Ancillary Justice

A dear friend gifted me this book. My star rating might be a bit misleading - for another anchor, I liked it enough that I plan to buy & read the other two books in the trilogy. My two favorite things about the book are both interesting philosophical issues: first, what does it mean to be human (deftly explored from many compelling angles by a protagonist who is not seen as human by the world she inhabits); and second, what is it with our obsession with gendering? The protagonist's primary language doesn't use gendered pronouns, and as someone who works really hard to embrace gender fluidity both professionally and in my personal life, it was very instructive to notice my own desire to “know” the gender of characters all described as “she,” and then reflect on why that felt important for me to know. I think it's a great example of a way of raising a complex and important issue in a novel that never felt didactic, but more truly experiential. Plot-wise, I think Leckie introduced but then didn't fully explore spiritual/existential issues as effectively as she could have, and there were times in the first half when the timeline & characters were a little harder for me to follow than I normally find sci-fi in a way that felt accidental, not intentional. Overall, though, I enjoyed this, and want to find out what the narrator does next in what promises to be a sequel full of moral ambiguity.