Ancillary Justice

This book was absolutely incredible. Right from the start, I was completely drawn in by the narrative and barely managed to put the book down when I had other applications. The way that the author approaches issues of gender and language within the text manages to educate the reader while so being completely unobtrusive.

I'll admit that I was at first confused by the fact that in Radchaai, all singular third person pronoun usage seems to be "she" with honorary titles leaning more masculine (sir, my lord, etc.), but as soon as I got the hang of it, I actually could absorb just how incredible that choice.

That's not even getting into the idea of a sentient ship trapped within a human body and all of the philosophical discussions that could be made about Breq.

Cannot wait to read the next book.

I enjoyed the slow crescendo of drama. The characters are well-inhabited and I always love the gradual revelation of a world's secrets. I only rarely got confused about the names. I would normally fault a book like this for how many coincidences the plot rests on, but I didn't find them overly implausible in Ancillary Justice's case. There was some reason for each one, and none of the coincidences felt like they strained the plot, just distilled it. I won't call the language sublime, but it read well. Open Ancillary Justice for a space opera that interrogates the assumption of empire, for a character's silent pain dredged in flashbacks, loyalty, and that character's patient search for a sense of self. The central sci-fi conceit deals with what it means to be only a part of yourself, and the impossibility of repressing your feelings forever.

It's been a long time since I've read a science fiction novel that really captured me with worldbuilding or core science concepts; the author having an interesting technical idea and then fleshing that out into a book is the reason I love sci-fi so much, and one of the reasons I still love reading Heinlein despite his ... well, Heinlein-ness. And the core technical concepts in this book fascinated me in the same way: sure, we're familiar with hive minds, but what happens when the hive mind can't talk to the network, forms some brand-new opinions, and then gets network connection back? Which opinions win? What if the answer is neither?

I rated this book as four stars because it took a good long time to get going - I was ready to set it down around the 20% mark but kept on only with encouragement from another reader on the fedi. (Thanks!) This book tackles some complicated social stuff as well as the technical, and I enjoyed it - but not enough to let the rest of the trilogy skip my TBR line.

Anyway, if you're into hard science fiction and space opera, and you love examining the downfall of imperialism, you will probably enjoy this book. If you're already overwhelmed by books written from a non-human voice, you may find this one a bit grating. Enjoy!

Really enjoyed this book. In some ways it's a classic space opera but there's enough twists on the formula that it feels super fresh. Fascinating explorations of identity, language, and class. The writing was fun and engaging, I ate this book up.