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A review by aeturnum
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
5.0
I am Breq-pilled. At a high level this is a perfectly competent example of world-class science fiction worldbuilding: we learn about the Radch, about how their ideas of gender and propriety differ from ours, about their military and their politics. This is all well and good and it's vividly imagined by Leckie.
Our protagonist is a ship's AI (going by Breq, but actually Justice of Toren) who is now trapped in one of the bodies she used to puppet before being destroyed. The rest of the details about what Breq is doing and why she is doing it will be revealed (and I won't say because they are fun), but the "meat" of this book is in realizing that Breq has feelings but doesn't talk about them. You are jumping into the tail end of a process of self-development (and will jump back to earlier stages of it) that even our main character does not understand. The end result is the book is a slow unveiling of who Breq is, a mystery even to herself at the start of the book, and what she is seeking. I found it enormously rewarding, slowly getting to know an enigmatic stranger and exploring this expansive universe through her eyes.
It is also worth saying that the book has a satisfying climax that neatly resolves this book and turns you towards the rest of the series. I was not sure, half way through, what a good conclusion would look like but I think it accomplishes it with skill.
Our protagonist is a ship's AI (going by Breq, but actually Justice of Toren) who is now trapped in one of the bodies she used to puppet before being destroyed. The rest of the details about what Breq is doing and why she is doing it will be revealed (and I won't say because they are fun), but the "meat" of this book is in realizing that Breq has feelings but doesn't talk about them. You are jumping into the tail end of a process of self-development (and will jump back to earlier stages of it) that even our main character does not understand. The end result is the book is a slow unveiling of who Breq is, a mystery even to herself at the start of the book, and what she is seeking. I found it enormously rewarding, slowly getting to know an enigmatic stranger and exploring this expansive universe through her eyes.
It is also worth saying that the book has a satisfying climax that neatly resolves this book and turns you towards the rest of the series. I was not sure, half way through, what a good conclusion would look like but I think it accomplishes it with skill.