Reviews

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

wanderwall256's review

Will need to try this again in physical form, it was hard to keep track of the names when listening to it as an audiobook.

vampirebimbo's review against another edition

I love sci fi and good lit. Typically, I make myself finish books no matter what but this made a worse error than a plot hole or trope ridden writing or even bad characters: it was boring. I kept seeing people refer to this one as a “space opera” though I found no drama or intrigue in the plot. The premise was interesting but I fail to see how this is talked about like it’s something Herbert-esque. It’s the type of writing which turns writers away because it’s DULL and detached, and that’s not just because the main character isn’t human. 

vigil's review against another edition

4.0

this was a book that i had bounced off of at least 3 times before i actually managed to read it, but i’m glad i finally finished it. i was really impressed with how ann leckie managed to handle the pacing of this book

as the two timelines each had their own individual tone, pacing, and lengths. i did notice however that many of the so called “climaxes” occurred when the other timeline slowed down. for some people this may help with feeling overwhelmed, for others it may seem like you’re simply biding time until the other timeline returns. i was fine with both personally. the present timeline was noticeably slower and more “meandering” so to speak. leckie has a tendency to
have a rapid pace pick up towards the ends of her stories, preceded by consistent dread.

a lot of this book focused on personhood, what it looks like in the context of culture (both your own or otherwise) and it’s ties to imperialism and “citizenship.” i liked the extra translation notes on the raadchi language, and how the language is also used in a way the specifically empowers the empire. i don’t think we got much, if any at all, answers to this personhood question, so i assume these will carry on into the following books. i also don’t think breq has contemplated it in any sort of meaningful way

but i did like her speaking against the condescending compassion offered to her. what is the life that was stolen from her? and what are the ways she should act and live now, having been given something like that life? unsubtle thematic statements but idgaf subtlety =/ quality.

i found certain parts of the narrative mors confusing than they needed to have been within thr book, which was made all the more jarring when breq or another character would begin an infodump so to speak. this was less of an issue with breq, as that matches her speech patterns but it was rather apparent with everyone else. the opening especially is so jarring i wouldn’t blame anyone for not reading past it. i didn’t for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Grief, Medical content, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Addiction, Blood, Murder, and Violence

sebrei's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

garbagemole's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-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

beththeawkward's review against another edition

Too dry for me

nerdynatreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

 Oof alright, so the idea of this was pretty good, but the biggest letdown for me was I felt nothing for the characters, and as a character-based reader, I need a little of that. Breq was interesting, but I just didn’t feel much personality from her and then as the book continued, what little was there didn’t seem consistent. She’s a cold character, which makes sense, given that she’s a former A.I. that has been removed from a hivemind, but that made it really hard for me to be invested in her story and what her plans were in the present timeline. 

I much preferred the past timeline to the present, as it felt like more of the world-building was happening there and I was pretty intrigued by it, but the plot was slow moving for me, so I started to drag due to boredom. If I don’t have characters to engage with, I gotta have a fun and fast plot, but this did neither. 

Then the fact that the main character in the present timeline is an entire ship and multiple single-bodied beings attached to a hive mind made for some confusing shifts in perspective, though I was impressed with the author’s writing of this whole situation. It did take me almost the whole book to figure out how I should be visualizing the ships. I actually think including schematics within the book would have been super helpful. 

Finally, while the fact that the Radch’s singular pronoun is ‘she’ was a cool element of their species to spark some commentary, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this A.I. being which has interacted with countless species and cultures, fluent in numerous languages, would continue to misgender people after being told? I think pointing out that different species and cultures have different signifiers for genders and Breq’s having to guess at other characters' genders made sense in the context, but being corrected and then continuing to misgender seemed a little out of touch. 

Honestly, I think my rating for this book just comes down to the fact that the writing style wasn’t for me. Elements were interesting, but the execution is pretty outside my usual tastes, so this rating is very much a “it was not for me” 2 stars. 

moki's review against another edition

4.0

Fun read, although sometimes I think the dense plot got a little messy and too convoluted for itself, especially in the last third. Justice of Toren/Breq is a fun protagonist. Love the use of 'her' as a gender-neutral pronoun; feels like a direct response to Le Guin, which is very fun.

Prose is functional without being beautiful. Lots of 2d characters, but they don't need to be; Justice of Toren does a lot of the work. Really interesting concepts. Will be continuing the series!

alex_bl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

sensormellow's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.75