Off the Cliff: A Review of Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

"You do realize that the protagonist is a battle-ship". This fantastic statement was uttered deadpan by moi less than 24hrs ago as the hubby was trying to discuss the fate of our furnace and the decreasing drop in temperature both in and outside our house. When you are three quarters through a novel that you have unfortunately been reading too quickly and are about to reach the denouement, heat is of little consequence, nor really is the basic necessities to life. Thankfully the heat came on, I was uninterrupted in my binge read-a-thon and the sequel sits in the stack by the bed; all is right in this girl's world. 

And so here we go again with another aggressively addicting series that has spellbound my brain, throwing me off the cliff of imagination, inspiring me to completely lose it on Thank the Maker. Like a good little space opera lemming I have succumbed to all that is right and confusing that is Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. 

Ancillary Justices was the "it" book of 2014. It won everything. Everyone read it. I was not everyone. Slow on the uptake, never completely engaged with the happenings of the SF publishing world, adopting a lazier approach to the must read recommendations, preferring personal choice over popular sentiment, I neglected Ancillary Justice. What the hello was I doing all last year? (right, right, right, having an affair).  


Breq, the last ancillary of Justice of Toren, a two thousand year old sentient battle-ship for the Radchie Empire is on a vengeful quest. Wanting not to crouch on spoiler alert territory, I find myself struggling with what to type next, reveal just a little to inspire you to read the novel or allude to awesomeness, avoiding reading sabotage? I love surprises, especially when an author takes me on an unanticipated journey, revealing key plot points by twisting the conventional. Ann Leckie's AI sentient ancillary protagonist is the only means by which the reader is introduced to the Radchian universe.  Written in the first person narrative, Ancillary Justice has lost many a fan because of it's seemingly simple, conversational tone.  It is an easy read and while that may seem insignificant, no author or reader wants a novel to appear elementary, when in fact it is a multi-layered, successful, world-building, piece of art. (It is at this point, that I have decided to lose it.) I enjoy the boundaries that the first person narrative creates. As a reader, I delight in the not knowing, having to rely solely on the story that the protagonist is telling, finding, as the novel unfolds what is the truth. I also like aliens, alien mentality and the inability to predict alien perceptions, because it is an alien. Call me what you will, space opera slut/junky/nutter, I just love me a book that unnerves my humanity. 

Having decided to allude to awesomeness I realize I haven't provided much in terms of a review guide. As with Seeds of Earth, Ancillary Justice is SF. If you are rather shy about a race of aliens called Rrrrrrr or the main character a battle-ship, animating the body of a prisoner who was frozen for future ancillary work, then this might not be your cup of tea. However if you were ever going to give space opera a try, why not read the "it" book of 2014 and discover how crazy SF can so wonderfully be.

This Girl's Reading Pile 2015

As I grow older, not taller my new year's eve shenanigans have become less fantastical to a point this year, that it was non-existence. I was deeply asleep by 11, unaware of the festivities bubbling up around me as my city approached the witching hour. Sitting by the tree on the 1st, coffee at hand, nibbling flat bread, I cruised through my favourite blog sites marvelling over the fabulous reading challenges that 2015 had inspired. Personally, I have learned to keep my challenge simple, a goal of 55 with 30 being exclusively SF/fantasy and of those, 5 from indie writers.

The beginning of this year finds me revisiting the eternal question of to buy or not to buy an e-reader. Some very nice people have sent me their books and although attempts have been made, filled with great intentions, two novels continue to sit on my desktop, radiating guilt. And so the low-tech geek who has yet to own a cell phone wonders if acquiring a device to make reading easier, would actually encourage her (basically me) to read more indie?  I know what you must be thinking, you don't own a phone? Having undergone numerous interventions by well-meaning friends regarding my phone-less state, I can honestly say that I have heard it all and while you may have some poignant arguments to contribute to the cell debate, this post is in fact about my 2015 reading pile. Clearly my new year's resolution excluded clarity and avoidance of meaningless mumbo-jumbo and side-bar commentary.

The ideal place to read the pile.....sigh

The pile of 2015 is a promising stack, ranging from operatic space insanity to zombies, not the vomit zombie, but the groddy walking undead type. Thus far I have only completed Seeds of Earth which has left me tempted to plunge right back into the Humanity's Fire series with The Orphaned Worlds but in all honesty, I don't believe my brain can handle the intensity.  Seeds of Earth was an unrelenting explosion of action which I thoroughly loved but needed a little something something to break-up the hammering of information being thrown at me; that something something happened to be Karen Lord's inaugural novel, Redemption in Indigo. Thanks to those two books, which just may be the strangest combination to read at the same time ever, I lost my entire will to write. Why bother mashing words together on Thank the Maker when I could be reading? 

Seeking Clarity of Mind: A Review of Seeds of Earth, Michael Cobley

On-line, and surprisingly even in person I have little to no difficulty in expressing my viewpoint regarding books. However place me firmly in a SF bookstore surrounded by shelves of SF goodness facing one very informed, very passionate clerk and I lose my shit. LOSE IT. I found myself only yesterday talking too loudly, hogging the clerk's attention, uttering incomplete utterance of garbage and insanity. I left 40 minutes later with four books, no fast friends and a grin the size of the Cheshire Cat. By the time I made it home with my bounty, I had convinced myself that my level of foolishness had dropped me further into the abyss of geek-doom. If a geek acts even more geeky does this equate to being a better or lesser geek?  

Honestly, what is up with that? Trying to take over the world, one science fiction book review at a time is greatly hindered by my inability to express clarity of mind. Bat shit crazy works for the majority of my life instances but with my 2015 resolution to expand my blog readership to 10, I may indeed have to pull myself together (slightly). 


Although my inability to advocate my opinions is of some relevance, the query today as we move into the new year is what is up with Seeds of Earth? Michael Cobley's Humanity's Fire trilogy has taken over my life; talking to family members was terminated yesterday with full book hibernation commencing by this evening. Seeds of Earth is a space operatic maddeningly addicting, roller-coaster of a novel. 200 pages in, I fool-heartedly attempted to explain the premise to the hubby who halted my predominately hand-gestured synopsis requesting words as I attempted to describe the multi-faceted chaos with squiggly lines about my head; our conversation seized quite succinctly at this point.

I stand in a long line of reviewers who have found difficulty in expressing this book without divulging spoilers. There exists a fine line between numbing our readership with minuscule references to seemingly unimportant events to offering a flippant expose leaving little expression to how fun a book is to read. And fun, this book is but how to go about this review without sounding like Mad King George? 

150 years ago three generational ships from a desperately planned 15, successfully took-off for parts unknown in the hope to save humanity from the looming genocide by the first intelligently advanced aliens to contact Earth.  The book opens to the reader introduced to the planet Darien, the Uvovo and the thriving human colony whose ancestors made the harrowing flight to safety in one of those three ships.  By chapter 4, I excitedly thought I had a Frank Herbert inspired ecologically slanted space adventure in my hands. The details around the planet Darien and the symbiotic relationship the Uvovo share with the forest had me instantly thinking of the spice and the Fremen. As the pace dramatically increased, I realized that what I was reading was a true space opera of epic proportions. By chapter 10, I realized I had no idea what I had and was loving every minute.

Seeds of Earth is not for the faint of heart, let's give SF a try, kinda read. This IS science fiction. It will slam you with detail, spin you around while throwing alien races at you faster than you can successfully imagine them, all to weave you into a political plot involving half the universe while keeping the story intimate. I can't wait to finish it and move onto book 2 and 3.