Ancillary Sword

By Ann Leckie

A continuation of the first novel, Ancillary Justice, this finds Breq, now with the surname Mianaai, appointed by the Lord of the Radch, Anaander Mianaai, to the position of Fleet Captain and off to guard the Athoek system from Anaander's split personality as the two sides (and possibly more) struggle for control.
This suits Breq just fine, as the sister of the person Breq loved and murdered lives in the Athoek station and Breq wants to talk to her. Also present at Athoek is the warship, Sword of Atagaris, commanded by Captain Hetnys. Unlike most of the Lord of the Radch's fleet, Sword of Atagaris is crewed by ancillaries, a humans reprogrammed to be similar to robots, which is what Breq is too.
Also on the station is a human, Dlique, raised by the Presger to serve as a translator between the Presger and humankind. The insectoid Presger are the enemy, although currently at peace due to a treaty. The war with the Presger was the beginning of the deterioration of Anaander's personality as it became clear that the Presger were an unbeatable foe.
One of Captain Hetnys' ancillaries shoots and kills Dlique, which could cause a breakdown in Radch/Presger relations. Breq and Hetnys stand in for Dlique's family and give Dlique all the funeral honors they would for any important personage, hoping to placate the Presger. Part of the funeral rites involve two weeks of mourning in which the mourners go into seclusion. A wealthy grower invites them to spend the mourning period on the grower's planet-side plantation.
While there, Breq discovers the plantation workers are virtual slaves, given starvation wages. Breq also begins to suspect that someone is selling the frozen bodies of future ancillaries to some unknown agent on the other side of the Ghost Gate. The Ghost Gate is supposed to lead to a dead system where no one lives. So who is buying these frozen bodies?

This was an OK read. Not a lot happens though. Dlique gets killed, a bomb goes off, and Breq gets in a gun battle at the end. But other than that, it is pretty tame. I would say that the book does little to further the Anaander plot line. Nor does it expand our knowledge about the implacable Presger. Nor does it say why, if the Presger are so unbeatable, they agreed to sign a treaty with the Radch.
Also, the whole using only the female gender to describe people is still quite annoying. Reading creates mind pictures but how can you picture a person if you can't tell if they are male or female?

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Ancillary Justice

By Ann Leckie

I will try to explain this science fiction novel, first of the Ancillary triology, but I must admit I found it very confusing.
First of all the ancillaries: just exactly what they are I never really grasped. Are they brainwashed humans? Are they bodies with robot brains? Are they people whose brains are partially replaced with computer components? The author never really explains what they are. It's like she just assumes you already know.
Second, the genders. For some reason, the author chooses to refer to everyone as if they are female. According to an interview Leckie did with Liz Bourke on Tor.com, she wanted to portray a society that does not care about genders. But to me, it was so confusing. It would have been less so if she had used a gender-neutral term like "it" instead of referring to everyone as "she."
So given my very imperfect understanding of this novel, I will attempt to give a brief synopsis of it.
Breq is an ancillary, a former human who was part of a larger, joined mind consisting of many other components, all based with a starship, Justice of Toren. One of those components was One Esq, who served Lieutenant Awn on a newly conquered planet, Shis'urna. The Radch are expansionist and brutal and they are relentless in bringing new planets into their sphere of influence. Awn is on Shis'urna as one of the Radch's representatives. She (or he) runs afoul of a political plot involving the supreme ruler of the Radch, Lord Anaander Mianaai. Mianaai is like the ancillaries in that he (or she or it) is composed of many bodies and one mind.
An uprising is put down but, as it turns out, the uprising was actually fomented by Mianaai. Mianaai is having an existential crisis. Although one mind in many bodies, part of Mianaai does not approve of what other parts of Mianaai are doing. The uprising plot was meant to be an initial move by one part against the other part of Mianaai. Because Awn succeeded in preventing the uprising, Mianaai orders One Esq to shoot Awn dead, which she/he/it does. Thing is, One Esq, even though an ancillary who is supposed to have no individuality, he/she/it loved Awn. And is devastated to be the instrument of Awn's death. And is now determined that Mianaai must die. So One Esq/Breq/Justice of Toren is on the hunt for a legendary weapon that can break through Mianaai's many sophisticated defenses and kill as many Mianaais as possible. Truly a futile suicide mission, as all of Mianaai is probably not stupid enough to have all of himself/herself/itself in one place at one time.

This is a complicated story made even more complicated by the author's refusal to explain the whole ancillary thing and by her insistence on referring to everyone as female. I don't have the kind of mind that, upon seeing every character as referred to as female, can instead picture them as neither male or female. So that was just annoying as was the whole lack of explanation of the ancillaries. And to top it off, the names with their double vowels were a further annoyance.
So I was rather inclined to despise this story as too confusing and annoying. But the fact is that it was really interesting and, even though I was never comfortable with the double vowels, the exclusively female genders and the whole concept of the ancillaries, I did still enjoy the story and I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the series, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy.

NPR has a review: https://www.npr.org/2013/10/08/228508903/a-skillfully-composed-space-opera-in-ancillary-justice.