Book Review – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

My first book of 2025 is the second book I’ve read by author Ann Leckie. Both books, Translation State and Ancillary Justice, are set in the same world of the Imperial Radch series, though the stories are not directly connected. Reading Translation State led me to Ancillary Justice, the first book of Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy, and I am eagerly looking forward to book two.

Ancillary Justice introduces us to Breq, a soldier, at least that’s how they present themselves. In reality, Breq is the last surviving ancillary of Justice of Toren, a destroyed warship of the Radch, and is on a mission of vengeance, one which will immensely change the empire, either in success or failure.

Characters like Breq, the last fragment of an artificial intelligence over 2000 years old now contained in a human body, and  Seivarden, a former Lieutenant on the Justice of Toren a thousand years ago. Both are fish out of water, Breq as an AI trying to pass as human and Seivardan, a human a thousand years out of time who has lost everything. These two do need each other, though, of course, neither knows or believes it for some time, and their shared journey throughout the book, along with Breq’s back story, is compelling on its own.

Ancillary Justice has the distinct honor of earning  the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the only book to do so. I can see why and I think you will, as well. I completed the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky and I look forward to reading the rest of this one.