Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch Series #2)

by Ann Leckie

Overview

Seeking atonement for past crimes, Breq takes on a mission as captain of a troublesome new crew of Radchai soldiers, in the sequel to Ann Leckie's NYT bestselling, award-winning Ancillary Justice. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey.

"There are few who write science fiction like Ann Leckie can. There are few who ever could." -- John Scalzi

Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor.
With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew -- a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.

Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy has become one of the new classics of science fiction. Beautifully written and forward thinking, it does what good science fiction does best, taking readers to bold new worlds with plenty explosions along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316246644
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	10/07/2014
Series:	Imperial Radch Series
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	46,537
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ann Leckie is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, and British Science Fiction Award-winning novel Ancillary Justice. She has worked as a waitress, a receptionist, a rodman on a land-surveying crew, and a recording engineer. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/15/2014
Newly appointed fleet captain Breq has been assigned a ship, the Mercy of Kalr, and sent by the Lord of the Radch to Athoek Station. Setting aside (for the most part) the brewing civil war in the Radch empire among clone factions of their leader, Breq has personal reasons for wanting to visit Athoek, which harken back to her final days as a ship ancillary and the events detailed in 2013's Hugo Award-winning Ancillary Justice. But while the titular noun may have changed in this sequel, our antagonist is still very much obsessed with justice and with helping underdogs where she finds them. Breq is a beautiful creation, a former ancillary who functioned as a part of her (now destroyed) ship, still longing for the experience of being completely integrated with her crew even while she deplores the imperial policies that created ancillaries and stripped them of their humanity. VERDICT Few novels could match the bolt-out-of-the-sky originality of Leckie's debut, but this follow-up builds on the world and characters that the author introduced in the first book and takes the story in new directions. There is much more to explore in Leckie's universe, one of the most original in sf today. [See Q&A with Leckie, p. 54.—Ed.]

Library Journal

Where the first novel explored the consequences of a human transcending individuality…here we see the consequences of a many-minded entity being reduced to simple humanity. Throughout the novel…Breq shows the strain of her tremendous loss. In the process, Leckie thumbs her nose again at science fiction tradition, which abounds with disabled people being made whole by technology, and with nonhumans inexplicably yearning for humanity. The technology of the Radchaai is miraculous, but it cannot repair identity. And why would any entity with a truly nonhuman identity ever crave humanity? Where Leckie poked holes in sexist thought in the last book, here she attacks the self-absorption of science fiction itself. After all, is the genre truly meant to explore new ways of thinking? Or should it just endlessly stroke the egos of its assumed audience? Leckie once again makes it delightfully clear that one of these questions is just too stupid to be worth her time.

The New York Times Book Review - N. K. Jemisin

08/11/2014
Leckie's powerful sequel to Ancillary Justice is a touch less ambitious in structure, but every bit as incisive. As news that open civil war has broken out slowly percolates through the crumbling networks of Radchaai space, Fleet Captain Breq Mianaai arrives at Athoek. Subjugated by the aggressively expansionist empire six centuries before, Athoek should be an exemplary world of peace, wealth, and concord, but what Breq finds is a world where the Radch precepts of "justice, propriety, and benefit" have been twisted to justify negligence, outright exploitation, and willful ignorance by those charged with enforcing the law. As Breq methodically analyzes the intertwined networks of privilege, incompetence, corruption and spiteful cruelty, she learns that not all outrages can be punished and justice is often denied to those who most deserve it. Breq's struggle for meaningful justice in a society designed to favor the strong is as engaging as ever. Readers new to the author will be enthralled, and those familiar with the first book will find that the faith it inspired has not been misplaced. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Company. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Powerful."—The New York Times

"The sort of space opera audiences have been waiting for."—NPR Books

"Fans of space operas will feast on its richly textured, gorgeously rendered world-building."—Entertainment Weekly

"Breq's struggle for meaningful justice in a society designed to favor the strong is as engaging as ever. Readers new to the author will be enthralled, and those familiar with the first book will find that the faith it inspired has not been misplaced."—Publishers Weekly

"Leckie proves she's no mere flash in the pan with this follow-up to her multiple-award-winning debut space opera, Ancillary Justice."—Kirkus

"This follow-up builds on the world and characters that the author introduced in the first book and takes the story in new directions. There is much more to explore in Leckie's universe, one of the most original in SF today."—Library Journal (starred review)

"An ambitious space opera that proves that Justice was no fluke.... a book every serious reader of science fiction should pick up."—RT Book Reviews

"Superb... Sword proves that [Leckie]'s not a one-hit wonder. I look forward to the rest of Breg's tale."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"A gripping read, with top-notch world building and a set of rich subtexts about human rights, colonialism — and (yes) hive mind sex."—io9

"Leckie investigates what it means to be human, to be an individual and to live in a civilized society."—Scientific American

"Unexpected, compelling and very cool. Ann Leckie nails it...I've never met a heroine like Breq before. I consider this a very good thing indeed."—John Scalzi on Ancillary Justice

"Ancillary Justice is the mind-blowing space opera you've been needing...This is a novel that will thrill you like the page-turner it is, but stick with you for a long time afterward."—io9 (included in 'This Fall's Must-Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Books')

"It's not every day a debut novel by an author you'd never heard of before derails your entire afternoon with its brilliance. But when my review copy of Ancillary Justice arrived, that's exactly what it did. In fact, it arrowed upward to reach a pretty high position on my list of best space opera novels ever."—Liz Bourke on Ancillary Justice

"Establishes Leckie as an heir to Banks and Cherryh."—Elizabeth Bear on Ancillary Justice

"A double-threaded narrative proves seductive, drawing the reader into the naive but determined protagonist's efforts to transform an unjust universe. Leckie uses...an expansionist galaxy-spinning empire [and] a protagonist on a single-minded quest for justice to transcend space-opera conventions in innovative ways. This impressive debut succeeds in making Breq a protagonist readers will invest in, and establishes Leckie as a talent to watch."—Publishers Weekly on Ancillary Justice

"Using the format of SF military adventure blended with hints of space opera, Leckie explores the expanded meaning of human nature and the uneasy balance between individuality and membership in a group identity. Leckie is a newcomer to watch as she expands on the history and future of her new and exciting universe."—Library Journal on Ancillary Justice

"A sharply written space opera with a richly imagined sense of detail and place, this debut novel from Ann Leckie works as both an evocative science fiction tale and an involving character study...it's also a strongly female-driven piece, tackling ideas about politics and gender in a way that's both engaging and provocative...Ancillary Justice is a gripping read that's well worth a look."—SFX (UK) on Ancillary Justice

"It engages, it excites, and it challenges the way the reader views our world. Leckie may be a former Secretary of the Science Fiction Writers of America, but she's the President of this year's crop of debut novelists. Ancillary Justice might be the best science fiction novel of this very young decade."—Justin Landon, Staffer's Book Review on Ancillary Justice

"Total gamechanger. Get it, read it, wish to hell you'd written it. Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice may well be the most important book Orbit has published in ages."—Paul Graham Raven on Ancillary Justice

"The sort of book that the Clarke Award wishes it had last year ... be prepared to see Ancillary Justice bandied around a lot come awards season. (As it should be)."—Jared Shurin, Pornokitsch

"If you don't know the Ancillary series by now, you probably should. Ann Leckie's sociopolitical space opera almost singlehandedly breathed new cool into the stereotype of spaceships trundling through far-off systems amid laser battles. ... [Ancillary Mercy] earns the credit it's received: As a capstone to a series that shook genre expectations, as our closing installment of an immersively realized world, and as the poignant story of a ship that learned to sing."—NPR Books on Ancillary Mercy

From the Publisher

"The sort of book that the Clarke Award wishes it had last year ... be prepared to see Ancillary Justice bandied around a lot come awards season. (As it should be)."

Jared Shurin

"It engages, it excites, and it challenges the way the reader views our world. Leckie may be a former Secretary of the Science Fiction Writers of America, but she's the President of this year's crop of debut novelists. Ancillary Justice might be the best science fiction novel of this very young decade."

Justin Landon

"Leckie's debut gives casual and hardcore sci-fi fans alike a wonderful read."

RT Book Reviews on Ancillary Justice

"Establishes Leckie as an heir to Banks and Cherryh."

Elizabeth Bear on Ancillary Justice

"Unexpected, compelling and very cool. Ann Leckie nails it...I've never met a heroine like Breq before. I consider this a very good thing indeed."

John Scalzi on Ancillary Justice

"Total gamechanger. Get it, read it, wish to hell you'd written it. Ann
Leckie's Ancillary Justice may well be the most important book Orbit has published in ages."

Paul Graham Raven

"Ancillary Justice is the mind-blowing space opera you've been needing...This is a novel that will thrill you like the page-turner it is, but stick with you for a long time afterward."

i09.com (included in 'This Fall's Must-Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Books')

"It's not every day a debut novel by an author you'd never heard of before derails your entire afternoon with its brilliance. But when my review copy of Ancillary Justice arrived, that's exactly what it did. In fact, it arrowed upward to reach a pretty high position on my list of best space opera novels ever."

Liz Bourke

"A sharply written space opera with a richly imagined sense of detail and place, this debut novel from Ann Leckie works as both an evocative science fiction tale and an involving character study...it's also a strongly female-driven piece, tackling ideas about politics and gender in a way that's both engaging and provocative...Ancillary Justice is a gripping read that's well worth a look."

SFX (UK)

2014-07-23
Leckie proves she's no mere flash in the pan with this follow-up to her multiaward-winning debut space opera, Ancillary Justice (2013). Breq used to be One Esk Nineteen, an ancillary, or human-bodied extension, of the Artificial Intelligence that powered the ship Justice of Toren. Two decades after the ship's destruction, she is Fleet Capt. Breq Mianaai, envoy of the many-bodied Lord of the Radch empire, Anaander Mianaai. Or a tool of part of her: The Lord is a mind divided against itself, and the dissension among herselves has brought the empire to the brink of civil war. One faction has sent Breq to Athoek station to secure it. Once there, Breq discovers that the station and the planet below are a microcosm of corruption and conspiracy, another symptom of the empire's decay. After the literally explosive finale of the previous installment, one might have expected the novel to have a broader, more action-focused sweep. But Leckie doesn't seem concerned with space battles—the core of the story she wants to tell is more intimate, personal. As in the previous volume, she offers the groaningly obvious moral that those who are considered of lesser breeding frequently display far nobler behavior than the cardboard villains who believe themselves to be their so-called betters. She manages to retain interest, however, by cutting Breq and her friends and allies from more richly patterned cloth. The AI who proves to have more insight, more compassion and a greater sense of justice—who is, in fact, more human—than the humans around it is a common sci-fi trope. But Breq intriguingly defies that trope in one key sense: AIs of that sort usually aspire to be human, while Breq feels lonely and limited in her single body, desperately, painfully missing what she once was. Perhaps something of a retread but still interesting and worth following to its conclusion.

Kirkus Reviews