Tag: Sci Fi

Ancillary Justice

Ancillary Justice

As we move into more highly technological times, discussions are often centered around the dangers of robots or AI becoming self-aware and sentient, and then turning on humanity to become Matrix-like overlords. Ancillary Justice presents us with an alternate argument: what if an AI became its own person and was capable of love, compassion, and revenge – a force for good.

I wish that descriptions of this book had leaned more heavily on the fact that it is really a love story, a love rooted in loyalty and friendship. The ship Justice of Toren has ancillaries: humans that have been repurposed as hosts for the consciousness of the AI that runs the ship. Each level of the ship has ancillaries and they identify as that. The main character of this story is Justice of Toren One Esk, and worked directly with the captain of the ship. When the supreme leader of the empire commands it to shoot this captain, it must obey, but it also splinters into separate pieces, with One Esk escaping the explosion of its home ship to roam space, planning revenge on the leader who is herself a collection of ancillaries.

This book is so different from what I usually read, but it had that central theme that I am really drawn to: revenge. Especially revenge for wrongs done to loved ones. There is not a surer way to get your hooks in me to pull me through the book. The only downside to reading was that sometimes the story got confusing, especially when I was trying to keep track of who was who. The central idea is that the supreme leader is fighting a civil war with herself, and her ancillaries are all split and fighting each other. One Esk balances this out with the realization that she has a choice, that even though she is an AI that knows how to take orders and must follow the orders of the supreme leader, she doesn’t have to follow those orders blindly and with great effort could refuse to follow those orders if she wished.

You will watch this grow from a story about love and revenge to a story that explores what it means to be human and who qualifies for personhood. Beautifully told in a new and exciting universe from a perspective that is usually feared. It’s a great read and you should try it. Go get you some.

Invasive (Zer0es #2)

Invasive

This book showed up on a number of top science fiction lists, and so I requested it from the library. It is my first Chuck Wendig novel, and I feel bad because I did not realize that Invasive was #2 in his Zer0es series. To be honest it stands on its own well, and you don’t have to read the first book to enjoy the second (although the beginning of this book does spoil the first one, so if you’re a purist you might want to read the first book Zer0es first).

The plot is this: someone made a hybrid ant a la Jurassic Park that eats Candida (yeast) on people, basically skinning them alive, and Hannah Stander is an FBI consultant that is called in to research and discover who is behind their creation and distribution. Her search takes her to the secluded island of Kolohe, part of the Hawaiian islands, and she is caught on island when the culprit decides to release the ants and escape with more colonies, supposedly to bring about an ant apocalypse (think when Nedry steals the embryos and tries to escape but dies and the power on the entire island shuts down, and chaos ensues – it’s really similar to that but with more bodies).

This story is not character driven. The characters could be named with letters of the alphabet and this story would still be compelling. I kept reading because what was happening was horrifying and I had to know how it would all end. There were some points toward the end where I thought it might end with the ants actually taking over and destroying everything. I won’t spoil what actually happens; maybe they do take over and destroy everything. Ants are terrible creatures.

If you like mystery, thrillers, or science fiction, you should definitely give Invasive a go. It’s a quick read by virtue of its fantastic story – you won’t want to stop until you’re done. Go get you some.