Ancillary Justice
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4.3 • 95 Ratings
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards: This record-breaking novel follows a warship trapped in a human body on a quest for revenge. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey.
"There are few who write science fiction like Ann Leckie can. There are few who ever could." -- John Scalzi
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Once, she was the Justice of Toren -- a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We’ve seen plenty of spins on artificial intelligence in science fiction, but this visionary space opera takes it in an ingenious new direction. In the far future, interstellar starships are controlled by ancillaries, or AI that uses cybernetic implants to control the bodies of dead humans. Breq, an ancillary who lost her entire crew to an act of betrayal, is on a mission to find and kill the person she holds responsible… who happens to be one of the most powerful rulers in the galaxy. If you love brilliantly high-concept sci-fi, this is the audiobook is for you. Author Ann Leckie packs a lot of ideas into this tale, making us look at things like human consciousness and gender in new ways. Narrator Adjoa Andoh’s soft British tones pulled us right in, letting us feel Breq’s struggle firsthand as she tries, as an AI, to come to terms with her humanity. Ancillary Justice is big-idea science fiction at its very best.
Customer Reviews
Slow at First
5/5 for the narrator. But, my overall rating for the book itself is 4/5.
I spent the first half of the book going back and forth on continuing listening. The main character tries my patience sometimes. But once the story was built up, it kept my attention. One thing that kept me going was the fact that the author really thought out the world they were building. There are some great parts of this book that make you think. Now on to the next!
Beautiful take on AI, humanity, and identity
This is a fantastic reading and performance of a genuinely fun space opera. The story is packed with some really interesting takes on identity, our relationship to technologies, and what happens to empires over long periods of time. Some of the mechanics - such as the ambiguous use of gender - take a moment to get used to, but the narrator does such an incredible job building unique identities for each character (including the ai) that you quickly appreciate how little gender identity matters and how much language plays a part in how we construct our world. Loved this audiobook.
Too much buildup and world building. Not enough substance.
I’m a big scifi fan but this book just wasn’t it. Way too much filler, way too much world building. Book spent way too much time establishing the characters.