Ancillary Justice

I usually don't review popular, award-winning books since it seems both pretentious and pointless. Plus hard to write. But since I joined World Without End's "12 Awards in 12 Months" Reading Challenge here goes :)

In addition to being extremely well written, there are so many dimensions to "Ancillary Justice" that it is easy to see why it won the Hugo award. On one level this is pure space opera- distant future, multi-world, heroic protagonist, conflict between good and evil, great emotion. On another, it also does what sci fi does at its best- pointing out the ambiguity in what is "good" or "evil" and the never ending conflict between the "haves" and the "have nots". The later was a little too overt and on-the-nose for me which kept me from really loving the book.

Another dimension is the now famous use of pronouns. The dominant human culture's language does not recognize gender and everyone is referred to as "she". This may have given "Ancillary" a reputation as a "feminist" book but it most emphatically is not. Gender roles really aren't the theme here (see above) it is much more subtle than that. As you're reading you find yourself recognizing assumptions you've made about gender behaviors and subtext you add based on your own prejudices. This adds depth and makes the book more interesting but be warned- it also makes some things more difficult. I usually have at least a vague visualization of the characters but that's hard to do when you have no idea of gender :)

"Ancillary Justice" kept me engrossed and once I adjusted to the pronoun issue, I couldn't put it down. Although it can be read as a standalone, I'll definitely be reading the rest of the trilogy.