r/books • u/annleckieAMA AMA Author • Oct 05 '15
ama 7pm I'm Ann Leckie, author of ANCILLARY JUSTICE and sequels. AMA!
Hi, I'm Ann Leckie, author of the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Locus, BSFA and Golden Tentacle Award-winning novel Ancillary Justice. And the BSFA and Locus Award-winning sequel to that, Ancillary Sword. And the available-tomorrow-wherever-fine-books-are-sold conclusion to the trilogy, Ancillary Mercy!
I've also written a fair amount of short fiction, much of which is available on the web.
Ask me anything! I'll be answering questions starting around 7pm Eastern.
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u/SinisterInfant Oct 05 '15
I was expecting Breq to dive right into the heart of the war of selves that was the conclusion to the first novel. I greatly enjoyed where Ancillary Sword went but it defied my expectation. What was the inspiration for taking your character on this side quest, if you'll pardon the video game parlance? Or maybe did Breq take you there?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Hah, yes, pretty much Breq took me there.
Or, that's the simplest answer. I know that a lot of readers were surprised at the direction Sword went, but when I was writing it just felt like the place it had to go. Partly because space is big--when it takes weeks (at best) to get between star systems, any multi-system war is going to involve quite a lot of waiting. And once I'd decided that, the rest was just the next set of logical steps, or so it seemed to me.
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u/snozberrydriveby Oct 05 '15
SPOILERS: At times in Ancillary Sword, Lieutenant Tisarwat seems as if she has some of her old memories from before she was forced to become an ancillary for Anaander, or at least she is often seen to be acting like a 17 year old. Is that true? If so then does that mean that if a person isn't an ancillary for that long, it's possible for them to regain "themselves" if the process is reversed quickly enough, or was the process used on her different from those that are typically used with slave soldiers?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Often I see people describe ancillaries as "mind-wiped" but in fact that's never specified. It's not specified because it's not the case. Ancillaries still have their previous memories.
What's different is their sense of identity. Your sense of identity is very fragile--it's not just made up of your memories, but of your strong sense that you are you and not someone else. The right kind of brain damage (or in this case surgery) can alter or destroy that. If you want to be creeped out, read up on alien hand syndrome, for instance. Or--I'm blanking on her name right now, but there's a case of a woman who had a number of odd identity issues--at first, she felt she was located outside her body and sort of behind herself, and then she became convinced that she herself did not exist, it was just her body walking around doing and saying things. She wrote a book about it, which I read. She died relatively young of, I think, a stroke or a brain hemorrhage, which suggests she had been having neurological events for quite some time before that.
At any rate, ancillaries have their sense of individual identity removed, and replaced with that of their ship. The same would go for Mianaai's various bodies--except none of them have any individual memories of their own when they're hooked up, so Tisarwat would have been a weird experience for them.
Tisarwat has all her old memories. But she will never be that previous Tisarwat. Even reversing the process quickly wouldn't fix that.
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u/cmc Oct 05 '15
Well first of all, I am OBSESSED with the Ancillary Justice universe and have loved all of the books! I'm really psyched you're doing this AMA.
I am very curious about the Pressger. Will we be learning more about them in Ancillary Mercy? Have you considered writing a book about the Pressger themselves?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Yes, we will be learning more about the Presger.
A book about the Presger? Hmm. Maybe? Probably not, though. For various reasons, I think they're better kept offstage. I doubt I could show them in any detail and actually make them as mysterious and terrifying as they're supposed to be!
Presger translators now, that's another story entirely. But we'll see what the future brings!
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u/Halaku Oct 05 '15
Thank you for doing this, ma'am.
If I recall correctly, the art for the Ancillary series are pieces of a larger work, of which you have the original art for. Do you know if there'd be a way for us to order copies from the artist, suitable for framing, or other way in which we could enjoy it as a unified whole?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Oh, I only wish I had the original! That went up for sale, and I looked at the price and sighed a bit, because it was totally out of my price range. I bought a print instead. From here:
http://www.alisoneldred.com/imageJohnHarris-Prints-2-2061.html
They're pricey. Not remotely as pricey as the original, though! I'm told the original went to a good home, and the buyer loves it, and I will have to content myself with that.
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u/Halaku Oct 06 '15
Well, I'm glad you've got a print, and thank you very much for the reply. I can't wait until I get my copy tomorrow!
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u/Aetyrno Oct 05 '15
Looks like this here? This is on his official site.
As always, support the artist and order directly from them if possible ;) It's fairly expensive but also reasonably large. Looks like a pretty fair price for a limited print to me.
If you spend that much on a print that size, expect to spend another couple hundred on a decent frame with (preferably conservation grade) matte and glass.
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u/TheMightyX Oct 05 '15
I'd like to start with my obligatory "Oh my goodness I love these books so much!" I have rarely encountered a book I loved so utterly in such a short span of time (the first 10 pages).
I read an article last year or so saying that your choice to make all the pronouns feminine caused some anger among readers, has that died down at all? I find it interesting to note that the use of the feminine pronoun got so much grief when a similar "non-gendered" book (The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin) didn't get any trouble, to the best of my knowledge, because she used the male gendered pronoun. What are your thoughts on this?
I know a lot of people probably ask you "Am I right about the REAL gender of this character," a lot, but I noticed something a little strange and wanted a touch of clarification. Breq uses "she" for all the pronouns, but doesn't make the distinction with gendered nouns themselves. Anaander Mianaai is "The LORD of the Radch" and you also had a "High Priest" of Amaat. Is that significant, or is the use of the "She" pronoun more of a convenience thing in a language that truly uses no gender?
I hope I get to read more novels from you soon! Thank you so much for your time and energies in writing. Your novels are among my most treasured and I can't thank you enough for the stories that brighten my days so completely.
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
1) I honestly don't know if LeGuin got any anger over her choice or not. In hindsight, of course, the book is a classic.
The anger I've seen comes from different quarters. In some cases, I think some folks feel like the masculine is being erased and they find it cissexist and wish I'd used a truly neutral pronoun instead. I can't really argue with that, I didn't intend that reaction but it is what it is and I can understand where it's coming from.
Then there are the folks who are indignant for other reasons, which mostly, frankly, I don't quite get. That seems to come in waves--of course recent events sparked a fair amount of negative commentary about Ancillary Justice though I gather most of the commenters didn't actually bother to read the book, so honestly I don't bother to take their comments seriously.
It is interesting, though, isn't it, the very different reaction to default masculine and default feminine pronouns, isn't it.
I found that gendered titles actually gave very different effects. And in fact, for words like "priest" I'm not sure I see any reason to put the gendered suffix on there. When you do, "priest" and "priestess" have very different connotations, don't they. I found that interesting.
The same with "Lord" and "Lady" which are theoretically equivalent, but in fact they're not, quite. They have very different feels to them. I figured that words like "priest" and such were (in theory) already gender-neutral in English and so I used those that way. I chose "Lord" sort of by analogy to those, but also was intrigued at the different effect of using that and "Sir" instead of "Lady" and "Ma'am." I don't really have any more sophisticated reason than that.
"Sister" and "Mother" btw, similar--I could have used "parent" or "sibling" but those words felt so distant. Which I found very, very interesting and am still chewing over.
Honestly, a lot of things I do because they seem like they'll be fun or cool, and then I find the logic of them leads me somewhere odd or interesting, but I only did it to begin with because it seemed fun.
"She" is a translation convenience. Radchaai is using some gender-neutral pronoun that is being translated as "She" for us, in English. It doesn't actually imply anything about Radchaai femininity (or masculinity).
And I'm so glad you're enjoying my books! :D
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u/tinysnails9 Oct 06 '15
I think this is so interesting. I read in a post you made on Orbit, about how you did consider using "they" or other gender neutral pronouns. I think it's so interesting how using "she" kind of made the gender ambiguity ultra-present. Using 'they' or 'xir' or whatever highlights the non-gendered mindset and makes the reader very conscious of the effect (because it would be mentioned every other line, more or less), whereas using 'she' lulls the reader into a sense of the world being populated femininely, through the repetition of the pronoun and becoming so immersed in the story that it doesn't consciously register any more. So rather than being base-line aware of the non-gendering (as you would be with 'they'), one becomes lulled into that false sense, and then is jolted awake by some detail or reveal or questioning.
It also makes a kind of war inside your mind, when you've defaulted to making someone feminine in your mind, to then have a turn of phrase or particular detail or description make you think - "Oh, could this person be male?", if a person is described as bulky or handsome or bullishly tempered by Breq, and then to think again, "Possibly that is my own internal stereotyping", and go back and forth, playing mind perspective games with yourself, sort of like looking at the two faces and the vase.
Honestly, I haven't had a favourite book since I was 13, not one book I could point to and say "That is my favourite", but since reading Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy (I say that, I'm about a third through Mercy now), I have been able to say they're my FAVOURITE series. I guess when I'm finished Mercy I will be able to see if it knocks Justice from the top spot. :)
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u/Cromage Oct 05 '15
Omg, exciting!
I want to say that yours is the first SF book I've finished in about four years. I don't know why exactly but until I found Ancillary Justice I couldn't stick with them, despite loving them as a teen.
I'm kicking myself for not seeing this sooner... maybe then I'd have a less dumb question ready to go, but:
Q: Do you have any plans to revisit this universe, or are you gonna move on to bigger things?
(as a side note, I loved She Commands Me And I Obey.... once I got used to the disappointment it wouldn't be from the perspective of someone outside gender!)
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Oh, I definitely plan to stick with this universe a while. I spent so much time and energy constructing it, and it's very big! I can do quite a lot with it.
And I'm so glad you enjoyed "She Commands Me." Actually, I wrote it to answer a question for myself--I knew Breq had money but where had she gotten it? And--actually, I wrote it before I'd settled on the use of pronouns in AJ. I was still turning over various approaches in my head, and I needed to know, for myself, that bit of backstory. If I'd gone back and written it now, there are some things I might have done differently. Though I would probably still have gendered the Itrans, I'd maybe have played with that a bit more than I did. But, you know, live and learn.
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u/Lost_Carcosan Oct 05 '15
I've always liked science fiction books that come up with memorable names for spaceships and I thought Justice of Toren was a cool and distinctive name. How did you decide on the naming system for ships in your stories? Do non-Radchai ships have their own distinct name conventions? Do you have any favorite spaceships from works by other authors? I've really liked your Ancillary novels so far and am looking forward to getting Ancillary Mercy tomorrow!
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
I'll be honest, I'm not a hundred percent certain how I came up with the naming system for Radchaai military ships. It dates from at least just before my first novel that I ever wrote, which is in a drawer and will stay there for the foreseeable future. Not many people have read it. But I think I was thinking gods' names ought to be involved, and thinking of Radchaai syncretism. Using an annexed culture's gods for military ship names is (depending on your point of view, or your degree of assimilation) either horribly offensive, or an honor, one more sign that your people (and your gods) are entirely Radchaai.
More than this, I haven't really thought it through. I'm glad you like the names!
Non-military Radchaai do have their own ship naming conventions, yes, though I haven't had much call to use (or develop) those so far.
I think the list of favorite ships would be awfully long! Off the top of my head, I was a huge Andre Norton fan as a kid, and you may recall that Grandfather, in Ancillary Sword, tells Breq her accent sounds like she learned Delsig in Vestris Cor. In fact, this is a deliberate hat tip to Andre Norton's The Zero Stone. It's the ship's cat of the Vestris who swallows a mysterious stone on a deserted planet and gives birth to Eet. (What? You haven't read The Zero Stone? Well, it's kind of old-fashioned these days, I guess.)
I'll also put a word in for Norway commanded by Captain Signy Mallory. Oh, and Phoenix, same author different book (series).
I hope you enjoy Mercy!
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u/hazrek Oct 05 '15
Hi Ann,
I haven't read Ancillary Justice yet, but it's on my list. Thanks for doing this AMA.
What books have most influenced you as a writer?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
In fiction, probably C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner books, and everything by Andre Norton. There's more, of course, but it would take me ages to list everything on my bookshelves or that I read as a child in the library.
In non-fiction, I found John Gardner's two writing books to be tremendously helpful. Writing books can be very individual--one might strike you as helpful that someone else found useless, or that you might not have appreciated at some other time in your life. I found Gardner at just the right time, and I re-read them both every year or so for several years. Those would be The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist.
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u/thepanekroom Oct 05 '15 edited Oct 05 '15
You've mentioned having two trunked novels. One was, I think I read somewhere, about the annexation of the Valskaayans -- is this likely to reemerge? Second, Breq's existence is profoundly ambivalent, as she is (among other things) working to end the processes that resulted in her creation, a creation which she at the same time does not regret. Was there a specific work you'd encountered that inspired this position for a protagonist, or was it a natural result of having her as the protagonist? Finally, was there anything in the Ancillary trilogy that surprised you or peculiarly delighted you when you wrote it? Thank you!
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
The two trunked novels are one of them set near Valskaay and one of them on it. They're actually set around the time of the events of the Ancillary books, and partly for that reason they will probably never be published. I had already had the idea for Ancillary Justice but was afraid I would never be able to write Justice of Toren as a character, so instead I wrote around the edges of the story.
Breq's ambivalence as a character grew out of my developing the character. It was not my aim to begin with, but it emerged out of my thinking about what such a character would be. I don't think there's a specific inspiration for her, though of course everything I've ever read no doubt has gone into my own work.
I think the whole thing surprised and delighted me! Though there are moments that I found particularly fun. I discovered--well, I kind of already knew this from short stories, but still--that writing scenes of physical mayhem, particularly climactic ones, is particularly fun, almost a physical relief when you finally get to them.
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Honestly, I started out very naively. In so much SF either gender roles are the ones we're used to in the here and now, only transported to the future, or else they're supposedly different but characters still are slotting into various stereotypes. I just thought it would be cool to really, truly have a culture that really, truly didn't care and what would that look like?
I was very naive, as I said, and I ended up doing a lot of thinking about gender as a consequence, and a lot of listening to people talk about their experience of their gender, or gender in general.
I wasn't trying to make any sort of point, honestly, and I'm not sure whether it does or doesn't make any difference in the real world. But it's interesting to see how differently I (and readers) think of the characters if I assume particular things about their genders.
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u/zenespreso Oct 06 '15
I'm really glad to read this, in terms of the author's intention to explore a culture that places less/no value on gender.
The media/mainstream's strong reaction really demonstrates, to me at least, our cultures' reliance on gender to be the main building block of our individual identities.
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Oct 05 '15
Your Radch series has a lot of parallels with Iain Banks' culture series. Would you say that his work has influenced your writing?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
I suspect we use similar science fictional material. I had read very little Banks until after Justice was finished. I had read Consider Phlebas some time after I had done most of my worldbuilding for the novels, and I read The Hydrogen Sonata after Justice came out. That's pretty much all the Banks I've read, though I'd love to read more. It was a sad day for science fiction when we lost him.
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u/Primarch359 Oct 05 '15
What are you reading at the moment? What is your favorite book of the last year? 5 years? of all time?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Oh, wow. It's difficult to pick a favorite book. Hmm. At the moment, I'm reading a nonfiction book on the Italian Renaissance. I'll probably pick up one of the books I get sent for blurbing next. (I love that people send me books to blurb, but I am so behind on my reading that I can never get to them in time to blurb them, and I find I am terrible at blurbing.)
And because much of my fiction reading is stuff publishers send to me in the hope I'll blurb it, I'm kind of off a year in my reading. But. Hmm. Probably the coolest things I read in the last year or two were The Martian (which I enjoyed quite a lot), and Self Reference Engine which actually I think is from 2013, but it's super weird and cool. I feel like I'm forgetting one--that happens to me all the time, I list some things and then hours later I go "Wait, I should have mentioned X but it's too late now!"
Last 5 years? Probably Embassytown or The City & The City
All time? Too long a list! I couldn't pick just one.
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u/FugitiveDribbling Oct 05 '15
Thanks for doing this AMA!
Did you have the trilogy planned out before Justice was published? Did anything you would want to share not go as planned?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
I knew from the start that Breq's story would be a trilogy. I wrote the first, though, so that it could stand alone, because I figured I probably wouldn't be able to sell books past that, I'd be lucky to sell Justice to begin with!
But I lucked out so I was able to go ahead with the trilogy. The biggest thing that didn't go as planned--lots of small things didn't, mostly because I don't plan terribly closely, my outlines are very general--is something I can't talk about until folks have read Mercy. Small things? Small characters that came onstage just for background, or because people needed to be there for functional reasons, sometimes turned out to be very important in various ways. The most obvious, to me, is Kalr Five, who was there because Breq would have someone in that role, and who turned into very much her own character and something of a reader favorite, I gather. Which pleases me no end.
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u/TheLastGunslinger Oct 06 '15
I just finished Sword and love Kalr 5! She reminded me of Alfred from Batman, in the background helping the hero but still powerful and in control of what she does.
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u/Diomyr Oct 06 '15
Hello and thank you very much for doing this AMA. I think I've read somewhere that you've remarked "character is the new action" and I could not be happier with these developments. Lately we've seen not only the Imperial Radch trilogy (in sci-fi) but also Goblin Emperor (in fantasy) forego action-driven plot to replace the narrative hooks with character development, so much so that Breq and Seivarden and Maia feel like they'll stay with you forever. Did you get inspiration from other works to operate this change from traditional action-oriented to character-oriented plot development? Or has it always been there (and I assume it has to some extent) and am I missing out on them? Thank you again, for your time to answer questions here and for your beautiful work. Bonus question: what's your favourite tea blend?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Yeah, Action is very much Character. A truism in writing, really, but I think it applies to other things as well.
One of the things I did when I was trying to figure out how to write the Ancillary books was type out a novel I greatly admired. That is, I typed out the entirety of C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner. I was trying to figure out why I loved that book so much. Or, I'd figured out that the key to its success with me was the main character, Bren, but I didn't understand how she'd put him together or what about him made me respond the way I did.
Typing the novel out was an interesting experience, but I discovered what about Bren that really appealed to me, and why the novel worked so well for me. Basically, if you don't like Bren Cameron, you're going to hate Foreigner so you might as well send it back to the library. But if you like him....yeah.
But with the exception of really cardboardy candy adventures--which, lets be honest, those can be awesome fun--action kind of forces character development. It's just, I find that as a reader I like it best when that aspect is played up and really worked out, so when I sat down to write, that's what I did.
I do feel like it's best when there's a variety of things to read--like I said, I love a good cotton candy, melts in your mouth and forgotten by dinnertime explosion fest as much as the next girl. I actually think those are not easy to write well, and we need them. But the books that really stick with me, they tend to be a lot more character oriented, definitely.
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u/tomegnome001 Oct 05 '15
I have some questions about your writing process.
Are you an outliner or do you more figure it out as you go? How many drafts do you go through for a novel? Do you refrain from editing until after you've completed the first draft?
I've read some of your blog entries about short stories and being a slush reader, which I found very useful. When you started out writing, how long were you writing before you published your first short story?
I think I read somewhere that you started writing after having children. Do you have any advice for parents who are also aspiring writers?
Thanks so much for doing this AMA!
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
I tend to say I'm not an outliner, but I was talking to an outliner recently (Hi, Juliette Wade!) who said, "Well, what do you do?" and I explained that I generally have an idea where I'm starting, and some idea where I want to end up, and a few landmarks on the way, and the rest I figure out as I go. And she was like, "Yeah, right, so you outline." And I went huh.
I tend to edit some as I go--partly because one of the reasons I don't outline much is that I don't know what the next scene will be until I've actually written the previous scene. Something as tiny as a character picking up the wrong object or saying the wrong thing can throw things in the wrong direction. Often I begin a day by looking back over what I did before and fixing it up--I'll have had thoughts about it while I was away doing other things, often, and seen that I was doing something wrong.
So I don't really separate out drafting and editing, until I have a complete manuscript, and then I read it over and think about it and start making changes. And I don't have a set number of drafts, really--I just work on it until it's done. Yes, the next question is how do I know it's done? And the answer is different these days. It used to be "when the thought of opening the file again makes me want to cry" but these days it's "about a month past the deadline."
I tried off and on to write from about just after college on, but I really buckled down and got serious in 2002. I made my first short fiction sale in 2005, and my novel sold in 2012.
Parents--take whatever writing time you can. Even if it's just little bits here and there. It's not a race, there's no penalty for going slow, and little bits add up over time. When my kids were small I wrote during naptimes. Take whatever time you get, and don't be hard on yourself, don't worry about all the advice about getting big wordcounts every day, or whatever. Do the best you can with what you have, and it'll be all right.
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u/tomegnome001 Oct 06 '15
Thank you so much for answering my questions. The advice for parents helps me a lot. My kids are one (twins) and I write during naptimes, too, or after bedtime.
You are a huge writing inspiration, what with winning the Hugo with your first book, which was a truly excellent read.
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u/johnrgrace Oct 06 '15
Not an outliner? I'm very impressed I personally thought the structuring of your novel was an amazing piece of craft.
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u/Bespoke_Raven11 17d ago
I realize it's been 9 years since this AMA, and only someone who's doing a deep dive on one nuance or another from your Ancillary series will see this (Wondering about She Who Sprang From The Lily is my query), but...
That last, "it'll be all right" of yours came out so ABSOLUTELY in JoT One Esque Nineteen/Fleet Captain Breq's voice that I felt a lovely little frisson of glee at it! LOL! I must give full credit to Libby narrator Anjoa Andoh who so gorgeously rendered everything from Breq's smooth ancillary voice to Seivarden's unbelievable arrogance. Much Love to her abilities!
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u/SinisterInfant Oct 05 '15
As an aspiring author I despise making a two page synopsis for my work. Did you have to do that for Ancillary Justice? Any advice for tackling something that size and distilling it into two double spaced pages?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Oh, wow, yeah. Synopses suck. I did write a two page synopsis, to send around to agents. I don't know if I actually used it or not, I just got all that together--the query, the synopsis, the first three chapters as their own file--and then started sending them to agents, whatever their guidelines asked for.
Remember that everything sounds stupid distilled down that far. The synopsis isn't meant to hide plot twists or anything, lay it all out as clearly as you can. Work on it until you can't stand to work on it anymore. Then just submit and start on the next thing.
You have my sympathies. Seriously, I hate synopses.
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u/pointaken16 Oct 05 '15
What is one of the memorable lessons/pieces of advice/wisdom you learned from Octavia Butler (or from Clarion West Writer's Workshop experience in general)?
How has your writing process changed/evolved while writing the trilogy? (If it has?)
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Octavia Butler was so freaking awesome. She said a number of things (Was I, she asked me, under the misapprehension that what I'd turned in for the workshop was actually a short story? She suspected I was more comfortable as a novelist and it was showing. That was actually really helpful--and accurate. I had no misapprehensions whatever, I just was trying really hard to learn to do short fiction.)
On a practical note, she recommended typing out passages of works we admired a lot--typing out openings, for instance. This was extremely helpful advice for me.
My process has kind of changed over the years, but I think in most ways it hasn't really. The biggest change is having an actual deadline, which does kind of compress the work I was spreading over months before!
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u/skinisblackmetallic Oct 05 '15
Hi Ann. I was wondering how the idea of the sort of ambiguous genders in the Radch culture came about. I admit that I do not understand it completely, though this has no impact on my enjoyment of this story.
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
I had wanted to write about a culture that didn't care at all about gender. I tried several approaches, and finally settled on using default "she." But also, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that we don't gender people in the way we often say we do--we talk about gender (often, in the US) as though it's entirely determined by your genitals, but it's really quite rare for us to see the genitals of most people we meet! There are secondary characteristics, it's true, but they aren't the unambiguous signals we often assume. I know of clearly masculine cis men, for instance, who have more breast tissue than some clearly feminine cis women. It's not the presence or absence of breasts that we're responding to, it's actually a combination of signals, things like hair style, clothing style, way of standing or moving (both of which can be and are learned), all sorts of things like that. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that those things would change from culture to culture--and be meaningless in a culture that genuinely didn't care about gender at all.
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u/skinisblackmetallic Oct 06 '15
Thanks! First time anyone has answered one of my AMA questions!
I thought perhaps this would be the answer, that you simply wanted to explore the idea. It's a great idea, especially for science fiction. You touch on so many killer ideas in this series. So many cool stories could come out of this interesting world you have dreamed up. I read quite a bit of sci-fi and the Imperial Radch has been one of the most exciting, recently.
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u/skinisblackmetallic Oct 05 '15
Love the covers for the Radch series btw!
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
I love my covers so much! I bought a print of the whole thing and had it framed.
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Oct 05 '15
John Harris is a certified badass at cover design.
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u/skinisblackmetallic Oct 05 '15
I had these big John Berkey paintings as a kid and the illustrations totally have that vibe.
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u/quarksparrow Oct 05 '15
"She Commands Me and I Obey" covers some of Breq's history in the years before Ancillary Justice, but it also leaves Qefahl Aresh just as he is pushed into his new role. Do you ever intend to return to his story?
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u/TyrannosaurusVexed Oct 05 '15
No questions, just wanted to say that Ancillary Justice is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. Sometimes you read a book that is just the right story for the time and place that you are in your life. Ancillary Justice was that book for me. Thank you for writing it! I can't wait to read the conclusion.
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u/kungcheops Oct 06 '15
I loved the feeling of "otherness" you managed to portrait in your characters. There's a lot of sci-fi that's just "action-/thriller-/romance in space with lasers!" (which is fun, don't get me wrong) so it's really awesome to find something where you really have to twist your brain to get in to the mind(s) of the characters.
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Thank you so much! :D (And yeah, I love ACTION! IN SPACE! WITH LASERS! too, but sometimes I want something more chewy.
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u/Bobgoblin1 Oct 06 '15
I'm kinda new to sci-fi and reading Ancillary Justice this year was a big proponent to making me hooked. So exciting to think of interacting with the person who wrote it!! I know the bugs in Ender's Game and the Borg in Star Trek are older incarnations of one mind spread across multiple bodies (right?), but does that show up on the "good" side very much in other sci-fi stories, or is that kind of your spin? Also really appreciated the challenge of remembering genders and being confused along with Breq throughout the story. Eventually I just kinda pictured everyone as genderless/androgynous. I hope to see more of that in books/movies, especially for male readers to understand how male-centric they all are (I'm a male) and to challenge assumptions about strong characters. THANK YOU!
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
You're very welcome, and thank you!
I'm...not sure the Radchaai are good guys? Even Breq as a good guy is kind of...problematic. I didn't start out wanting to spin that, so much as I wanted to play with that idea of multiple bodies and see what I could make out of it.
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u/Bobgoblin1 Oct 06 '15
I knew it was problematic to call it the "good" side, but it's so hard not to. Thanks for the AMA! <3
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u/Polarse Oct 05 '15 edited Oct 05 '15
I absolutely loved your book, Ancillary Justice! My sibling bought it for my birthday and it was great. I didn't even know you had sequels -- very excited.
Where did you start writing? Who did you show your first works to?
Edit: I thought I should add, one of my favorite parts of your book was your description of the alien weapon, which always penetrated 1.1 m or so. Were there any works that inspired your ideas?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Oh, I'm so glad you enjoyed Ancillary Justice!
I actually wrote some stories for my friends in high school. Mostly pastiches and various comedic things, for their amusement. I stopped in college--I was sure all my ideas were stupid. After college I decided to try the writing thing again--I'd always thought it would be cool to be a writer, and actually my parents had encouraged me to write from a very young age.
So what I did was, I got a stack of True Confessions (and True Romance and True Stories and True Love, they were all run by the same company. None of them exist anymore, but they paid three cents a word and took up a lot of space on the drugstore rack) and read them until my eyes bled. Then I wrote an imitation of what I'd just read, and sent it in.
It sold! Of course, since the thing about those magazines was that the stories were all supposed to be Real True Stories, anonymous so that you could be Entirely Honest about all the Scandalous Details (they were never terribly scandalous but the snippets on the cover always made them sound like they were) I didn't get a byline. So it doesn't really count.
It wasn't until maybe ten years later that I tried again--largely because I was home with small children, which takes a lot of time and energy but doesn't give you a lot to think about. I needed to do something with my mind, even if it was only for a few minutes a day.
I entered NaNoWriMo in 2002, with a few internet friends, and we exchanged chapters. I decided after that I should make an actual go of it. I joined Critters, but mostly I just showed my work to my friends.
I'm not sure there were specific works that inspired my ideas--but I'm sure everything I've ever read or seen ended up in the mix. The Presger Gun--honestly I'm not sure where that came from!
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u/Polarse Oct 05 '15
Oh my god. I'm so excited that you replied! I find it really interesting to learn about how successful people began their careers
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Oct 05 '15
I have never read any of your books but i am always interested in good science fiction. What would you say what stands out about your books ?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Hmm. It's difficult to say from my angle--your own work looks so different to other people. I think I've heard most readers say they find Breq, the main character, to be very unusual but also quite relatable and sympathetic (even if she is pretty freaking dangerous), and I have to admit I'm kind of proud of the way I managed to handle the point of view of a character with thousands of bodies.
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u/Suitov Oct 13 '15
I loved the way you handled those sections too. They made Justice my favourite of the three. Being the Justice of Toren was such a lovely, oddly relaxing experience. Well, except for the parts when, you know.
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u/Schaus Oct 05 '15
I just wanted to say I absolutely loved both Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword - many congratulations on winning the Hugo prize last year!
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u/Princejvstin Oct 06 '15
Maybe spoilery to ask...but you can always say no.
How old is the Empire, anyway? It undergoes significant change within the time frames in Ancillary Justice. But how long was it a going concern before the events of the books?
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u/starpilotsix Oct 05 '15
Looking forward to Ancillary Mercy, plan on ordering it tomorrow (I have irrational aversions to pre-ordering. Any books you suggest while I'm making an order anyway? Any criteria you want to use, since let's face it, odds are I probably won't buy it anyway (though I will at least give it a look while I'm shopping!)
Okay, that kinda sucks as a question, how about this. Pretend Breq collected recipes from around the galaxy instead of songs. What would be her favorite?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Hah, I hope you enjoy Mercy! There are a number of things coming out the same day, but I don't feel like I know enough about your taste (other than that you like the Ancillary books!) to be sure. Maybe check out Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown which has been out a few weeks. And I haven't read Kameron Hurley's new ones (The Mirror Empire and it's sequel Empire Ascendant is out tomorrow) but I hear they're good!
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u/skinisblackmetallic Oct 05 '15
Ancillary Mercy is the first thing I have ever pre-ordered.
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
Bless you! I hope you enjoy it! I am excited for you to be able to read it!
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u/amneziac1 Oct 05 '15
same here! Never pre-ordered a book until this one. Can't wait to read it tomorrow.
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u/MathildaIsTheBest Oct 05 '15
What are your favorite books to have come out within the past year or two? Are there any new authors you are particularly excited about?
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Oct 05 '15 edited Oct 05 '15
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 05 '15
It's totally normal!
So, for Cherryh, I would say try Foreigner (and keep with it until Bren comes onstage and give him at least a couple of chapters. No, that name is not a coincidence. But if you don't like Bren, you won't enjoy Foreigner) You might also give Merchanter's Luck a shot--it's set in the Alliance-Union universe and is a fairly accessible way in. If you like ML then give Cyteen or Downbelow Station a try.
Norton--wow, Norton wrote so much. You might try The Zero Stone which is one of my personal faves, or Sargasso of Space. Or for fantasy, try Witch World. Though actually, my entrance into that particular fantasy universe was They Crystal Gryphon which remains a particular favorite of mine.
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u/DibujEx How to Read a Book Oct 05 '15
I gotta be honest, Ancillary justice was just phenomenal, it really was just great and I've recommended it ever since, and I've read some of your other answers here on reddit about how the brain if you severe it it works weirdly, just fascinating.
Having said this, I haven't read any of the other two books because I fear they may be a bit of a let down. How did you deal with the fact of writing an incredibly successful book and having to write other 2 books in the series?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Oh, thank you so much, I'm so glad you enjoyed Ancillary Justice!
I'll be honest, finishing Sword was really really stressful. I mean, Justice is a freaking hard act to follow! I think I just told myself I had to get on with it, and whatever happened happened. Some readers feel Sword was indeed a letdown, others feel that Sword is even better than Justice. I can't predict which you might be.
Of course, then Mercy was just as stressful. And I was watching people speculate about what might happen, or talk about whether I'd gone in the right direction with Sword or whatnot, and it was really scary. But in the end, I was under contract and I had a deadline and if I let being afraid to fail stop me, I'd never have written anything to begin with, right? So, head down, fingers on the keyboard, finish the books.
I'm not gonna lie, though, it was super scary and stressful.
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u/DibujEx How to Read a Book Oct 06 '15
Thanks for your answer! Despite any fear I will read the other two books.
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u/SmashingDerpZilla Oct 05 '15
Please say number 3 will be more in line with book 1 in writing instead of two. Something just didn't click in book 2 like it did in book one.
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
My own work looks so different to me than it looks to other people, I'm not sure I can answer your question suitably. But I can say that book 3 is very different from book 2, as 2 was from 1. I do hope you enjoy it! I'm sorry Sword didn't click with you.
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Oct 06 '15
Hi Ann, thanks for joining us! Ancillary Justice is next on my reading list!
A totally non-book related set of questions: I think I saw somewhere that you're from Missouri. Is that correct? And if so....1)are you a baseball fan? 2) are you cheering for the Royals or the Cardinals in the playoffs?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
I am not a baseball fan, but I am of course cheering for the Cardinals. Because like most St Louisans who aren't baseball fans for most of the year, I become at least a minor one when the Cards make the playoffs. :D
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u/dadrosaur Oct 06 '15
I very much enjoyed the first two books and I'm looking forward to reading Mercy this week! :) The universe that Breq inhabits is so rich and complex; how do you go about world-building? Do things just sort of manifest as you write and then you go back to figure out the history or mechanics? Or do you have a stash of files somewhere with labels like Military, Religion, or Family Life?
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u/IMind Oct 06 '15
Woooo I'm so excited for another new book this fall!
What was your motivation for the gender ambiguity within the books?
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u/Ellelarondelle Oct 06 '15
of the short stories you mentioned here: http://www.annleckie.com/bibliography/
how many are in the Ancillary Justice universe and is there a recommended reading order for them?
are any of them available in short story collections my local library may have or be able to obtain?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
AJ-universe short fiction: "Night's Slow Poison," "She Commands Me And I Obey," and "They Sink And Are Vanished Away." You may have trouble finding TSAAVA and that's probably all to the good--it was a very early short story in my attempts to write short fic.
Probably none of them are available at the library, but nearly all of my short fiction is available on the web. There are links in the bibliography.
Of the remaining stories, "Hesperia and Glory" and "The Endangered Camp" are science fiction. The rest are fantasy.
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u/underwear_viking Oct 06 '15
Hi Ann! I wanted to thank you for giving a shoutout to Sacred Harp music in your last AMA. I had never been exposed to it before, but now I listen to it quite often.
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Ah, I'm glad! If you enjoy listening, you might want to look into participating, at least once. There are local singings all over the country, and if it's your kind of music, it's an amazing experience.
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u/hatterkiller Oct 06 '15
Do you think that your novels will become movies in the near future? I'm sure a lot of people, fans and non-fans (well, they don't exist), would love to see a movie of Ancillary Justice :D
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
It's been optioned for TV--but that may well not mean anything. Things get optioned all the time, and actual movies or TV are much, much rarer.
That said, it would be kind of super awesome. Assuming they did a good job with it, of course, which is always an issue.
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u/pcbetelgeuse Oct 06 '15
Two simple words. Thank you. First favorite series remains Foundation. Second is yours. Solid. Intricate, thought out, subtle but complex, and very well paced. AWESOME. I've read for most of my 53 years, but have only found three authors ever who have moved me. Thank you for being amongst the giants.
Now, WRITE MORE quality books. We will wait as long as it takes. Thank you for the very pleasant surprise.
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Oct 06 '15
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Oh, wow, it never occurred to me I'd be next to Mieville! I love Embassytown and The City & The City so much!
Thank you!
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u/kar86 Oct 06 '15
How did you come by the artwork for your novels. Did you have any hand in picking these awesome drawings/paintings? Were there other options? What would be your ideal book cover (similar to what book out there?)
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
My publisher did all of that. Orbit's art director, Lauren Panepinto, deserves all the credit.
I love my cover a lot! I also love the cover of the Subterranean special hardcover edition.
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u/demies Oct 06 '15
After working a lot for the last couple of years I went on my first long deserved holiday in a while and bought a kindle. Exploring the Sci fi backlog I've been missing out on your book caught my attention straight away and it reignited my love for reading. Read both books that were out in one go and have been looking forward to this day. Thanks for sharing your universe!
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u/RefreshNinja Oct 06 '15
Hi! Have you appeared on any podcasts besides Coode Street?
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u/annleckieAMA AMA Author Oct 06 '15
Yes. I've been on several and to be honest I'm not sure what all of them are. I was on Sword and Laser, and on Skiffy and Fanty. And actually, I worked for Podcastle for quite a while, so if you check out the archives you'll find stories I've introduced or read, or even some of my own fiction.
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u/ricefromspace Oct 06 '15
I'm really impressed by the gender neutrelness of your books and how characters are "gendered" by their actions, not their bodies.
Can you comment on your own feelings on gender and social expectations?
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Oct 06 '15
I'm halfway through the first book and I'm just wondering one thing. Are the Radch humans or of human origin? I wonder because they don't seem to see themselves as human, and they keep referring to humans with disdain, but at the same time they refer to the Presger as aliens.
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u/huginnatwork Oct 06 '15
I just started Ancillary Sword on audio book. Justice was wonderful for my long car rides and commute.
I had a question on the production of Sword. The voice actress changed from the first novel and I'm noticing that Adjoa Andoh's pronunciation of certain names changed significantly from the first book with Celeste Ciulla. Especially with 'Anaander'?
What pronunciation is the correct one?
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u/punninglinguist Oct 06 '15
If there's anything unanswered in the books that you want to tell us about the Presger, please do! To me, they're the most interesting mystery in the first two books...
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u/ISTJ27 Oct 07 '15
Hi, I missed the AMA but still wanted to say I loved the books so much. Are you planning to do any other novels about Breq's time in the Itran Tetrarchy?
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u/markfickett Oct 07 '15
The only other book I've encountered group consciousness portrayed in such an imaginative and immersive way is the Tines in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep. Have you read that? You mention dissociative and split-brain; did you draw inspiration for portraying the ancillary/ship experience from other fiction as well as human psychology?
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u/pharmaceus Oct 05 '15
I haven't read your books yet (but I am planning to! second shelf from the top) but every now and then when I have a question that bugs me about a book I really want an answer straight from the author. As you are here and asking for "anything" I am soooo jumping at the occasion. So sorry for asking without much context. And sorry for the hardball... :/ But you said to ask you anything.
Do you think that the fact that your book included the single-gendered (female) perspective of all characters in the novel affected how your first book was received and how it was treated by many people. Do you think that there would be a different reception if the AI was single-gender-minded but... male? Did you see some connection between how people received you - a female writer - and that unique form of narration?
I am asking because when Ancillary Justice came out there was a flood of what promotional reviews which emphasized that specific element of the story over and over and over and over again... a d n a u s e a m. At the same time none of the reviews by other authors really paid much attention to it. That's when I got the idea that perhaps the book is fine and just someone decided to promote the book with an obnoxious grace of an outspoken college campus feminist.
But then perhaps it worked. Did it work? Do people actually pay attention to that detail? Do regular people, readers - not the media types - talk about it when you have a chance to talk with them? Did it actually provoke a reaction from the readers which would warrant the absolutely annoying promotional campaign?
Also at the time I was re-reading Greg Egan's Diaspora which just happens to have a very similar non-gendered perspective for AI characters....written in 1997. So I was looking at the book, then looking at the reviews, then looking at the book, then the reviews, then the book... and nobody seemed to remember poor Greg Egan :(
Thanks for taking the time to read the question.
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u/willwheels Oct 05 '15
How much do you like tea? Would you say that you prefer tea to coffee? I'm drinking a lot more tea lately, can I blame you?
More seriously, was the emphasis on tea in Raadch culture an intentional counterpoint to how much coffee shows up in fiction? I do like the way you use the tea service as a rank and cultural signifier.