Ancillary Justice
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ISBN: 9780356502403
Description
The Radch are conquerors to be feared - resist and they'll turn you into a 'corpse soldier' - one of an army of dead prisoners animated by a warship's AI mind. Whole planets are conquered by their own people. The colossal warship called The Justice of Toren has been destroyed - but one ship-possessed soldier has escaped the devastation. Used to controlling thousand. But one fragile, human body might just be enough to take revenge against those who destroyed her.
Reviewed on 15th February 2025
I chose this book mostly because the cover leapt out at me from the shelves of the bookshop, and the description sounded interesting. I really loved it, so this time my quick judgement paid off.
It’s the story of an AI inhabiting a human body - and for much of the book alternates between the ‘present’ and 20 years earlier, drip feeding the backstory that explains how it came to be the way it is.
There’s a load of interesting sci-fi concepts bundled up in this book, doing the typical great job of shining a light on various aspects of our own society.
I really like how Leckie has chosen to handle gender in the novel - showing how different cultures have different norms and different expectations - and yet it did make it harder to visualise everything that’s happening because of the differences in expectation between the novel’s cultures and the one I live in.
A great story, a compelling character, and really fascinating world building. I’ll be on the lookout for the rest of the series.