Ancillary Justice

Executive Summary: This is an odd one that may not be for everyone but that I really enjoyed in the end.Full ReviewI had never heard of [b:Ancillary Justice 17333324 Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) Ann Leckie https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397215917s/17333324.jpg 24064628] or [a:Ann Leckie 3365457 Ann Leckie https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1402526383p2/3365457.jpg] before about two weeks ago. If not for it being the November Sword & Laser pick, I may not have read it. I would have been missing out.This one was slow to grab me. The protagonist does not have one point of view but many. How you ask? Well it's a sentient ship made up of hundreds of mobile units referred to as Ancillaries. Just what is an ancillary exactly? It's not exactly clear at the start so, you'll have to read to find out.I'm not very well read in Sci-Fi, so I don't know if this concept of Ancillaries is new or derivative of previous works, but it felt very unique to me. It was hard to get accustomed to at first. The sudden swap of perspectives on the same scene can be quite jarring and confusing. As I'm only a solitary unit, and not a shared collective I don't think well that way.I don't recall if this is the first time I've read a book with an artificial intelligence as the protagonist, but the fact that I can't certainly shows it's something unusual for me. I think Ms. Lackie does a good job with it. It certainly doesn't feel human to me, but that doesn't make it uninteresting.I don't tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the books I'm reading while I'm reading them. I've seen/read far to many Movies/TV/Books over the years that when I do, it can ruin the experience for me. I tend to just “sit back and enjoy the ride” as it were and saving the thinking for when I'm done. This one was hard to do that though. There was a lot going on, I couldn't help but wonder and theorize.My only real complaint about this one is it takes too long for you to know what exactly is going on. The story alternates chapters between past and present until meeting somewhere in the middle and you finally have things click into place. I can see this turning people away from the book and missing out.There are just too many books out there competing for everyone's attention and it's too easy to put down something that doesn't grab you right away. Overall though, I really enjoyed this one and will be waiting for the next book in the series to come out.