I read this book as part of my Hugo Award-Winning reading challenge.
This is the first book in a three-part trilogy that introduces Breq - the book's protagonist. We learn that she was betrayed and is now on a quest to recover a mysterious gun that will let her gain revenge. The story is told from the perspective of two separate timelines that converge into the story's climax.
The World
The Radchaai are a vast colonial space empire modeled (in my opinion) on the Roman Empire. They have a massive armed force and are in a constant state of expansion. The residents of annexed territories are automatic citizens of the Raadchaai empire, and their culture and religion are either replaced or assimilated into the Radchaai culture. Anaander Minaai has ruled the Radchaai empire for over one thousand years. Her primary expansion policy and ruthless annexation reach a pivot point and a complete u-turn. This change in policy throws into motion the series of events in this book.Several seemingly unrelated political and combat incidents are recounted during the story - Ors, Garsedd, Ime. They seem disconnected and feel like an unnecessary tangent and a break in the narrative. However, as the various layers of the story peel away, these incidents play into the main narrative, resulting in excellent storytelling.
The Sci-Fi
Ancillary
Radchaai annexations can be brutal, but in most instances, political prisoners are captured, enslaved, and turned into Ancillaries - humans whose minds are erased and supplanted with a networked AI construct.Ancillaries are bound to a parent ship, and all share the same thoughts and see what each other sees. They are, in a way, singular with the ship.
The ancillaries have traditionally formed the primary fighting force of the Radchaai but are being phased out in favor of regular human troops.
The concept of the ancillary reminded me of the Goau'ld in the Stargate series. In that series, the Goau'ld are a parasitic alien species that inhabit a human host and can potentially live forever (along with its memories) as long as they migrate to a new host. By comparison, an Ancillary's mind is occupied by a central AI networked across thousands of hosts, and its memories accumulate over millennia.
We discover that the protagonist Breq is, in fact, a former Ancillary who is no longer networked with her parent ship. Breq, aka One Esk initially comes across as indifferent, uncaring, and laser-focused on a single objective, but that changes as the story progresses. She is revealed to have feelings toward some of her crew. This might feel like a cliched plot device when depicting nonhuman protagonists - the uncaring protagonist that is shown to actually care.
Ships
There are 3 primary types of ships. Justice, Mercy, and Sword. In this book, we are introduced to the Justice class ship - Justice of Toren. It is a massive troop carrier spanning multiple kilometers and has been in service for over 1000 years. While doing some research, I discovered other books that included spaceships that were personified -https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/our-6-favorite-sentient-spaceships/
Anaander Minaai
The Radchaai ruler has stayed in power for over one thousand years by using the Ancillary technology to create copies of herself across several human hosts. Like the ancillaries, she shares a singular mind and can see what all other hosts see.
The plot of this book takes an intriguing twist by disclosing that this networked group of rulers has at some point become fragmented and that there are, in fact, two separate sentient rulers occupying two distinct sets of hosts. Both are in a secret war against the other.