Ancillary Justice cover art

Ancillary Justice

The Imperial Radch series, Book 1

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Ancillary Justice

By: Ann Leckie
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
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About this listen

The record-breaking debut novel that won every major science fiction award in 2014, Ancillary Justice is the story of a warship trapped in a human body and her search for revenge.

Ann Leckie is the first author to win the Arthur C. Clarke, the Nebula and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in the same year.

They made me kill thousands, but I only have one target now.

The Radch are conquerors to be feared - resist and they'll turn you into a 'corpse soldier' - one of an army of dead prisoners animated by a warship's AI mind. Whole planets are conquered by their own people.

The colossal warship called The Justice of Toren has been destroyed - but one ship-possessed soldier has escaped the devastation. Used to controlling thousands of hands, thousands of mouths, The Justice now has only two hands, and one mouth with which to tell her tale.

But one fragile, human body might just be enough to take revenge against those who destroyed her.

The Imperial Radch trilogy begins with Ancillary Justice, continues in Ancillary Sword and concludes with Ancillary Mercy.

Also available now: Provenance is a stunning standalone adventure set in the same world as Ancillary Justice.

©2013 Ann Leckie (P)2014 Hachette Audio Adventure Hard Science Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera Thriller & Suspense Women's Voices Fiction

Critic Reviews

"Thrilling, moving and awe-inspiring." (Guardian)

"Signals the arrival of a hard science fiction author who just might fill the gap left by Iain M. Banks. Ancillary Justice is a highly original novel...an intelligent slow-burner. Highly recommended." (Independent on Sunday)

"You will be truly astounded at how Leckie has fully fleshed out a universe and is asking and attempting to answer the difficult questions that many authors never even address in science fiction." (Buzzfeed)

"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, Hugo Award-winning author of Redshirts)
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A brilliantly written adventure, with an intriguing premise! Breq is the last remaining part of a ship AI and is a very engaging character. This audiobook really kept me listening and is very suspenseful all the way through. The universe of the novel is well realised and seems plausible. Breq's difficulty with gender pronouns is a brilliant touch, which, while a little confusing at first really makes sense and is treated very consistently. The implied languages, societies, politics, religions and technology all hang together well. The different accents used by the Adjoah Andoh for the various characters were excellent and helped make sense of the social interactions in the story, indeed Adjoah certainly reads the book really well and made Breq a very believable character who engaged my sympathy. I thoroughly recommend this audiobook!

Brilliant Book, and a fantastic performance!

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Usually I love book series - but while this one had an interesting story and characters, it just didn’t grab me. I think this is an instance where reading the book, would be a better experience than listening to it. Or maybe doing both at the same time. Still I am not curious enough to spend a credit on the next one.

Not continuing on

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Compelling narration and some complex characters - worth hanging in for the first few chapters while the setup emerges!

Slow build to a great finish

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A spectacular story with one of the most talented narrators out there today. This was absolutely gripping and I loved the characters and world-building.

Amazing

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A sophisticated, inventive and thought-proving book. Leckie is a writer of real creativity. I had to listen twice to grasp all the subtleties and complexities of this story. Then went straight onto Audible to buy Book 2!

Brilliant story, and narrator

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Thought provoking and original story and a fantastic performance makes this one of my all tim favourites.

Phenomenal!

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What a pleasure this was - an incredible book with a compelling plot that was certainly enhanced by the performance in this audiobook. I definitely recommend

I loved every second!

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I have listened to this over 20 times. Truly one of my favourites.
Adjoa Andoh is a truly brilliant narrator,

Do not be fooled by the cover, this is not some battle heavy military sci fi. More a musing contemplation on war, inequality and humanity.
I love learning lessons of humanity from an AI.

Must read,

Brilliant

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Great story, fabulous narrator! I enjoyed the world creation and the contrast of one society being quite gender fluid, with others as the protagonist moves through space as a corpse soldier. Great concepts abound!

Fabulous narrator!

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The narrator did a good job distinguishing the voices.
The story was convoluted and confusing. The AI of a ship is in it's last remaining body. It's true hard core sci-fi, in that it's so alien and confusing that you have to listen to half the book to get what is actually going on.
Yes it's a novel idea, and maybe that why it won so many awards, but it's slow to get to the action, and it's only by the very end of the book that you are actually getting into it - maybe worth it, if it was going to be a long series and you really wanted to get into it, but I've been put off and won't bother with the sequel.

Ancillary Confusion

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