Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie

Breq used to be the AI of a giant spaceship in the service of the aggressively colonialist Radchaii. As such she had a multiple consciousness, embodied in multiple ancillaries that carried out work on the ground. Something has happened to sever all her connections, leaving her with a single consciousness in one human ancillary body. Now she is looking for justice. The story jumps between the events that led up to Breq’s change of circumstance almost 20 years previously and her present day actions to redress them. The past deals with a complex political situation on the final planet to be annexed. The present starts on an icy frontier planet, where Breq seeks a weapon – and possible allies in her quest. It’s a complicated story, sometimes difficult to follow, which is made unnecessarily tricky by the Radchaii use of the female pronoun as a default. Everyone is referred to as she or her, regardless of gender, which is often confusing and it’s difficult to see what purpose it serves. Similarly, keeping track of the multiple split ancillaries of the highest power of the Radchaii is a frequent headfuck. Breq’s motivations are often a mystery even to herself, which is intriguing. As an inhuman, supposedly emotionless, AI she shows a lot of heart. This is the first in a series, which lays the groundwork for an epic adventure and possibly an epic love story. Whether it’s between a man and a woman or a same sex couple we may never know and perhaps the point is that we really don’t need to know.