Imagine an artificial intelligence. It is thousands of years old and has spent those millennia running a warship with a multitude of independently moving units, each with their own eyes, ears, sensors, and hands. Now imagine all that size, all that information access, gone, and that intelligence stuffed in a single human body. That is Breq, all that remains of Justice of Toren One Esk, and she is the eyes through which the reader sees the world of Ancillary Justice, written by Ann Leckie.
The novel is a sprawling space opera set in the Radchaai Empire with the usual tropes, faster than light space travel, suspended animation pods, and medical devices that make just about anything repairable. There is plenty unique about it too though. The text makes it clear that no one is speaking English. It is merely translated for the reader. The Radchaai language that most of the characters speak and that Breq thinks in lacks any and all gender markers. For the purposes of English, everything is rendered female, “she,” “sister,” “daughter,” even after the character is identified as biologically male. It’s an interesting decision for a story that is not really about gender.
The story is about Breq’s quest to get revenge on the person who destroyed the rest of her and, in the process, expose a critical failing in the functioning of the empire she was created to serve. The gender ambiguities simply mirror the rest of Breq’s confusion in how to deal people in general. While her native society lacks gender markers in speech and dress, other societies she must move through do not, and it is interesting to watch her analyze and try to remember what terms to use when addressing someone wearing those clothes on that planet. By a similar token, while Breq is in no way emotionless, she does not naturally express emotion the way a typical human would, but she must mimic those expressions to keep her true nature and her mission from being discovered. Her constant, detailed, evaluation of the reactions of the people around her and her carefully considered responses make for a fascinating perspective, while the quest story keeps the plot moving briskly enough to keep the reader from feeling drowned in minutia.
Ancillary Justice is a great science fiction story for anyone looking to have a little fun while they think. It is a compelling tale that pulls the reader ever forward, as well as a truly unique examination of identity and the forces that can shape history.