Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

31 reviews

rynaissanceenby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? No

3.25

The perspectives in this book were beautifully written. The shifting perspectives were disorienting, but they seemed to be intended to be. I think it did venture into the realm of "hard to follow the story," but if you're willing to but some concentration into it, it's an intriguing story with vibrant world-building. The realities of this world are interestingly dystopic and not like anything I've read before. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, War, Xenophobia, and Slavery

Moderate: Drug abuse, Addiction, Classism, and Murder

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

ANCILLARY JUSTICE is a story of slow burn revenge by a segment of a colonial empire against its leader. It deals with personhood, gendered language, and sliding scales of ethics in colonial forces. It doesn't propose to have obvious or easy answers to any of these questions, but it excels in coming at them sideways. One of the most obvious elements of this is the way the protagonist engages with gendered language. Her first language doesn't use gendered pronouns, so she defaults to "she" (or that language's equivalent) for everyone, unless she is specifically told another gender reference. At minimum, for someone like myself reading in English it creates the impression of a world filled with women, even if they're not. Her constant misgendering marks her as an outsider even to those who don't know she's an Ancillary. As a physical extension of a spaceship's AI, put into human bodies for seamless operation, the nature of her existence is the subject of many discussions about slavery, autonomy, and personhood. Each of her bodies had a history before they became part of her, and she is uninterested in anyone's attempts to kill her in order to get that person back. This seems like the kind of thing later books might explore more, but the foundations are laid for now with various debates and conversations as to exactly what kind of colonial forces are to be preferred: one where bodies are replaced with ancillaries of a ship (effectively killing them), or one where individual humans are left their own personalities and might engage in assault of various kinds against the people in their charge. Is the soldier who has already been killed better than the one who will randomly rape the populace? The answer of stopping colonization altogether has already occurred to someone, to be sure, but this is a story where changes take time, and the last body of a several-thousand-year-old ship is content to set up the pieces of her revenge slowly. 

I enjoyed this and I'm very interested in where things go from here. I like the questions raised nearly as much as I appreciate not being given trite answers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Grief, Racism, Drug abuse, Violence, Gun violence, Murder, Xenophobia, Drug use, Slavery, Colonisation, and Death

Minor: Grief, Vomit, Alcohol, Rape, and War

petrel's review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gun violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Genocide, and Murder

fmcphaden's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The first book in one of the most sophisticated sci-fi trilogies I’ve ever encountered. Crosses several sub genres. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, War, Blood, Classism, Medical content, Murder, Addiction, Xenophobia, Death, Deportation, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Alcohol, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Bullying, Police brutality, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Confinement, Ableism, Classism, Genocide, Police brutality, Self harm, Suicide, Transphobia, Addiction, Racism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, War, Body horror, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

sofipitch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This did, in fact, live up to the hype. Not only is this book having a conversation with Le Guin's "Left Hand of Darkness", there was a lot about Leckie's writing that reminded me of Le Guin. This is mostly in how she balances heavily wanting to discuss themes and concepts, with plot and characters, created a well rounded book. The only big difference I would say is Leckie doesn't have the occasional line that leaves you on the floor like Le Guin, but we can't all be her. The discussions of gender and culture were really interesting, taking LHoD further than it went. 
What I found really interesting was the topic of selfhood throughout the book. As Breq is one part of a larger AI she often toggles between seeing herself as an individual vs seeing herself as part of a whole. The fact that that whole is a ship in an expansionist empire. I'm going to refrain from talking about the other character who is built like this, as it contains spoilers, but what was especially interesting was the struggle to decide if one component did something bad, was the whole polluted or just that segment? Again this applies not only to individuals, but also entire cultures. Breq is Radchaii and loved parts of her culture, but she also recognizes the harm it has done through colonization, and struggles with how those things can coexist and what she wants to do about it. Blow it all up and start over or try to preserve the good and eliminate the bad. Super excited to see how the next book continues that convo. 
Also I would be remiss to not mention that part of the appeal isn't all the intelligent themes but also Breq and Servidan are compelling characters, I enjoyed their journey throughout the story. This is what is considered "hard sci fi" so get ready to be super confused at the beginning as you get your bearings. But it is worth it, and the characters are what helps you hold on while you're confused. I already went ahead and put book 2 on hold with the library

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Violence, and Gun violence

selfsoulfriend's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Classism, Genocide, Colonisation, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Addiction

audbaum's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved this book! The world building was great, and I especially enjoyed the linguistic choice that our pov character spoke a language that doesn’t use different pronouns depending on gender, so she uses she/her pronouns for everyone within her internal monologue and also while speaking her first language. It did mean that to me as a reader I saw every character as a woman, which I found fun. I also liked the complexity of Breq, who used to be an entire ship (like a hive mind in effect) and still holds that as part of her identity to an extent, but now has to grapple with being alone. Or, not alone, but without most of her present. Losing a large part of herself was obviously not fun for her, and she doesn’t really know what to do beyond her quest for revenge. The relationship she develops with the captain she rescues is interesting to me as well. She has a history with this person, she didn’t like them before, but she finds it in herself to care for her nonetheless. Of course, the rescuee is not immediately on board with Breq, but I love how their relationship forms and changes throughout the book. It’s really what kept me so engaged.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Violence, War, Addiction, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, and Xenophobia

ekcd_'s review against another edition

In terms of world building and general plot style, this book is very similar to Gideon the Ninth - author just throws you into the middle of the world and trusts youll find your way. Its confusing but rewarding once you figure it out... theoretically. Personally I dont like books like this. But I loved GTN because it had good characters and an intriguing premise. Ancillary Justice on the other hand has the most boring, uncompelling, one dimensional characters, an incredibly slow introduction, etc. I spoiled it for myself and was even more unsatisfied so fuck it, this is going to be a DNF. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Deadnaming, Confinement, Blood, Drug abuse, Medical content, Murder, Gore, Drug use, Genocide, Xenophobia, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Medical trauma, War, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Gun violence, and Death

Moderate: Classism, Violence, Xenophobia, Genocide, Addiction, and Drug abuse

Minor: Murder, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, War, and Medical content