Ann LeckieAncillary Justice: THE HUGO, NEBULA AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD WINNER

This is a difficult book to review, but I will try to keep this brief as there are plenty of more detailed reviews.I liked the premise, didn't struggle with the use of the pronoun 'she' for all genders, and got used to the narrative switching back and forth between past and present. However, for me, this book has two major issues.1. Not much happens. The narrative crawls painfully along. I understand books two and three are slower still.2. I frequently had no idea what was going on. I don't expect to be spoon-fed, but by half-way through, I expected to understand a bit more about the background, hierarchies, cultural norms etc, but constantly felt as if I had either missed something (lots of things!) or had started the series part way through.I have to conclude that this book is too clever by half for me and frankly, feels like too much hard work. It's a shame, I was excited to start this (hoping, perhaps for another Mary Doria Russell, who manages much better IMO to reward a reader's hard work with an absolute belter of a book - you can't go wrong with The Sparrow). I won't be reading anything further by this author.

I genuinely loved this book, a really fresh take on SciFi. The set-up and world building is superb, and the central character quite unique. Other characters have less depth, largely because the narrator struggles to understand them, but nevertheless there is real warmth in the cast. The plot is unusual too. The whole trilogy is worth reading, but the first book is the one to knock your socks off.

This book came with so many recommendations but had decidedly mixed reviews. I tried. I really tried. But at around page 95 or so, I gave up. I've been reading SF since the 1950s and I can honestly say that I have rarely given up on a book but this one beat me. At 80 years old I cannot afford to waste reading time on something I wasn't enjoying.

One of the reasons I enjoy reading science fiction is that it oftens tackles big (or at least unusual) ideas. That is the case with this book, but it's crafted in such a way that it blends easily into the narrative. This core idea of multiplicity, so the inhabitation of a single consciousness into multiple entities isn't a new one, but is explored here with skill, and it weaves well into the story.The story opens with another interesting process, and that is absorbing a society into another. This part helps base the characters and reveal more about the world around them. The author does well here to blend this with the narrative without too much exposition. This establishment fills the majority of the book, a little more than I would expect as it essentially build up, but it's entertaining enough in its own right to not be a problem.For me the real meat of the story comes in the second half of the book, and while this was the stronger part, I also felt that there could have been more. It's often a tricky balance as to how much detail an author includes about an unfamiliar world in their story, I would have happily read more about the main character's journey to their ultimate destination.The conclusion did feel a little weak to me, especially considering the strength of what came before. It opened up some possibilities though, and did do more than enough for me to purchase the next book in the trilogy!I enjoyed the writing style, it conveyed information well, without being too laboured. It's a definite sci-fi read though, and expects some basic knowledge of sci-fi concepts. It's not hard sci-fi, but a familiarity is useful. I notice that it won a good selection of awards, I personally don't think it's quite that good, but it's still a decent read.

I am apparently one of the minority left standing here amidst all the cheers going " but the King's (or in this case the Queen's) got no clothes!" as I found relatively little in this to make it worth one award let alone the explosion of praise it's engendered. Now, I've been reading Sf for around 60 years, coping with wave after new wave of fashion, the ordination of women,( I still have the first Dragon-Rider edition of Astounding/Analog) and bought and traded all sorts works in this my favourite genre, and I reckon I know dross from the pure quill. This work is neither, I'll buy the rest when the car-boot season starts again but I won't pay full whack for them, even Amazon's " penny down and just pay the postage" price.