---
title: "Book Review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie"
description: "4.75 ⭐ out of 5"
publishedDate: 2025-05-14
imageURL: /blog/book_ancillary-justice/cover.png
tags:
  - books
---
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* **Genre:** science fiction
* **First published:** 1 October 2013
* **Pages:** 416
* **Series:** Impedial Radch, book 1

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<img loading="lazy" class="floated" src="cover.png" alt="Cover photo of Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie">

Ancillary Justice sucked me in and kept me guessing throughout the whole story - it twisted and turned, and had numerous revelations and discoveries, none of which felt anything but organic and realistic (if that's a word that you could use for a sci-fi book).

I thoroughly enjoyed the way the chapters in the first half of the book alternated between different points in time. The way they converged at the first climax of the story was incredibly clever - they just flowed into one another and unlocked a massive amount of context, as well as giving an incredible twist.

The way Leckie wrote from the perspective of Breq's single consciousness experiencing and participating in the world from multiple perspectives was masterful and seamless, and Leckie did an excellent job of portraying just how much changes to that impacted Breq as they happened.

The lack of gender in the Radchaai language was handled well, and the ['gay fanfiction problem'](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xixiXiL3kLM) was controlled nicely throughout, with only one instance I noticed where it wasn't completely clear who was who to me.

I can agree with other reviews that I've seen, however, that this is a book one that does need bit of thought to deciper thanks to the sheer depth of the universe it's set in, but I don't mind that, myself.

The end of this book felt a little tiny bit like it was missing something (this is why this isn't 5 stars), but it's definitely not going to stop me from reading the rest of the series. Big fan. Great sci-fi.

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