Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Book #1 of the Imperial Radch series
Introduction
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie is the first book of Imperial Radch series. Breq was once part of the Radch but has begun her own dangerous quest in this space opera. She has been planning her revenge on the Lord of the Radch, Anaader Mianaai, of the Imperial Radch for the past twenty years. Her plans are in jeopardy when Breq befriends the disgraced former Captain Seivarden Vendaai. Will Breq carry out her goals or will the powerful Lord defeat her?
Summary – Shis’urna
Ancillary Justice chapters alternate between two stories separated by twenty years. The viewpoints are in a way from the same point of view. The older viewpoint is from the perspective of the Justice of Toren. It is the almost three-thousand-year-old artificial intelligence of a Radch starship controlling thousands of ancillaries. The starship’s mission is to help facilitate the assimilation of the planet Shis’urna into the Imperial Radch. Her commander was Esk Decade Lieutenant Awn. What happens to Lieutenant Awn leads to the latter viewpoint.
Summary – Nilt
The latter viewpoint is from Breq, one of Justice of Toren’s ancillaries. Twenty years after the earlier viewpoint, Breq is on the remote ice planet of Nilt, putting together the final pieces for her plan of revenge. She encounters Seivarden who has descended into a drug-induced self-destructive path. Captain Sievarden lost her ship and was suspended in animation for a thousand years. She is a woman out of time and place and turns to drugs to escape. Breq knew her as one of her officers a thousand years ago and helps her at the risk of disrupting her plans for revenge. They end up needing each other to succeed in the finale of Ancillary Justice.
Review
The world building and the scope of Ancillary Justice impressed me. The two stories are expertly interwoven leading to a thrilling climax. Ancillary Justice is space opera at its best. At first, two ideas confused me. It was difficult to comprehend the multiple viewpoints of the Justice of Toren because of the unknown nature of the ancillaries. Eventually, it makes sense which is a great accomplishment by showing how a multiple viewpoint intelligence could think. The other idea that was difficult to understand was the Radch rationale for their difficulty in naming gender. The Radch are gender neutral and think of every character as female. There is a reason for the rationale and it makes sense on reflection.
Recommendation
I appreciated being challenged by the ideas in this novel and highly recommend it. Ancillary Justice won the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, and BAFTA awards for best SF novel in 2014. It also won the Locus award for best first SF novel.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333324-ancillary-justice
A similar book in the space opera category is Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey. This is the link to my review.
A similar book I have read in the Hard Science Fiction category is All Systems Red by Martha Wells. This is a link to my review.