Review of Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1) by Ann Leckie

I was bogged down by the many prolonged explanations that interrupted the progression of the novel, the slow pacing throughout, the abrupt breaks in action, and the tedious roadblocks that repeatedly halted the momentum of the story.

In the first in Leckie's Imperial Radch science fiction trilogy, Breq is AI trapped in a human soldier's body. Breq used to be the AI running an enormous starship with the ability to connect thousands of soldiers serving the Radch, the empire controlling the galaxy. But when the starship blew up, Breq was the only survivor.

In scenes from and flashbacks to the past, we see Breq on the ship in the era of its destruction. In the present day, Breq tries to maneuver within a confusing maze of motivations and hidden purpose, where the Radch is using AI to control human "ancillary" soldiers.

Breq is on a quiet, insistent course of revenge, intent on killing Anaander Mianaai, the leader who ordered the destruction of her ship. In the past Breq was part of the vast starship's consciousness and now she is forging ahead largely alone in the world, so Breq often seems to feel discombobulated about how many aspects of society work.

Leckie's story weaves together disparate timelines and storylines, and much of the repeated tracking back and forth and exploration of minutiae felt disjointed and tedious to me.

I never got traction with pacing here. When a character speaks, Leckie repeatedly creates an aside to explain to the reader why the content of that speech was notable, rather than doing the work in a more fluid way or building a case beforehand. It killed momentum and took me out of the moment--and this was a frequent pattern. It cried out for widespread addressing of the issue, and it drove me crazy.

I mentioned the quest for revenge above, which seemed promising in terms of potential excitement, but much of Breq's journey toward retribution felt comprised of delays, barriers, and wearying logistical or otherwise uninteresting hindrances. When action occurs, the inserted odd, prolonged asides halt the progression of the story, often taking extensive page time, while the action at hand takes only a moment.

An aspect I liked: Breq doesn't see gender and identifies everyone as "she"; while Breq inhabits a female body as its ancillary, its AI is without gender. When Breq must speak in a language that uses gender-specific language, she often misjudges the gender of the creature at hand.

But this book was not for me. In fact, beyond the sunk cost fallacy, I can't explain why I continued to read this book, except that I hoped for a dramatic turnaround that would explain the multiple awards it won a decade or so ago.

I found the interspersed, long background notes tedious, the pacing far too slow, and not even Breq's desire for revenge could save what for me was a bogged-down, uninteresting, oddly structured, slow march that felt like it would have benefited from a heavy editorial hand.

Science Fiction Reads I've Loved

Check out the titles at this link (or search on the blog) for lists of science fiction reads I've loved, or for individual titles or aspects (ragtag space crew, anyone?) that you might like too.