Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Oct. 21st, 2014 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren – a colossal starship and an artificial intelligence controlling thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. But that might just be enough to take revenge against those who destroyed her.
In the far-future Breq arrives on an icy planet in a quest for revenge that’s been 20 years in the making. Breq’s the only survivor of the Justice of Toren, a giant space ship used by the Radch Empire to extend and consolidate its territories but Breq was more than this one body - s/he was the artificial intelligence that controlled it, effectively downloading itself into corpse soldiers (drones created from the Empire’s prisoners) so that it could participate in operations. But an act of treachery from someone Breq never expected resulted in the ship’s destruction and leaving Breq with this one last remaining body.
Breq’s quest however is hindered when s/he reluctantly saves the life of Seivarden Vendaai, a former officer of hers who went missing hundreds of years earlier and was presumed dead. Keen to hide his/her identity, Breq wants to ditch the drug-addicted Seivarden at the earliest opportunity, but Seivarden isn’t keen to go and the two soon find themselves caught within a plot that threatens the future of the Radch Empire.
Ann Leckie’s critically acclaimed debut SF novel has won the Arthur C Clarke Award and a Hugo (to name but two). It’s a technically accomplished, intelligent piece of writing that mixes genders for its protagonists (something I particularly liked) and I really admired how Leckie handles the POV shifts as Breq pilots different bodies in different locations. I also enjoyed the detail given on the Radch Empire, how it operates and how it came into being – there’s a lot of attention to detail here and it’s cleverly put together. However, the revenge plot is very thin and the central twist was familiar to me (but only because I have previously read A FACE LIKE GLASS by Frances Hardinge, which uses a similar device). I also found Breq and Seivarden difficult to engage with, Breq because s/he is largely emotionless and Seivarden because s/he’s so self-absorbed. Also, the conclusion to the book just wasn’t high enough stakes for me and felt slightly anti-climatic. Ultimately, I think this is one of those books that I didn’t get along with – not because it’s a bad book but because it didn’t appeal to me. As such, I’m not going to rush to read the sequel but if you’re looking for an intelligent piece of well-written SF, then you should definitely check it out.
The Verdict:
Ann Leckie’s critically acclaimed debut SF novel has won the Arthur C Clarke Award and a Hugo (to name but two). It’s a technically accomplished, intelligent piece of writing that mixes genders for its protagonists (something I particularly liked) and I really admired how Leckie handles the POV shifts as Breq pilots different bodies in different locations. I also enjoyed the detail given on the Radch Empire, how it operates and how it came into being – there’s a lot of attention to detail here and it’s cleverly put together. However, the revenge plot is very thin and the central twist was familiar to me (but only because I have previously read A FACE LIKE GLASS by Frances Hardinge, which uses a similar device). I also found Breq and Seivarden difficult to engage with, Breq because s/he is largely emotionless and Seivarden because s/he’s so self-absorbed. Also, the conclusion to the book just wasn’t high enough stakes for me and felt slightly anti-climatic. Ultimately, I think this is one of those books that I didn’t get along with – not because it’s a bad book but because it didn’t appeal to me. As such, I’m not going to rush to read the sequel but if you’re looking for an intelligent piece of well-written SF, then you should definitely check it out.
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren – a colossal starship and an artificial intelligence controlling thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. But that might just be enough to take revenge against those who destroyed her.
In the far-future Breq arrives on an icy planet in a quest for revenge that’s been 20 years in the making. Breq’s the only survivor of the Justice of Toren, a giant space ship used by the Radch Empire to extend and consolidate its territories but Breq was more than this one body - s/he was the artificial intelligence that controlled it, effectively downloading itself into corpse soldiers (drones created from the Empire’s prisoners) so that it could participate in operations. But an act of treachery from someone Breq never expected resulted in the ship’s destruction and leaving Breq with this one last remaining body.
Breq’s quest however is hindered when s/he reluctantly saves the life of Seivarden Vendaai, a former officer of hers who went missing hundreds of years earlier and was presumed dead. Keen to hide his/her identity, Breq wants to ditch the drug-addicted Seivarden at the earliest opportunity, but Seivarden isn’t keen to go and the two soon find themselves caught within a plot that threatens the future of the Radch Empire.
Ann Leckie’s critically acclaimed debut SF novel has won the Arthur C Clarke Award and a Hugo (to name but two). It’s a technically accomplished, intelligent piece of writing that mixes genders for its protagonists (something I particularly liked) and I really admired how Leckie handles the POV shifts as Breq pilots different bodies in different locations. I also enjoyed the detail given on the Radch Empire, how it operates and how it came into being – there’s a lot of attention to detail here and it’s cleverly put together. However, the revenge plot is very thin and the central twist was familiar to me (but only because I have previously read A FACE LIKE GLASS by Frances Hardinge, which uses a similar device). I also found Breq and Seivarden difficult to engage with, Breq because s/he is largely emotionless and Seivarden because s/he’s so self-absorbed. Also, the conclusion to the book just wasn’t high enough stakes for me and felt slightly anti-climatic. Ultimately, I think this is one of those books that I didn’t get along with – not because it’s a bad book but because it didn’t appeal to me. As such, I’m not going to rush to read the sequel but if you’re looking for an intelligent piece of well-written SF, then you should definitely check it out.
The Verdict:
Ann Leckie’s critically acclaimed debut SF novel has won the Arthur C Clarke Award and a Hugo (to name but two). It’s a technically accomplished, intelligent piece of writing that mixes genders for its protagonists (something I particularly liked) and I really admired how Leckie handles the POV shifts as Breq pilots different bodies in different locations. I also enjoyed the detail given on the Radch Empire, how it operates and how it came into being – there’s a lot of attention to detail here and it’s cleverly put together. However, the revenge plot is very thin and the central twist was familiar to me (but only because I have previously read A FACE LIKE GLASS by Frances Hardinge, which uses a similar device). I also found Breq and Seivarden difficult to engage with, Breq because s/he is largely emotionless and Seivarden because s/he’s so self-absorbed. Also, the conclusion to the book just wasn’t high enough stakes for me and felt slightly anti-climatic. Ultimately, I think this is one of those books that I didn’t get along with – not because it’s a bad book but because it didn’t appeal to me. As such, I’m not going to rush to read the sequel but if you’re looking for an intelligent piece of well-written SF, then you should definitely check it out.
