Ancillary Justice

I found [b:Ancillary Justice 17333324 Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) Ann Leckie https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1372169565s/17333324.jpg 24064628] to be quite interesting. The main character, Breq, embodies a truly novel concept (to me at least). She is a splinter of a hive mind; the single remnant of an AI that once controlled a warship, The Justice of Toren. (That's not a spoiler. It is one of the first things you learn.) The story is told in two timelines: the present, in which Breq is seeking justice for an evil deed, and a flashback timeline in which that evil occurred. Though, Breq is only a shadow of her former self, she is still very competent and very dangerous indeed.And is Breq even a “she”? At the end of the story I still don't know. Gender indifference and gender confusion are an integral part of the story. Most characters are referred to as “she” or “her”, but gender designations switch sometimes. This reminds me somewhat of [a:Ursula K. Le Guin 874602 Ursula K. Le Guin https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1244291425p2/874602.jpg]'s [b:The Left Hand of Darkness 18423 The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle #4) Ursula K. Le Guin https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309282484s/18423.jpg 817527]. However, in that book (IIRC) most characters were referred to with masculine pronouns.The social system is very interesting. It is based on families and “clients” in a hierarchical structure, but with some provision for meritorious advancement. I don't think the writer meant to mimic any particular society, but it brought to mind ancient Rome and medieval Japan and has some resemblance to that of [a:Walter Jon Williams 48960 Walter Jon Williams https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1275489992p2/48960.jpg]' Dread Empire's Fall series . The entire social structure is run by an all-powerful entity made up of clones with a shared intelligence.All in all, Ancillary Justice is a good story and a solid first novel. I have to give [a:Ann Leckie 3365457 Ann Leckie https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] major props for imagination and world building.