"Ancillary Justice" trilogy by Ann Leckie - positive review and discussion

"Ancillary Justice" (book 1 - 2013), "Ancillary Sword" (book 2 - 2014), "Ancillary Mercy" (book 3 -2015).

►Review:

"Ancillary Justice" is the first in the highly acclaimed, multi-award winning "Imperial Radch" series, from a debut female author [Wikipedia, Goodreads]. It felt very different from most of the sci-fi that I've read and loved, in not being primarily about a technologically exciting setting, cosmologically consequential events, or near future insights. It's overwhelmingly character driven, with an extreme focus on their development and back story.

Consequently, I was not utterly riveted by the first book, coming to it a couple years late, with a gap of a few more years before recently returning to finish the arc. But the story really grew on me; I can understand why this caused a splash.

I'd describe the core (feel good) hook of these books as ethics competency porn. The central character, Breq, always seems to hit the nail on the head, in terms of picking the most righteous course of action. Even in thorny situations, sticking it to the callous powers that be, etc. In a similar way to how Iain M Bank's Culture novels have a kind of ship mind competency porn, where it may come down to the last breath, but they clutch it out somehow, against all odds. More on the link between these authors, later.

Much has been made of Leckie's unique take on gender [e.g. Slate]. With Breq's biological sex never explicitly confirmed. Equality and gender neutral pronouns are one progressive aspect of the deeply flawed Imperial Radch empire. Feminine pronouns are always the default: she/her. Breq struggling to accurately gender some of the people they meet is certainly a cute device to accentuate this point. But it made less sense to me by the end of the series; when she was the troop carrying spaceship "Justice of Torren", she will have been intimately involved in matchmaking and interpersonal harmony between the many officers of her crew.

See, Breq is the last surviving fragment of a millennia old ship AI. Out, from the start, for revenge against the tyrant who murdered the rest of her. In the first novel, the story and meaning behind that unfolds in flashbacks interwoven with her travails on this quest. It's built up in a way to really put the reader into the shoes of this perpetually angry but compassionate intellect. Dealing with loss of function, identity and purpose. Redefining herself as she unexpectedly builds up a new life, sweeping through the whole arc to a satisfying conclusion.

The prose is well written and paced, with the occasional song lyric snippets included, that didn't make me turn off or really cringe; songs and their collection is a core personality trait of our protagonist. The latter two books are essentially linear, by comparison. And set in roughly the same place; this isn't a romp around the galaxy. Instead we explore in more depth, as events develop and unlock new possibilities.

There's certainly exciting build-ups and some interesting action. But generally it's more low key and human scale - tactical and psychological. Perhaps more of a stereotypically female thinking approach to things, overall, with tensions bubbling under the surface of outward civility. A lot of weight placed into subtle details and even menial activities, that, on paper I wouldn't have expected to get on board with. But fell into an easy rhythm.

I was really glad I read the whole of this trilogy, by the end. Hitting a very satisfactory conclusions via an often unexpectedly understated route. Although I wonder if it will be less memorable for me, in not hitting the more physical/technological notes that usually excite my interest. This trilogy might be good for fiction readers who don't normally go for sci-fi; maybe genre gateway books. 

► Discussion with SPOILERS!: much of the text below is content summary, as I struggled a little to pick many outright faults or failings. Nor interpret meanings too far beyond some fairly direct, probable and some (perhaps) wishful thinking references.

• Technology: There's a juxtaposition of casual interplanetary travel and trade, but manual labour for everything. From cooking and hand cleaning spaceships, right down to food production. Dated, even compared to our present day exploitation of cheap labour in developing countries. Somewhat of a British colonial feel. 

The lack of robotic automation is weird, if you think about it. But this works with the aesthetic and is necessary for needing ancillaries (an axiom of the fiction, so fair play). There's little or no focus on how their more advanced fictional technologies function; an apparently static civilisation, in terms of progress. These consist of:

(1) Portals into a kind of fast travel subspace, military craft being the only ships not needing to use the fixed entry gates.

(2) Artificial gravity that can be immediately turned on and off (pretty standard issue).

(3) More potent emergency medicine and psychiatry than our present day, with longer healthy life spans possible, but not much fundamentally different in form from our world ("correctives" mentioned below).
(4) Intelligent ships (and stations), with the ability to assimilate conquered humans into their direct control, via brain implant communications devices that can synchronise memories, mostly overwriting the original identity.
(5) These "ancillaries" also have augmented strength, speed and accuracy, plus "armour" implants, that are basically Borg personal shields, raised at will.

(6) "Suspension pods", mostly used to store bodies of prisoners from annexations for alter use as ancillaries.

• Race: The Radchaai are pretty much "corpse soldier" space Nazis. Or imperial Japanese, more like. (Or Chinese?) Because their society is obsessed with ritualistic tea making, dining and social formalities. There's a lot of instances and focus on these, heh. Also, they are a somewhat racist society. But, wonderful twist: an African complexion is the most coveted. Most common too, I think. Contrasting starkly with the almost universally pasty skinned crews in so many sci-fi universes (and space programs IRL).

It seemed easy to forget about this black skin by default, outside of the passages describing initial appearance. Perhaps deliberate and desirable? In a way, it almost felt like a somewhat superficial choice to even mention it (by a white British author), as there didn't seem to be any elements of black culture incorporated alongside this. But then, how much of contemporary black culture is interwoven with historical oppression and minority status, in the US and Europe (and Asia)? The historical context will of course also be inverted, in this fiction.

There were plenty of initial descriptions of appearance, of dark brown skin and hair, sometimes "tightly curled". But, for all the details of daily routine, I don't recall any dealing with maintenance of frizzy hair (long or short) - a potentially quite notable consumption of time and effort. So it felt a little out of the blue when introducing Administrator Celar as "a wide, bulky person [...] with voluminous tightly curled hair pulled up and bound to tower above her head. She was very beautiful, and, I thought, aware of that fact". 

More so the desirability of her, apparently, very curvy build. Given that all the people dealt with up until then had presumably been fairly trim or athletic by necessity, in military activities, etc. [Edit: Did I wrongly assume female and overweight, rather than male, big and muscular with culturally different hair? See oversights addendum.] Anyway, that's enough clumsy words from me on this topic; it probably didn't help that I (pretty much) have aphantasia, so can't really visualise the details of scenes, anyway.

• Religion: is deeply embedded into the Radchaai way of life. This topic doesn't click much with me, as a dirty heathen) so I've had to look up reminders of the details...

They have an ensemble of minor gods, adopted from assimilated local religions, all considered to be aspects of the main one: Amaat. This is a little like contemporary Hinduism (especially with one idol of Amaat having 4 arms). Although the fan wiki compares it to the pantheon of Roman gods.

The highly regimented military personnel are arranged into divisions of 10 (or 20 or more) called a "decade". Each decade named for a god or one of 2 aspects of each of 4 "eminations" of Amaat. The ship names also come from gods, but preceded with either: "Justice of" (big troop carrier, as Breq used to be), "Sword of" (medium size but big dick energy), "Mercy of" (smallest).

There's daily casts by a qualified priest, in local temples, of a dozen metal discs thrown randomly for the resultant pattern to be interpreted, a little like a horoscope, looking for signs. This made me imagine the scenes with Japanese Trade Minister Tagomi, in "Man in the High Castle" (TV series), casting down sticks to look up random parts of an old text, trying to predict future events. Not a core part of any major religion, but perhaps that's "I Ching" and he practices Shinto, or "Yi Jing", with the "Classic if Changes" Chinese text [Quora].

More ubiquitous, is the concept of purity, which effectively dictates everyone wearing gloves at all times. Then needing some serious ritualistic mojo in the case of a death, with fasting and head shaving to follow during a mourning period. Showing naked hands can be as inappropriate as the soles of feed, in some contemporary cultures, I think. And direct touch consequently reserved for very intimate partners. Incidentally, their gender neutral euphemism for giving head (e.g. for career favour or patronage) is very clever: "kneeling". 

• Sociopaths: Leckie does a laudable job of characterising one of these, without using any explicit diagnostic terminology. Raughd Denche is a key antagonist, met in book 2 and fully explored in the last. With Breq's sensitive attention to body language, character, and accounts of minor transgressions, she highlights many characteristic traits of this personality disorder (formerly ASPD). Both through internal dialogue and as explained succinctly to other characters.

It's encouraging to see this impactful yet overlooked issue dealt with so deftly. Raughd's actions always fit realistically with what I'd expect, from my research on the topic in the recent past. While also moving the plot along at multiple points. Even if that plot did feel frustrating to start with, a little like an inconsequential side-quest down the gravity well. The development of Raughd's destructive psyche is also understood through their history, as the clone of a psychologically abusive "mother", Fosyf. The super-rich owner of a tea plantation that effectively employs slave labour for their "hand picked" marketing gimmick. 

He's a possible psychopath - more dispassionate and controlled than Raughd's often reckless impulsiveness. Although they are, of course, always referred to with female pronouns, it's statistically 3 to 4 times more likely they'd be male, given the typical demographics of the pathology.

• Power, Control, Subservience and Freedom [Bigger Spoilers!]: perhaps the key theme(s) in the series. Examining how different personalities, attitudes and approaches to wielding power can be detrimental or beneficial to those with less. Also, how to treat those serving your enemies, who, themselves lack the power to make free choices. This ostensibly laudable three word mantra is apparently core to Radch thinking:

"Justice, propriety, and benefit. No just act could be improper, no proper act unjust. Justice and propriety, so intertwined, themselves led to benefit. The question of just who or what benefited was a topic for late-night discussions[...]"

But, of course, the Radch Empire is very far from a socially equal utopia. There's power differentials due to: different races (planetary and sub-sets) being looked down upon (most notably with skin colour); castes, or rather noble houses (judged by physical features); "rehabilitated" offenders psychologically conditioned to be unable to express anger (or even think it); religious influences; station administrator verses system governor; military pecking order; then everyone in thrall to supreme ruler, Anaander Mianaai.

The "tyrant" has direct control over the ships and station AIs, which they created and holds the highest level back door codes for. Writing (and updating) directives into them, secretly. Their captains have a lesser level of absolute control, more like intense loyalty. And conflicts of interest can arise between all of these imperatives, making it unpleasant for the machine minds.

 

This sets the stage for a lot of focus on the subtle scope of passive resistance: the potentially game changing influence of merely avoiding helping those with power over you, beyond what they explicitly command. The issue with this is that it has to be minor enough that those in control don't really notice. So it relies on a certain amount of incompetence, from the tyrant(s), to be tripped up by this. Or at least hubris and impatience.

The AIs are said to be grown from the seed of an "AI core", along with the building of the vessel they are to control. With sensors strewn throughout, like a nervous system, so not easily replaced. A nice little detail, with biological parallels. They, and their Ancillaries, are not counted as Radchaai (citizens), and their self determinacy turns out to be the culmination of the plot's arc, pleasingly.

Anaander Mianaai, themselves, is a millennia old clone line, who founded the Radch empire, when they took control. It turns out that they use the same tech as with ancillary creation, to transfer their mind onto each new clone, and synchronise their will. A nice symmetry between the very top and the untouchable, non citizen slave bodies. 

Anaander clones are spread out, inhabiting regional "palaces" in space, throughout their empire. Spread increasingly too thin, it turns out - not synchronising enough to maintain a single coherent will...

There's brief mention of the "Radch" itself being a Dyson Sphere at the centre of the empire, from which his empire started. Justifying territorial conquest to extend protection of it. Although this was barely touched on. There's no talk of why the human species is spread across the stars to begin with - all biocompatible, but a little different looking, like they've had time for divergent evolution. 

• Aliens and Links to Iain M Banks Fiction [HUGE SPOILERS!]: If we set aside the Notai ("not AI", really?) as kind of a Radch/human sub-faction, there's only 3 others mentioned. The:

(1) "Geck" - an isolationist aquatic species, of no major consequence and we never meet.
(2) "Rrrrrr" - fuzzy snake like sentients, with a brief backstory role that is nonetheless tangled up with the all important treaty with the...
(3) Inscrutable "Presger" - They've been somewhat of an outside context problem for our Radch empire.

Again, we never directly encounter the Presger proper, just their human-ish translators. Up until a treaty was somehow struck (via these translators), there's mention of them "disassembling" Radchaai ships and citizens, alike. With the zest of a toddler pulling limbs off insects, I'm given to imagine. Which makes me think of some of the mysterious, god-like aliens in Babylon 5, that are basically massive blobs of colour that appear out of nowhere and happen to crush the odd ship. Like pedestrian's feet casually treading on ants. 

The Presger sell "medical correctives" to the Radchaai (who can not make it themselves). A kind of miracle goo applied to severe injuries that hardens and cures all ailment. They also casually sold/gave a bunch of near magical guns to the Rrrrrr, specifically designed to be able to break through the otherwise impervious (personal) shields of Radch military personnel.

One of these guns is a key plot element, throughout the trilogy. Its mysterious power very much reminiscent of Iain M Bank's "A Gift from the Culture" short story. Its use in a space battle is fun and ultimately satisfying, despite the story not revealing the result of its use for a good while, and implying a lot, rather than giving specifics. 

A couple of (I felt) unlikely details with that specific engagement were: the enemy ships not deciding to change course or jump, just in case. Particularly given that one correctly anticipates their pattern of jumps, into regular space, laying anti-ship mines. (Which would surely have tactical nuke level power...?) A hit from one of these somehow fully detaches a plate of the ship'd hull, without causing serious damage to the ship. And while only maiming (not totally smushing) our protagonist, clinging to the outside... Hmm. Only a mild criticism, because it works well enough, in terms of suspense and human elements.

The translators seem to be genuinely operating on their own agender, rather than as puppets of their creators. But their effect appears like that of a Culture agent - to subtly manipulate a far lesser civilisation into improving itself. They are kind of whimsically whacky, with their pica like desire and ability to ingest unlikely foods, animals and objects. Perhaps physically more like a Culture ship avatar. Their apparent chaos covering the deft social nudges.

Ultimately, Breq and her entourage succeed in overthrowing the tyrant. At least, in one system. Rather than simple revenge against a member of the more malevolent faction of Mianaai. Key to this was removing the code shackling the ship and station AIs into his loyalty. I think this feature is the main reason why some Banks fans excitedly refer to these books as "the closest thing to a Culture prequel we're ever going to get", since Banks died in 2013. The removal of those limits frees up transhuman intelligences to be able to self-modify and further augment their capabilities. While their raison d'etre looks sure to remain the welfare of their human inhabitants.

The use of a lowly human fragment, of a ship mind, shepherded through a long series of difficult events, to unlock this future, also makes me think of Feersum Endjinn. With Ergates guiding Bascule throughout the story just to open an inaccessibly stiff door for them (to save the world). Maybe the Presger, or just their ambassadors, set up the whole series of unlikely events quite deliberately. There was certainly serendipity involved. At any rate, Breq clearly grows as a person, as a necessary aspect of this. And those influenced by her strength and compassion are seen to develop, too. All quite satisfying.

►Oversights Addendum: after posting this piece to Reddit, I realised I'd missed a few notable things...

• I'd totally forgotten about the "Geck" aliens! Which no one pointed out, oddly. I've edited them in, rewording part of the above. Suspension pods, too.

• A few "he" had slipped through by mistake. For the antagonists I personally read as being almost certainly male (Raughd, Fosyf, Anaanda - who Strigan does call "he"). Now corrected; I don't think we have definitive gendering of anyone, except maybe Seivarden (male) and maybe Breq (female).

• I fear I may have wrongly assumed Administrator Celar is female, above. I was originally going back and forth, from their "wide and bulky" description sounding extremely male, but the big hair tied up (and maybe other things?) had me settle towards curvaceous female. A later quote, from book 3, would make more sense (with Seivarden male, Breq female) if Celar is a big dude (with a hair style we'd consider feminine, but isn't in necessarily in this culture): "Station Administrator Celar’s massive, statuesque beauty. Hardly surprising, even if wide and heavy wasn’t Seivarden’s usual type."

• "Sphene", I left out! A damaged Notai ship, hiding out, slowly trying to repair and rebuild its ancillary crew since the faction lost to the Mianaai, millennia ago. They are also very keen for vengeance against the tyrant, so eventually align themselves with Breq and maybe give her some perspective on her own quest for vengeance. We only ever meet one of Sphene's ancillaries - the ship itself remaining hidden somewhere in the ghost-gate system. Not running to the rescue for an epic space battle showdown as I'd kind of expected. And overall being a little incidental to the plot, except for keeping the Presger Translator occupied.

• Humour - I didn't really mention at all, either. But there's some really great dry honour that really tickled me. Like, in book 3, there was the unhelpfully detailed reports on the results of 75 "regional downwell radish-growing competitions". Then various pithy lines and back and forth with Sphene and the Translator. It almost gets a Firefly (TV series) vibe going. Certainly finishing strong.

• "Ancillary" buildings in Rise to Ruins (indie PC village builder tower defence game) were named at my suggestion (on Twitter), having been reading the first book at the time.

• The phrase "special circumstances" appears, italicised, in book 3. Although not in context, it immediately made me think: ooh, sneaky Culture reference?!?

• Another parallel (perhaps I'm reaching here) is to the alien "Tines" in Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep". They're group minds of usually 3 to 5 or so dog-like creatures. They synchronise their thoughts, to co-ordinate actions as a single entity and hold their identity across many generations of hosts, each at different individual ages. A ruthless Tine leader "builds" a very clever Tine by integrating 8 particular pups together, making the new individual very smart at maths, etc. Anaander is all biologically identical clones, but the ship AIs partially think on with the brains of their Ancilliaries. So would the varying cognitive abilities subtly change the ship's thinking and capabilities too? 

• Identity is probably an even bigger theme (an alternative perspective lens to power and control). Every character in the series either wrestles with their own personal identity (e.g. Tisarwat, most obviously), or are part of many deconstructions of the reader's conceptions of gender, race, species, group verses individual and the splits between, etc. See more in great comments here and here.