So, with 2001 tucked out of sight under the sofa, Banks's books stand as my first in this subgenre. I'm guessing being a murderously psychopathic, slow spaceship is not attractive to most people. Of course, one might say Clarke did it first in 2001, but I don't count it because of the stately pace of space travel in the story and Hal 9000 being neither fully fleshed-out character nor heroic. Banks's Culture setting are among my favorites. John Harrison's Kefahuchi series and Iain M. How can imagining oneself living amongst the stars unbeholden to any planet not exhilarate? Fast and powerful, heroic, with space as your natural environment. I'm a sucker for good world-building - anyone who knows me can tell you that - but also for people-ships, be the person an AI, an integrated human, or something in between. These things rose to a higher level of annoyance than they might have otherwise, because the author made them a significant part of the story but did not seem to have researched them properly. This was punctuated by some annoyances though. Most of the time, Ancillary Justice delighted me. Yes, she *thinks* she's a stone-cold killing machine, but her actions say otherwise. It's telling that almost everyone who dislikes this book also doesn't understand that Breq is an unreliable narrator of her own feelings. still kind of confusing, but always breathtaking. (20 July 2016) Finished my first (of probably many) rereads. (19 June 2016) Finally bought a copy at Kramerbooks this evening so I can mark it up to my hearts content on the reread and then finally (FINALLY) get to reading the sequel! In short: best feminist gender-fucking hard sci fi about imperialism/colonialism/militarism and artificial intelligences and religion and culture with the best intense political intrigue for a plot and the best characters of 2014.

I'm just going to need to get my own copy, so I can underline and annotate to my heart's content. When I finished it a few months ago I wanted to write a long, insightful review and mention even half the things I loved about it, and then I had to return it to the library, with dozens of tiny scraps of paper still sticking out of the places where I bookmarked the things I was excited about.

I think I forgot to review Ancillary Justice because it was so great.

Goodreads ancillary justice