ANCILLARY JUSTICE, Hugo, BSFA, Arthur C. Clarke Award winner...it's okay

ANCILLARY JUSTICE (Imperial Radch #1)
ANN LECKIE
Orbit Books
$16.00 trade paper, available now

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.
Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

I RECEIVED THIS BOOK FROM THE PUBLISHER AS PART OF THE LIBRARY THING EARLY REVIEWERS PROGRAM.

My Review: Pleasant enough. I'm not convinced that Leckie has moved the goalposts for female empowerment by preferentially using she in place of he, which so far as I can see is what's new and different about this book.

Congratulations to Ms. Leckie for winning her many awards, and to Orbit for seeing the potential in the book. I have missed everything the awards committees have seen, and am almost certainly the poorer for it. I feel no more Enlightened in my gender-role attitudes than I was before, and am not going to remember this book in about a day. The xenophobic imperialists the Radch were mildly interesting. The pragmatic handling of religion on the Radch's part was refreshing and appealing.

But Hugo Award, BSFA Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award? Really? I'm obviously missing something major. I don't see it.


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