many of them, they can monitor not only the ship but the health and emotions of the crew members as well. At the beginning of the book, Breq is cut off from her ship and the other ancillaries for some reason. She finds a person unconscious in the snow, whom she recognizes as a former officer from the ship (who is also Breq), on which they both served 1,000 years previously. Breq has a self-imposed mission of justice, but for reasons she cannot explain to herself, she decides to help Seivarden, who appears to be a drug addict now. The book goes back and forth between the past, from Justice of Toren's point of view, as we learn the backstory and to Breq's present and why she is motivated to seek justice.At first, I found the book very confusing. The narrator, who we find out later is Breq, seems to be in many places at once, without any explanation. We don't learn Breq's name or why she feels cut off from her ship until further on, although Leckie is writing as though we should know this information. Eventually, we are slowly filled in as the book progresses. I honestly almost gave up on the book during the first 50 or so pages. However, I persisted since Ancillary Justice was a Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C Clarke winner. I'm very glad I did. The Imperial Radch does not seem to distinguish between the sexes, and as an AI, Breq uses the pronouns "she" and "her" to discuss everyone she comes across, including herself. We learn during the book that Breq is confused by gender and does not always get it right - Seivarden is actually male, and it is not clear, at least to me, whether Breq is male or female. This is sort of the opposite of The Left Hand of Darkness which I read earlier this year. Leckie has a unique idea and does a great job of world building once you finally get there. Not only do we learn about the Radch, who are apparently aggressively annexing the universe, we also learn a little about the culture of some of the assimilated planets too. A clash of cultures on an annexed planet becomes important as it is behind the reason that Breq seeks justice. It is interesting that there is something of a parallel between the ancillaries, who can be thought of as slaves, and the leader of the Radch, Anaander Mianaai. Just as the ship and its ancillaries are interconnected, Anaander Mianaai has many clones who have a single consciousness. So both the lowest of the Radch society and the highest of the Radch society function with many bodies and a single mind, while the ordinary citizens are just one mind in one body. Once I got past those first 50 or so pages, I found the book very interesting and hard to put down. As the story rolled out, it became more intriguing as I understood Breq's desire for justice and couldn't wait to see how she fulfilled it. Leckie's writing is very smooth and fluid and easy to read. I've already started the next book in the series.
    • 4/5
      Interesting book. I knew something about it from reviews and references, particularly the gender-bending stuff, but it was interesting to see how it was handled. I'm not sure I actually like the protagonist (which is not a necessity, but a plus in my book) - she's fixated in odd ways that don't quite make sense to me. Well, I can see why she wants to achieve her aims, but...I don't know. The cultures she encounters are fascinating - the Radch especially, since she encounters it in at least three forms (as an AI, through humans of various ranks, and as being treated as human herself). All the others she encounters only as an outsider, and it's hard to see the details. The first part, where the time periods switch back and forth in chapters or half-chapters, is a little hard to get in to - I like it better when things smooth out and we're only dealing with one set of events (weird and confusing though those events are). Overall, I'm not really sure I liked the book, but I'm certain I found it interesting and want to read the next one.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as a Librarything Early Reviewer book. Set very far in the future, presumably in our galaxy, the Justice of Toren is an AI that is simultaneously a space ship troop carrier and thousands of the soldiers based on the ship. A catastrophe destroys the ship and all except one of the soldiers and that last soldier, self named Breq, sets out to get revenge. Most of the story follows two timelines, one leading up to the catastrophe and one some nineteen years later when Breq is getting close to getting what she needs to effect her revenge.I liked this book and found it interesting. It was well written, especially for a first novel (although Ann Leckie has a number of short stories to her credit), and it's been awarded a number of big prizes. However, (You just knew there had to be a qualifer coming, didn't you?) the story left me cold. I disliked the Radchaai culture, the builders of the Justice of Toren. If I actually lived in the book, it would be detested and feared not disliked. Breq is the major character and she isn't self aware enough for me to really identify with her. There are a handful of other characters who could just be called major characters and none of them caught me either. Basically, for me to consider a book great, it has to be one that I'm going to re-read, and I doubt I will re-read it unless I do so before reading the planned sequel. I'm giving it three and a half stars.
    • 5/5
      Some things in this review may constitute spoilers.She isn’t human. She looks human. She used to be human, though she doesn’t remember it. But now she is an ancillary, the mobile units of the ship Justice of Toren. For all intents and purposes, she is the ship, alongside every other ancillary. This story takes place in at least two alternating time periods. In the present, the main character is passing as human, dealing with the destruction of the rest of her ship and a mission she has taken upon herself. In the past, we learn what led up to the destruction of Justice of Torenand all its ancillaries and crew.There were many things I loved about this book. The main character, with her multiple identities as the book progressed, was one. The way Justice of Toren and similar other ships were presented. The Radch language, which has no recognition for gender and as a result refers to everyone as “she” and “her” is another. Also, the relationships between various characters throughout the story, the variety of cultures and different cultural norms that were casually referenced, the way the main character tried (and sometimes failed) to pass as human. There was only one thing I didn’t like; one character seemed to undergo a dramatic personality shift partway through the book. It’s possible that I missed the explanation for why this happened and when I reread it someday I’ll understand better. But as it is, that was the only sour note in an otherwise wonderful story. Highly recommended. First in a planned trilogy; I am beyond excited for the sequels.
    • 5/5
      enjoyed it more than anything I've read in quite a while - character and plot development hinged on awareness and temporal shifts - all swinging together yet at their own speeds in their own directions in a sort of perpetual motion machine of a story - wow - fun reading
    • 5/5
      This is the first of a trilogy, and a award-winning book, that is narrated by an AI that once had been a ship called the Justice of Toren with a consciousness that commanded hundreds of ancillaries, human bodies that had become vessels for a shared artificial intelligence. Now confined to a single body known as Breq, she is on a mission of vengeance. Her story unfolds in two timelines, the present and twenty years earlier, the flashback chapters serving to explain how she became so singular. This is also the story of an odd friendship, as Breq inexplicably, to her, comes to the aid of one of her former officers, Seivarden, who is a down-on-her-luck addict and never one of Breq's favorites. But don't let the pronouns confuse you; in the Radch Empire, there is no gender designation and "she" and "her" are used for all.Breq's narrative voice gives the story a unique perspective, especially in the flashback sequences where she can relate in an omniscient voice the events that led to her present situation. As for the story, itself, Leckie masterfully handles an increasingly complicated political situation, slowly pulling back layers of conspiracy and machinations to reveal what may or may not be truth. Leckie has created a fascinating realm, one where the Radch are driven to conquer and assimilate other worlds, and where the consequences of annexation resonate. I'm glad I'll be able to visit this realm at least twice more.
    • 5/5
      Great SiFi with different type story line.
    • 5/5
      Reminded me of Susan R Matthews books.
    • 5/5
      First read, May 2016: This book is amazing, I loved it. The pacing, the tone, the viewpoint of the single or many ancillaries - there was very little about this book that wasn't perfect.

      Second read: maybe even better on re-read? I picked up some nice details I missed the first time, like medic choosing the ancillary with the bad voice to annoy One Esk, and Awn happening to be there and trying to comfort her. It sets the basis for One Esk Nineteen's feelings later. Seivarden arc is always satisfying.
    • 5/5
      Ancillary Justice has been overhyped, but is still very much worth reading. It won't change your life but it makes for a very pleasant afternoon.

      ETA - Despite what I say above, this book has stuck with me since I read it, popping up at odd moments. Really looking forward to the next in the series.
    • 5/5
      Though Leckie's pronoun usage is maddeningly distracting from the start (it makes sense in-story, I guess, but still comes across as pretty ham-fisted) the story itself is gripping as heck. Halfway through, it blew my mind. And as an added bonus, the ending wraps up nicely enough that it can still function as a standalone, even though it's the first in a trilogy. Easily the best science fiction book I've read in a couple of years.
    • 4/5
      With the book alternating between the past and the present in this universe you find out how the universe is set up and the motivation on our heroine. Breq is on a mission of revenge and even being driven by this goal she also has time to rescue someone she knew over a thousand years ago. The book has a good ending point and yet you know that there will be more books to continue the main plot. I’ll be waiting for the next one.

      Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
    • 3/5
      So I DNFed this, surprisingly...or perhaps not. To be honest, this book never would have worked for me. Even if I could have gotten past the meandering plot, especially at the beginning, I never would have made it all the way through from Breq's POV. The stoic voice, the narrative distance, the perspective swapping to different ancilllaries--the whole structure of the book just didn't appeal to me in any way. I am a great lover of character voice and very, very close POVs. This was basically a doomed read for me the second I picked it up. However, I do give the author props for the unconventional gender ideas and their role in the radch world-building, especially the language. And the whole idea of the spaceship AI protagonist? Also very cool.Rating:2.5/5
    • 4/5
      lovely. very Iain Banks in its complexity, the clarity of the writing, all the details of its worlds.
    • 4/5
      An accomplished debut novel with some interesting ideas that I appreciated rather than enjoyed, never quite sucked in and not finding myself sympathetic to the Radch or indeed Breq herself. I suspect this is a novel that will improve on rereading, when I am less distracted by working out the gender of the principal players and the mechanics of the empire and can focus on the subtleties at work underneath. I will read the sequel in due course to see how it evolves.
    • 5/5
      Okay, I need a break from reviewing this year's disappointing Hugo nominees.

      Ancillary Justice is last year's Best Novel Hugo winner, and it's exactly the kind of story, the Sad Puppies say they want. Action, adventure, space ships, strong characters, and fun to read.

      Breq is, when we meet her, the sole surviving segment of the Radch troop carrier Justice of Torren. We don't realize at first that she used to be the AI operating the entire ship and all its ancillaries. She's on a very personal mission. In alternating sections we follow her current quest, and the events nineteen years ago that sent her on it.

      Breq, formerly troop carrier Justice of Torren, seeks revenge for the destruction of the main part of herself, and the murder of a favorite lieutenant, Lieutenant Awn, whose failing was not to be inefficient, unreliable, or disloyal, but to be very capable and completely loyal, in the midst of a hidden power struggle within the ruler she was loyal to.

      Radch culture is fascinating, complex, and has both delightful and horrifying features. They do not consider gender significant at all; their pronouns do not distinguish gender. Breq has problems in other cultures, needing to use correct, gendered pronouns, and being confused and frustrated by the way gender signals vary so much from place to place. In the absence of a need to conform to the customs of foreigners, the default pronouns Breq uses are the feminine ones.

      On the other hand, we have the ancillaries. As the Radch Empire has expanded through human space, large numbers of captured prisoners have gone into suspension tanks, to be taken out as needed to become ancillaries: bodies whose own identities have been suppressed or destroyed, and who become pieces of ship or station AI. As long as the Radch Empire is expanding,ancillaries are cheap, efficient, and utterly disposable. And most of the Radch can't begin to see the screaming horror of it.

      This is a great story, with Breq in pursuit of justice, along with wonderful world-building, and real character development--not limited to Breq, but in her case starting from a state of being intelligent software in multiple constructed and human bodies. It's fun, it's exciting, and it thoroughly deserved its Hugo win.

      Highly recommended.

      I bought this book.
    • 5/5
      Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Reviewed from copy received through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program. Fantastic book - this is definitely going to make my "best books read in 2014" list. This is the story of Breq, formerly Justice of Toren, and her quest for... revenge? Justice? The whole concept of ancillaries is very cool, if a bit creepy when you think about how they're made (and what from) and as far as I can tell, it's unique. Leckie handles it beautifully. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Ancillary Justice is competently written and its dialogue is workmanlike, the characters are a little hard to distinguish at first but the plot slowly narrows down to a few characters to that's manageable. The plot is competent and the story evenly paced.As you can see I didn't find it interesting or startling or a revelation. Its a standard baen-tier or syfy channel nu-space opera.I would like to know what others found in it I haven't and why the curious miscreants known as rabid/sad puppies are so enraged by it.
    • 4/5
      A sci-fi road trip that reminds me of Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun.

      Leckie's approach of writing about a genderless culture using only feminine pronouns (and eventually nouns) is initially disorienting, especially when combined with wrapping one's head around the concept of One Esk's multiplicity. Eventually, it becomes just a part of the story, albeit one that causes the reader to consider their own perceptions of gender in culture and fiction.
    • 5/5
      I received a copy of "Ancillary Justice" as part of the Early Reviewers program, but the book was on my "To Read" list already given multiple favorable mentions in "Locus".The favorable mentions and multiple awards, notably the Nebula, are all well deserved."Ancillary Justice" is the story of Breq and her quest for revenge. There are layers of complexity here as to why Breq wishes revenge and as well as what Breq is and what would be an acceptable revenge. Nothing is simple, but patience is rewarded.Leckie deals with both Breq's complicated character and nature admirably, information and insight being dolled out as needed so as neither to overload nor to leave unclear the reader needs at any one time. Leckie artfully manages a narrative that at times seeks to simultaneously narrate four or five points of view. As well she mixes in flashbacks and jumps in the chronology smoothly to fill in the story providing the reader with needed information in a timely manner.Less clear is her use of gender. It seems unclear why the Radch seem to be gender neutral and how this is relevant to their society when there are some many other levels of hierarchy within Radch society. Left equally vague is the Radch economy and how this plays out in both Radch expansion and client relationships. Leckie may have bitten off more than she can chew in raising this issue. I am uncertain that she can resolve this or explain it. She implies that the Radch polity will collapse given its economic assumptions, but it is not clear that she means this and if she does the narrative line in subsequent volumes may be less driven by character than economics. Understanding the climax of the novel relies on both an explanation given well before the climax as well as some deft footwork at the time of the climax. As the climax approached, I feared that I was going to lose the narrative thread and logic at the climax but Leckie seems to anticipate this and paces the narrative to keep the reader abreast of the story.This is not to say that Leckie resolves all issues at the conclusion. Some very big questions remain open, for starters, do the ends justify the means and if one is an instrument to questionable ends is a morally good outcome possible? Equally, can serving a tyrant even if the tyrant lesser evil be morally acceptable?This is a complex work and the challenge of its complexity enriches the reading. While much is left open at the end that may frustrate readers, I look forward to seeing how Leckie deals with the open questions in subsequent volumes. The skill she displays in "Ancillary Justice" suggests that what comes after will not disappoint.
    • 5/5
      What a book! Honored Breq aka One Esk aka Justice of Toren is a beautifully complex character and unique with a human body and the mind of an AI. A complex, fascinating, and superior science fiction novel that should be a must read on everyone's list.