Ancillary Justice cover art

Ancillary Justice

The Imperial Radch series, Book 1

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Ancillary Justice

By: Ann Leckie
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The record-breaking debut novel that won every major science fiction award in 2014, Ancillary Justice is the story of a warship trapped in a human body and her search for revenge.

Ann Leckie is the first author to win the Arthur C. Clarke, the Nebula and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in the same year.

They made me kill thousands, but I only have one target now.

The Radch are conquerors to be feared - resist and they'll turn you into a 'corpse soldier' - one of an army of dead prisoners animated by a warship's AI mind. Whole planets are conquered by their own people.

The colossal warship called The Justice of Toren has been destroyed - but one ship-possessed soldier has escaped the devastation. Used to controlling thousands of hands, thousands of mouths, The Justice now has only two hands, and one mouth with which to tell her tale.

But one fragile, human body might just be enough to take revenge against those who destroyed her.

The Imperial Radch trilogy begins with Ancillary Justice, continues in Ancillary Sword and concludes with Ancillary Mercy.

Also available now: Provenance is a stunning standalone adventure set in the same world as Ancillary Justice.

©2013 Ann Leckie (P)2014 Hachette Audio Adventure Hard Science Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera Thriller & Suspense Fiction Suspense

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Hyperion cover art
All Systems Red (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art
The Calculating Stars cover art
With the Lightnings cover art
The Tiger and the Wolf cover art
Crystal Soldier cover art
Earthrise cover art
Dorsai! cover art
The Year's Top Short SF Novels 2 cover art
Children of Time cover art
The Kaiju Preservation Society cover art
The Year's Top Short SF Novels 7 cover art
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) cover art
Mother Go cover art
Falling Free cover art
Planetfall: A Story of the Dark cover art

Critic reviews

"Thrilling, moving and awe-inspiring." (Guardian)

"Signals the arrival of a hard science fiction author who just might fill the gap left by Iain M. Banks. Ancillary Justice is a highly original novel...an intelligent slow-burner. Highly recommended." (Independent on Sunday)

"You will be truly astounded at how Leckie has fully fleshed out a universe and is asking and attempting to answer the difficult questions that many authors never even address in science fiction." (Buzzfeed)

"Unexpected, 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, Hugo Award-winning author of Redshirts)
All stars
Most relevant  
I listened to this book because of the huge number of awards it got. Ann Leckie is technically an excellent writer and the narrator did a very good job with lots of different accents etc for the characters. However although overall I quite enjoyed this book I found it quite dry and I'm not sure why it has won so many awards. I am going to carry on with the series though!

Just okay

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a very good listen. Just keep in mind it is very hard to keep track of who is who at the beginning due to the genderless language used ('she' is used for everyone). It makes it a very interesting concept to follow along. This book is incredibly unique and worth your time.

Worth the effort

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story spirals up and out from humble but complec planetary beginnings, but manages to unfold until it reaches across vast distances and epochal timescales. Adjoah Andoah is sublime as usual.

Challenging & dizzying in equal measure

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is one of my absolutely favourite books. Having it on audio as well is a treat.

Just the best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A very polished piece of writing, precisely crafted and full of detail. but at times overly long and dull... second half is best.

Eloquent, well written but at times dull

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Ajoa Andoh‘s graceful rendering of this great Ann Leckie novel adds layer upon layer of pleasure. Very gripping, too!

Wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was a perfectly OK book. Nothing too special but equally it took me until about 8 hours in before I started to care if anyone lived or died. The plot revolves around one objective and I'm still not sure how that worked out.

The flashbacky nature of every other chapter was a bit annoying but you get used to it. The pronoun thing (everyone in the culture the book is set in is she/her even if male) was really distracting to start with, possibly because of the audiobook format where voices are distinctly gendered. Once I got over this though it was fine. It was interesting to read a story with all one pronoun but unless you have strong gender roles in your head it won't be revoluntionary.

The characters were... OK. Again, I never cared too much for them one way or another. I'm not sure who you're meant to support and without a 'better' side in the story's conflict it can seem a bit dull.

Narration was good if lacking zest. That may have been intentional though.

Overall, I'd say this book is fine. It isn't something you can't stop listening to nor something you can't wait to stop listening to. Throughly OK. I won't be reading the sequels though.

Took a long time to get going.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved it! Great book and totally enjoyed the narrator too. Highly recommended to all, AI:s and humans a like

Great book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Can’t say more than this without dropping spoilers: I was expecting (and looking forward to) the plot to unfold one way, but the book delivered something so completely different that I felt cheated.

Narration is good though.

British Empire goes space

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story isn't the easiest to follow but the narrator's use of accents helps a great deal. She does a brilliant job with the complexity of the names, particularly the lesser. I'm not sure the book is up to all the hype -- I've read more exciting SF books but it's intriguing enough. Worth a listen.

Excellent narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews