Seeking atonement for past crimes, Breq takes on a mission as captain of a troublesome new crew of Radchai soldiers, in the sequel to the New York Times bestselling, award-winning Ancillary Justice.
Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor.
With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew -- a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.
Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy has become one of the new classics of science fiction. Beautifully written and forward thinking, it does what good science fiction does best, taking readers to bold new worlds with plenty explosions along the way.
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“This sequel to the award-winning Ancillary Justice is ably narrated by Adjoa Andoh…Andoh gives unique voices to the various characters, affecting different accents quite well. Her delivery is energetic, even spritely, and her clear enunciation makes sense of even the many alien words in the text. When called upon to sing, Andoh does a very nice job of it. To fully appreciate the story, listeners should familiarize themselves with Book 1, also performed by Andoh.”
— AudioFile
“Fans of space operas will feast on its richly textured, gorgeously rendered world-building.”
— Entertainment Weekly“Leckie investigates what it means to be human, to be an individual, and to live in a civilized society.”
— Scientific American“Superb…Sword proves that [Leckie]‘s not a one-hit wonder. I look forward to the rest of Breg’s tale.”
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch“This is the sort of space opera audiences have been waiting for.”
— NPR“This sequel to Ancillary Justice, a debut novel that swept science fiction’s major awards, is an ambitious space opera that proves that Justice was no fluke and that Leckie as an author is one of the significant new names in science fiction…Building on the themes of the series while still functioning as a solid stand-alone novel in its own right, Ancillary Sword is a book every serious reader of science fiction should pick up.”
— RT Book Reviews (4 stars)“This follow-up builds on the world and characters that the author introduced in the first book and takes the story in new directions. There is much more to explore in Leckie’s universe, one of the most original in sf today.”
— Library Journal (starred review)“Breq’s struggle for meaningful justice in a society designed to favor the strong is as engaging as ever. Readers new to the author will be enthralled, and those familiar with the first book will find that the faith it inspired has not been misplaced.”
— Publishers Weekly“Leckie proves she’s no mere flash in the pan with this follow-up to her multiple-award-winning debut space opera, Ancillary Justice."
— Kirkus ReviewsPowerful.
— The New York TimesThe sort of space opera audiences have been waiting for.
— NPR BooksFans of space operas will feast on its richly textured, gorgeously rendered world-building.
— Entertainment WeeklyBreq's struggle for meaningful justice in a society designed to favor the strong is as engaging as ever. Readers new to the author will be enthralled, and those familiar with the first book will find that the faith it inspired has not been misplaced.
— Publishers WeeklyLeckie proves she's no mere flash in the pan with this follow-up to her multiple-award-winning debut space opera, Ancillary Justice.
— KirkusThis follow-up builds on the world and characters that the author introduced in the first book and takes the story in new directions. There is much more to explore in Leckie's universe, one of the most original in SF today.
— Library Journal (starred review)An ambitious space opera that proves that Justice was no fluke.... a book every serious reader of science fiction should pick up.
— RT Book ReviewsSuperb... Sword proves that [Leckie]'s not a one-hit wonder. I look forward to the rest of Breg's tale.
— St. Louis Post-DispatchA gripping read, with top-notch world building and a set of rich subtexts about human rights, colonialism -- and (yes) hive mind sex.
— io9Leckie investigates what it means to be human, to be an individual and to live in a civilized society.
— Scientific AmericanUnexpected, compelling and very cool. Ann Leckie nails it...I've never met a heroine like Breq before. I consider this a very good thing indeed.
— John Scalzi on Ancillary JusticeAncillary Justice is the mind-blowing space opera you've been needing...This is a novel that will thrill you like the page-turner it is, but stick with you for a long time afterward.
— io9 (included in 'This Fall's Must-Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Books')It's not every day a debut novel by an author you'd never heard of before derails your entire afternoon with its brilliance. But when my review copy of Ancillary Justice arrived, that's exactly what it did. In fact, it arrowed upward to reach a pretty high position on my list of best space opera novels ever.
— Liz Bourke on Ancillary JusticeEstablishes Leckie as an heir to Banks and Cherryh.
— Elizabeth Bear on Ancillary JusticeA double-threaded narrative proves seductive, drawing the reader into the naive but determined protagonist's efforts to transform an unjust universe. Leckie uses...an expansionist galaxy-spinning empire [and] a protagonist on a single-minded quest for justice to transcend space-opera conventions in innovative ways. This impressive debut succeeds in making Breq a protagonist readers will invest in, and establishes Leckie as a talent to watch.
— Publishers Weekly on Ancillary JusticeUsing the format of SF military adventure blended with hints of space opera, Leckie explores the expanded meaning of human nature and the uneasy balance between individuality and membership in a group identity. Leckie is a newcomer to watch as she expands on the history and future of her new and exciting universe.
— Library Journal on Ancillary JusticeA sharply written space opera with a richly imagined sense of detail and place, this debut novel from Ann Leckie works as both an evocative science fiction tale and an involving character study...it's also a strongly female-driven piece, tackling ideas about politics and gender in a way that's both engaging and provocative...Ancillary Justice is a gripping read that's well worth a look.
— SFX (UK) on Ancillary JusticeIt engages, it excites, and it challenges the way the reader views our world. Leckie may be a former Secretary of the Science Fiction Writers of America, but she's the President of this year's crop of debut novelists. Ancillary Justice might be the best science fiction novel of this very young decade.
— Justin Landon, Staffer's Book Review on Ancillary JusticeTotal gamechanger. Get it, read it, wish to hell you'd written it. Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice may well be the most important book Orbit has published in ages.
— Paul Graham Raven on Ancillary JusticeThe sort of book that the Clarke Award wishes it had last year ... be prepared to see Ancillary Justice bandied around a lot come awards season. (As it should be).
— Jared Shurin, PornokitschIf you don't know the Ancillary series by now, you probably should. Ann Leckie's sociopolitical space opera almost singlehandedly breathed new cool into the stereotype of spaceships trundling through far-off systems amid laser battles. ... [Ancillary Mercy] earns the credit it's received: As a capstone to a series that shook genre expectations, as our closing installment of an immersively realized world, and as the poignant story of a ship that learned to sing.
— NPR Books on Ancillary MercyAnn Leckie is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, and British Science Fiction Award-winning Imperial Radch series as well as the critically acclaimed fantasy novel The Raven Tower.
Adjoa Andoh is an Audie Award and Earphones Award–winning narrator and an actress of British film, television, stage, and radio. In 2022, she was awarded the AudioFile Golden Voice Award. She is known on the UK stage for lead roles at the RSC, the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, and the Almeida Theatre, and she is a familiar face on British television. She made her Hollywood debut starring as Nelson Mandela’s chief of staff, Brenda Mazikubo, alongside Morgan Freeman as Mandela in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus.