Ancillary Justice

Look, there are some books that you just kinda enjoy without really quite having a complete grasp of what's going on. This is one of those books. The writing is dense, the plot is nebulous at times, and it kept giving me that feeling like I was that one person in a conversation that had no context, no backstory of what's going on, and not getting the references or inside jokes. Nevertheless though, when you do eventually get some semblance of a plot driver about 30% through, the story becomes very compelling - although you'll never quite feel like you have a thorough grasp of what's going on, just an approximation at best.One of the most confusing things of this book, especially at first, is also the use of pronouns. Our narrator Breq is unable to distinguish gender identifiers in people (as per the Radch society she comes from), and so uses “she/her” on basically everyone. At first it just made me feel like everyone she was coming into contact with her female-presenting, but then other non-Radch people that she meets will use he/him on the same person that Breq uses she/her on, Seivarden being the earliest and most prominent example. This got a bit of getting used to, but at least the narrative does have Breq reflecting about this difference in gender identifiers in different societies/cultures/languages, so it's easier for us the readers to get used to it.The plot itself takes a long time to crystallize into something remotely clear enough to follow (about 30-40% of the book), but it does get pretty compelling after that point. There's definitely action here, and it also asks a lot of very thought-provoking questions about colonialism, imperialism, and when would the ends justify the means, in this case the act of making ancillaries. Having just read [b:A Memory Called Empire 37794149 A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1) Arkady Martine https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526486698l/37794149.SY75.jpg 59457173], I thought the themes in this book were very similar but dealt with in a very different way. While Empire had a clear stance against colonialism, Ancillary is not quite so clear-cut, and in so being I think it leaves a wider space for debate and thought.Despite how confused I was for most of this book, I would certainly be continuing on the rest of the series.