Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

For holidays, I was looking for a book that I can enjoy; not too sensitive, not too fictional, not too provocative. Finally I came upon a sci-fi genre that, I thought, could intrigue and entertain me for a couple of weeks. I picked Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice (1st book of her trilogy). The book won numerous awards: Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and Arthur C. Clarke Award. The recipient books of those awards at least exude excellence and best science works in novels. 

So when I thought I’d picked one of the best sci-fi books out there, I expected I can relish in futuristic novels. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a cup of tea for me. I had to slog through chapters by chapters. I wasn’t quite sure of what’s going on in the first few chapters. The author Ann was laying out the framework of the story until Chapter 5, then she picked up the story speed. Give credit where credit is due, just because I found it hard to swallow doesn’t mean it’s not good enough. The book is not for me at least.

Synopsis

The book begins with a scene set in a far away planet called “Nilt Planet or Icy Planet”. The story was set in the future thousands of years ahead, filled with corpse soldiers, i.e., AI soldiers shielding human flesh as their appearance. An era is a Radch Empire in the future ruled by Anaander Mianaai Emperor. Radchaai empire is annexing planets after planets in the names of civilization and anything against the Supreme Leader wish is destroyed in a second. Their formidable armed spacecraft is a giant spaceship and even more they are in fact sentient spaceships.

A protagonist in the story is Justice of Toren spaceship that was destroyed thousands of years ago and a segment of consciousness left from the spaceship, now shielded in human flesh known as Breq in present time, tries to seek revenge on its Emperor Anaander Mianaai.

The story itself is gripping and entertaining when you just read 23 chapters in these two paragraphs. There are pet peeves and deal breakers for me in the story itself. But I’d also like to mention the peculiarities and interesting tidbits happening in thousands of years ahead.

Intrigues

1. Each planet has their distinct dialect, and they have accent. Assuming humans have colonized every habitable planet in the universe, when Radch empire annexes planets after planets, humans dwelling in the planet have to come in agreement with Radchaai annexation. They are automatically endowed Radchaai citizenship, and yet they are not fully Radchaai citizens when you discern their accent. The more Radchaai accent you have, the more civilized manner you possess. That’s an overwhelming assumption among real Radchaai citizens and their arrogance. I’m slightly amused by this because, well … you know Language and Accent. And yet we are observing the same human behavioral traits in AI dominant futuristic planets.

2. It appears that Radchaai language does not have a gender specification, i.e., neutral name and neutral pronoun. There is no expression like “He is tall” or “She is tall.” The expression is like “This being is tall.” So Ann uses “She” as a convenient pronoun to describe her story and it reads like “She is tall”, but “She” doesn’t mean it’s female.

So a protagonist Breq has no problem communicating with others on Radchaai planet where AIs are dominant. The problem kicks in when Breq travels across other planets to search for a Anaander Mianaai’s crypton --- a gun that can shoot and kill AI in an instant. Breq, a corpse soldier, finds it difficult to differentiate male from female in conversation. Planet dwellers can easily figure out that Breq is from another planet, or Radchaai where no gender specification is required. Author Ann uses “She” as a subjective pronoun in her writing and readers have to figure out the gender in their imagination. For e.g., when Breq saved an officer Seivarden in Icy planet, you have to imagine the sex of the officer Seivarden although “she” was used when referring to Seivarden in Breq’s conversation.

3. As an AI dwelling in human flesh, Breq has no ability to discern human emotion or personality by abstract thinking or intrinsic feeling of being one of the sexes. Breq heavily relies on its ability to discern subtle changes such as muscle twitch, iris widening in your eyes, or silence of how long, and interpret human emotions from those observations. In conversation, Breq counts how long the other speaker silences: 3 seconds of silence or 9 seconds of silence. Intriguing!

After so many spoilers, here’s my pet peeves and deal breakers;  

Pet Peeves

I. How could a protagonist Breq conceive a revolutionary idea in the first place that it wants to take revenge on Emperor of the Radch Empire? The idea has been dwelling for 20 years in the process of searching for a formidable gun, and when she was asked about the gun, she said "I don't know." As a reader, I’m left speechless, and a bit disappointed.

II. Here’s the thing. The story revolves around the search for a gun – a gun that can kill AI. This happens when Radchaai Empire attempts to annex Garsedd planet --- A planet that ever resisted against Radchaai annexation because Garseddai dwellers possess formidable guns that pose a threat to Radchaai very existence. But they only have 25 guns. So to make it short, one gun slipped out of the way when Radchaai destroyed Garsedd planet once and for all.

So Breq is searching for the only gun available in the entire universe. Besides, the supreme leader it wants to kill has thousands of copies on her own. The emperor of the Radchaai planet, Anaander Mianaai had thousands of her conscious copies across the entire Radchaai planet. How could an AI prolong its desire to revenge over 20 years and cannot see that the mission is already moot even before it begins?

III. Giving the benefit of the doubt to a protagonist Breq desire to seek revenge, i.e., I can still give some understanding on AI having developed a desire to seek revenge, but how could this desire survive for 20 solid years and when confronted by a gun seller, Strigan, all Breq has to say is “I don’t know. I know it’s impossible to kill Anaander with only one gun. But I might as well give it a shot.” 20 solid years of planning and ardent search for a gun, and all you have to say is "I know it's impossible"? ? ? 

IV. An AI that somehow develops a feeling of frustration and revenge, and plots its plan all the way from planet to planet, can’t figure out a person’s emotion? and have to count the second of silence and muscle twitch? I don’t know. Selective motion sensor?

Dealbreakers

An AI, a conscious segment from a once destroyed Justice of Toren sentient spaceship, now dwells in a human flesh and goes by Breq.

My understanding on AI is limited but not to the point where “thousands of years ahead in the future” setting alone can give you a full authority on anything is possible with AI nonsense. The same goes for bionic humans or humanoids or cyborgs. I can appreciate if humanoids in the future get hold of the planet Earth and overrule the mere earthlings. But if you’re coming up with a scenario where human DNA was extracted and implanted into a wooden block, there comes a sentient wooden block; able to talk, communicate and seeking revenge, of course in the future thousands of years ahead, I can’t wrap my head around with this scenario by any stretch of scientific or genetic imagination.

If you like Transformers kind of stuff, I think you will do fine reading the book. But I’m not a fan of transformers. A sentient vehicle can transform itself into a walking scrap metal, maybe Scrapto Erectus? And then seeking revenge? Not a cup of tea for me.