Book Review: Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie

A revenge-epic space opera that's almost as clever as it's trying to be.

Orbit, 2013, 416 pages

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren--a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose--to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.

From debut author Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice is a stunning space opera that asks what it means to be human in a universe guided by artificial intelligence.

( Artificial intelligences working for evil Space not-Romans, gender ambiguity, and the Dumbest. Revenge. Plan. Ever. )

Verdict: Ancillary Justice is a good book despite some annoying defects in plot and characterization. If you can ignore the pointlessness of the quest which drives the entire plot of the first book, you will like it enough to want to read the next (yes, this is the first book in a trilogy).

Oh, and am I the only one who looks at that cover and thinks of a 80s Atari game?

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My complete list of book reviews.

Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World

Actually saw this in the theater. I think I liked it better than the first movie, which was a surprise. It's rather remarkable how well Marvel has done pulling B- and C-list villains out of its archives as movie Big Bads.

Best parts: Loki's banter, and London getting trashed. (Why does it always have to be New York?)

Worst parts: No way do I buy Natalie Portman as a PhD astrophysicist. And if you keep slapping gods, sweetie, sooner or later one of them is going to slap you back. Also, there seems to be a biiiig unexplained plot hole at the end, which I guess will be addressed in the next movie?

Wait for the very, very end of the credits - the audience that waited for the first easter egg and left missed the second.