Ancillary Justice Book Reviews

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Ancillary Justice. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. Superb characters and plot; I'm delighted to read that this is the beginning of a trilogy.

Innovative. Compelling.. Deserving of all its accolades.

Ancillary Justice. I want my money back. I get more enjoyment from reading ikea instructions. In a language that I don’t speak…

Good.. Good and it’s good quick.

Interesting premise, very poorly executed. Loved the starship AI trapped in a human body premise. But this was poorly executed. Never once gave a flip about the characters, and the primary plot line was a dud from the start - kill a near omnipotent hive mind with a "magic" handgun. I will never trust the Hugo awards again as this was obviously hyped for unknown reasons other than t.

Pronoun issues. The story is good but the pronoun issues are distracting. Having lived in Asia for a time I can sympathize with those whose languages don’t have he/she pronouns and are confused when dealing with English. This is a professional author so there is no excuse for switching genders and using “it”. When a gender was already assigned. The book attempts to use she as a default gender the way we use it or he but it’s not well done and distracts from the story. Even when the main character speaks in a language that has gender it’s not clear. At some points I just had to put the book down in frustration. I’ve read other books that do this with explanation and artistry and have no issue with it. I enjoyed the story enough to try one more book but that will be the limit of my patience. I would have a difficult time recommending this without a warning comment.

Hugo award????. Bought the book, couldn't finish it.

Reviewing after 3 years…. 3 years ago I read Ancillary Justice for the first time as part of a binge of Hugo novels. I’ve read many books since then, but I keep coming back to this one. I find that this is the only book that messes with gender as a major detail that really, really *gets* it. I think this aspect of the story will hit the hardest for readers that already believe biological sex and gender are truly disconnected. Gender isn’t treated weirdly in this book just to be weird, and it certainly isn’t meant to be some sort of “ironic reversal” of today’s gender politics. It strikes me as an honest imagining of how gender might change in tens of thousands of years. I find it amusing to read the reviews here that complain the gender conventions in Ancillary Justice are somehow “nonsensical” or “arbitrary” or “unrealistic.” Do they not see that our real-life gender conventions would be just as arbitrary and “illogical” to an outsider?

When is the book going to start. Books says I’ve read 20%. I don’t know what is going on, I don’t feel anything for any character, I’m not really even sure who each character is. There isn’t anyone to root for, there isn’t anyone to root against, and there is no one interesting enough to share a coke with.

What the?!. Wait. What just happened?! How the heck did this win? Am I missing something here?

Ancillary Justice. Absolutely brilliant. Destined to be a classic in Sci Fi. Unique universe superbly fleshed out.

Couldn't put down. Reread entire book the day after.. Liked the mystery of figuring out the past and future of character. Reread a third time after listening to interviews with author! Reminds me of Ursula K. Le Guin. Both started main career I. Middle of life.

Really bad. This pos won a Hugo? Really?? Sigh, sentence structure was awkward and plot was lacking. I guess someone had to like it, but, for the life of me I don't see how or why.

Wonderful Book with a few Quirks. This is an engaging story about a troop carrying ship turned into one of its controlled soldiers out to answer questions and get revenge. The concept and imagination in the main character are sound and the unusual post-human setting is bizarre and far away somewhat reminiscent of the Culture. I did enjoy reading this story. My one complaint is the insistence in using ‘she’ as an ungendered pronoun when a suitable pronoun could be taken from an existing language, or made up, or use the ubiquitous ‘it’. This gets more confusing when the characters start speaking in gendered language then switch back to ungendered. I understand it is used to flesh out the setting with a more feminine culture, but a lot of unnecessary confusion was added in the attempt.

Iain M. Banks' heir apparent. A delectable space opera hearkening Banks' Culture series, with mythological echoes of Simmons' Hyperion and the vastness of Reynolds' Revelation Space. A melange of all my favorite authors (including Peter F. Hamilton,not mentioned above)

Excellent. Always a pleasant surprise to stumble across a really good book. Well written, good characters, interesting story. Hooks you and doesn't let go. Highly recommended.

A disappointing mess. I bought this book because it won a Hugo. Honestly, it's got to be the worst award winner ever published. It's a plodding mess and a gender experiment that's sure to wind up on future honors program required reading lists, where it will surely be hated by tomorrow's students.

Big Bold Space Opera!. It’s easy to see why this book won the 2014 Nebula and Hugo awards, it’s amazing in many ways. It’s Ms. Leckie’s first novel, and the first book in her Imperial Radch Series. It’s a big bold opening to a different universe. First, let’s look at the Radch. They have built a interstellar empire by conquest, turning conquered planets into new citizens. When doing this they absorb their cultures and religions while imposing their own. They have mainly concerned themselves with other human civilizations, but there are at least two off-screen alien civilizations. To support this military might, there are large AI controlled starships such as the Justice of Toren which is a troop-carrier with vast numbers of Ancillaries, which others refer to as corpse-soldiers. Each of these mind wiped, augmented, and repurposed human bodies is an extension of the ship. The ancillaries form a sort of a hive-mind with the ships AI, and should be little more than tools to be used and thrown away. However, when the Justice of Toren is lost through treachery, only a single ancillary that calls itself Breq remains. This Ancillary seeks revenge for the loss of its crew, and all the other parts of itself. It once was a mind that far exceeded human ability, now it is just one mind in one body. But it has its mission, and that drives it over years and light years… Ms. Leckie has started a major space opera, and it has a vast scope. From its minor rituals to its major underpinnings, it looks like it can be a great setting for more adventure.

an unnecessare anchor tied to a solid plot. The description of the book was enough to get me to buy with some enthusiasm, though I’ve been reluctant to read for some time. Disappointed too many times in a row, I’d given up reading for a while. This one though, from its description sounded like just what I needed to get back into it. And it might be just the kind of read to get lost in, a real gem. Problem is, the story is buried underneath a heap of crap! I kept at it for many pages, until finally, after one too many interactions where I have to puzzle out who is what… How difficult is it to tell the difference between man and woman? Not difficult at all, right? Except in extremely rare cases. But your narrator doesn’t know the difference. He doesn’t know or care about gender. Sounds kinda cheeky, eh? Ya, try and read it. Everyone is her, or she. He can be telling you about nothing but a group of men, but they’re all “she’s” Confusing? That’s right. So crappy to read that it spoils the enjoyment of any underlying story. So your main character is an AI. SO WHAT? If he can puzzle out all these intricate details to track a (woman?) across the Universe, certainally IT has intelligence enough to puzzle out gender and report the fact accurately. For crying out loud, don’t drop out REALITY when you’re writing a story! Us, the humans reading your book, are made up of genders! That’s reality. So you’re reading about a conversation between cousins about a love affair one of them is having. But everyone’s “she” even though they’re not necessarily “she’s”. So now you’ve got to stop and puzzle out - ok, if cousin 1 and cousin 2 are both males, and the lover is female; or cousin 1 is fe — no, they’re both males — NO THEY’RE ALL FEMALES. Ok, you come to a conclusion eventually that is probably correct, but what a waste of time! Is this supposed to be a brain exercise or entertainment? I want to ENJOY the read, not be mired in the authors stupid sexpolotics. Screw this book in its current format. If I could get my money back I would.

Pretty bad. Book was poorly written. Been reading sci if all my life and I am used to the convolutions to develop these imaginary worlds and cultures but it was so poor Ly done as to be maddening. Big hly recommend not reading it

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Engrossing saga!. Oh the main sides of a story. This one makes you want to keep reading just to see what happens.

An outstanding work. Two things drive me write a review for anything - profound disappointment or profound joy. I am happy to say that this is the latter. Ann Leckie has created a work that rivals the giants in the genre. Her painting of the culture, the nuances of the characters and depth of plot raise this work (and the others in the series) well above the run of the mill space opera. Well, it isn’t a space opera. It carries a deeper message. Some profound questions are being asked, buried in the fetish like appreciation of tea services, obsession with gloves and brutalizing politeness. I would highly recommend this, and as I said earlier, the sequels.

Ancillary Justice. The book was difficult to get into due to the unique character of a part human-part ship-part AI intelligence beings. However, once the reader understands this, the book is interesting. I would recommend to sciFi enthusiasts.