Ancillary Justice - A unique take on AI and a complex galactic empire! (sci-fi book review)

[@McMurchie]

Honestly Im struggling to get through the first book too many names, and for some reason I'm finding the writing style overly wordy - i've got it though and I always finish, so going to listen up to the spoilers part!

[@hugonautspod]

For sure - well hope it lands more for you as you get farther into it! There certainly are a lot of names

[@CRJessen]

Following up, read this and loved it. Thanks for the review.

[@hugonautspod]

So happy to hear you liked it! This comment alone honestly makes the whole episode worthwhile, so happy we were able to introduce you to a great book that struck a chord

[@codyross5364]

The second book was just so hard to read… I couldn’t even finish the third. I read some bad stuff but holy hell, that was a chore.

[@bibbly-bobbly2068]

Just listened to your podcast, very much enjoying thank you. I wanted to say that the second and third books I found were perhaps a bit more low stakes more similar to beck chambers books imo. I enjoyed the story character progression and interaction but I agree I was left wanting more and more high level intergalactic conflict, more about other ships and their ai would have been interesting. That said I see Ann has released some more books in the world so I'm looking forward to giving them a go.

[@hugonautspod]

Ya we’re covering one of those in-universe books for our review of all this years Hugo nominees here next month - Translation State! Similar to books 2 and 3

[@BradleycBird]

25:50 Try reading Hydrogen Sonata

[@BradleycBird]

I would love to see ya'll do the culture series.

[@hugonautspod]

High on our to-do list for sure!

[@hugonautspod]

Which books in the series would you recommend we start with?

[@BradleycBird]

@@hugonautspod They are episodic so you could start anywhere but most recommend that you start with Consider Phlebas as it gives an outside in look at The Culture who you'll be living with for the next books. I would say The State of the Art and Inversion are the only 2 wrong choices as these are more Culture adjacent stories.

[@hugonautspod]

@@BradleycBird Sounds good, we'll plan to start there!

[@scottbrooks6425]

I'm currently re-reading Windup Girl. I'm catching a lot of things that I didn't the first time around. For example, the time period is further into the future then I initially thought. Although I can't help but think Paolo's vision will be here sooner rather than later (sadly).

[@hugonautspod]

Yea so much happening in that book! We just wrapped the episode earlier today, looking forward to talking about the book with y’all next week

[@cullen9119]

Vacuum Flowers (1987) by Michael Swanwick is the best take on multi-body AI I've read yet. And it it's a good story. And it isn't some bloated series. But the Comprise ("Borg") are seriously creepy, more so even to me than the actual Borg

[@DanBuell]

I’m struggling to get through the book but am persisting - found it really hard to follow on Audible, so I started reading it on Kindle.

[@hugonautspod]

Was it the names? They are wayyyy too long!

[@CRJessen]

Thanks for the recommend. Just purchased. Looking forward to digging in.

[@hugonautspod]

Hope you love it!

[@codyross5364]

So the way they appreciated and respected the folk music of the cultures they are conquering is something Engels was intellectually consumed with about 17th century English culture… and you can’t help but make the same connection to Roman cultures’ same deep respect of their own conquered territories which leckie was modeling her ships off of

[@hugonautspod]

Oh that's very interesting! We noticed other parallels to the English and Roman empires, but didn't realize the appreciation for music was that kind of reference as well.

[@gordonburroughs2474]

Well, you cannot bat a thousand, I suppose. I didn’t think the writing was bad, so I would be willing to try this author again, but I couldn’t get into it. Thanks for the spoiler section - I am perfectly fine with that summary.

[@hugonautspod]

So sorry to hear you didn't like it! But glad the spoiler section helped you feel like you didn't miss out with your DNF

[@scottbrooks6425]

Cody, I'm also a musician ( band director is my occupation). I disagree with your take because the best music has been made. We have already done our best with those 12 notes. Also, very tough to explain music without hearing it so in literature it is best to use familiar examples. Love the review as always, putting this one in my TBR list.

[@purenonsense7296]

This Scott guy sounds sketchy, don’t listen to him. Looking forward to your take on Windup Girl. I might kinda know this Scott guy and we have different takes on it.

[@scottbrooks6425]

@@purenonsense7296 Great music is being made now but it is hardly new in terms of harmony and melody. PureNonsense is a great band ( I should know, I'm in it) but we use the same harmonic devices that were in use 200 years ago

[@hugonautspod]

I would agree RE harmony and melody! Music, especially since we’re spinning our wheels on melody/harmony, just is even more about cultural context, listening context, and timbre now. So it surprises me that scifi authors so frequently (to me!) miss the opportunity to describe music that feels like a cool world-building element. I also agree music is impossible in prose, so that’s why I like the scenes that are more descriptions of what concerts are like etc. I will say I think Leckie does a great job connecting these songs to the emotions of characters and places.

[@hugonautspod]

By the way, very much digging the timbres of Pure Nonsense. 🤘

[@scottbrooks6425]

@@hugonautspod thank you!!! Is there a way to hear your music??

[@bretgrandrath2935]

Great review, and yay 15 minutes in before you mention the pronouns which is just a brilliant world building thing.Ancillary Justice is the book that got me out of a long reading slump so I give it 5 stars. Leckie says that the Radch Empire is so big that any pronunciation would be right somewhere. I read Mianaai as Me an(d) I, which is kinda spot on.

[@hugonautspod]

I love that line from Leckie about pronunciation!

[@LoganKearsley]

A linguistic note -- not distinguishing gender in pronouns does not imply an androgynous society. Plenty of real human languages don't have gendered pronouns (E.g. Mandarin, Estonian, etc.), and speakers of those languages really do have trouble with accidentally misgendering people in English.

[@hugonautspod]

That's a good point!

[@myself2noone]

Saying "plenty" an overstament. Gendered pronouns are a common linguistic invention, and once invented they don't seem to go away.

[@LoganKearsley]

@myself2noone It's more than 50%. Pretty sure that counts as "plenty".