_Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch)_ by Ann Leckie

[Lynn McGuire]

_Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch)_ by Ann Leckie

https://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Sword-Imperial-Radch-Leckie/dp/0316246654/

Book number two of a three book space opera series. Or, it could be
military SF. I read the well bound and printed trade paperback. I am
now reading the third book in the series.

In the far distant future, humanity has dispersed to the stars. Vast
new cultures has sprung up, some weak, some strong. And the integration
of artificial intelligence to humans has become complete, so much that
the AI totally permanently overrides the human consciousness. AIs are
now running the Radch organizations, even up to the emperor which is
spread over hundreds of bodies, ancillaries.

This series continues to distract me by using the female pronouns and
adjectives throughout the Radch society for both males and females. It
is as if the gender of the person does not matter whatsoever. But other
societies in the series do not use the same, weird.

My rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars (499 reviews)

Lynn

[-dsr-]

Post by Lynn McGuire
_Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch)_ by Ann Leckie
https://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Sword-Imperial-Radch-Leckie/dp/0316246654/
Book number two of a three book space opera series. Or, it could be
military SF. I read the well bound and printed trade paperback. I am
now reading the third book in the series.
In the far distant future, humanity has dispersed to the stars. Vast
new cultures has sprung up, some weak, some strong. And the integration
of artificial intelligence to humans has become complete, so much that
the AI totally permanently overrides the human consciousness. AIs are
now running the Radch organizations, even up to the emperor which is
spread over hundreds of bodies, ancillaries.
This series continues to distract me by using the female pronouns and
adjectives throughout the Radch society for both males and females. It
is as if the gender of the person does not matter whatsoever. But other
societies in the series do not use the same, weird.

The Radch use she/her just a little more strongly than English
traditionally uses he/him: as the default for groups, and also as the
default for an unknown person. They don't have any gender-signifying
names (everything is Pat and Leslie, not Paul and Jane) so there are
more of those situations. If the context is not about sex or gender, the
Radch think of she/her as being the acceptable default. And finally, the
AI whose fragment is the narrator was not raised as a gendered human and
just does not care.

There are strong hints as to the genders of many characters, but Radchaai
pronouns aren't among those hints.

And, as you say, non-Radch cultures have different assumptions. Most of them
pay more attention to genders in pronouns.


-dsr-

[Lynn McGuire]

Post by -dsr-

Post by Lynn McGuire
_Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch)_ by Ann Leckie
https://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Sword-Imperial-Radch-Leckie/dp/0316246654/
Book number two of a three book space opera series. Or, it could be
military SF. I read the well bound and printed trade paperback. I am
now reading the third book in the series.
In the far distant future, humanity has dispersed to the stars. Vast
new cultures has sprung up, some weak, some strong. And the integration
of artificial intelligence to humans has become complete, so much that
the AI totally permanently overrides the human consciousness. AIs are
now running the Radch organizations, even up to the emperor which is
spread over hundreds of bodies, ancillaries.
This series continues to distract me by using the female pronouns and
adjectives throughout the Radch society for both males and females. It
is as if the gender of the person does not matter whatsoever. But other
societies in the series do not use the same, weird.

The Radch use she/her just a little more strongly than English
traditionally uses he/him: as the default for groups, and also as the
default for an unknown person. They don't have any gender-signifying
names (everything is Pat and Leslie, not Paul and Jane) so there are
more of those situations. If the context is not about sex or gender, the
Radch think of she/her as being the acceptable default. And finally, the
AI whose fragment is the narrator was not raised as a gendered human and
just does not care.
There are strong hints as to the genders of many characters, but Radchaai
pronouns aren't among those hints.
And, as you say, non-Radch cultures have different assumptions. Most of them
pay more attention to genders in pronouns.
-dsr-

I am beginning to think that the Radch are so dominated by various AIs
that they have lost their genders. But where do the new Radsh come
from, vats ?

Lynn

[-dsr-]

Post by Lynn McGuire

Post by -dsr-

Post by Lynn McGuire
_Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch)_ by Ann Leckie
This series continues to distract me by using the female pronouns and
adjectives throughout the Radch society for both males and females. It
is as if the gender of the person does not matter whatsoever. But other
societies in the series do not use the same, weird.

names (everything is Pat and Leslie, not Paul and Jane) so there are
more of those situations. If the context is not about sex or gender, the
Radch think of she/her as being the acceptable default. And finally, the
AI whose fragment is the narrator was not raised as a gendered human and
just does not care.

I am beginning to think that the Radch are so dominated by various AIs
that they have lost their genders. But where do the new Radsh come
from, vats ?

The Raadch love sex about as much as any other group of far-future humans,
and the ones who were raised as humans have no difficulty reading gender
when it is presented in their cultural context -- and they probably consider
other cultures to be ridiculously dimorphic in behavior.

The viewpoint character, however, is the remnant of an AI inhabiting an
overwritten human brain. Breq pays nearly zero attention to gender and does
not consider gender an interesting characteristic.

-dsr-

[Lynn McGuire]

Post by -dsr-

Post by Lynn McGuire
_Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch)_ by Ann Leckie
https://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Sword-Imperial-Radch-Leckie/dp/0316246654/
Book number two of a three book space opera series. Or, it could be
military SF. I read the well bound and printed trade paperback. I am
now reading the third book in the series.
In the far distant future, humanity has dispersed to the stars. Vast
new cultures has sprung up, some weak, some strong. And the integration
of artificial intelligence to humans has become complete, so much that
the AI totally permanently overrides the human consciousness. AIs are
now running the Radch organizations, even up to the emperor which is
spread over hundreds of bodies, ancillaries.
This series continues to distract me by using the female pronouns and
adjectives throughout the Radch society for both males and females. It
is as if the gender of the person does not matter whatsoever. But other
societies in the series do not use the same, weird.

The Radch use she/her just a little more strongly than English
traditionally uses he/him: as the default for groups, and also as the
default for an unknown person. They don't have any gender-signifying
names (everything is Pat and Leslie, not Paul and Jane) so there are
more of those situations. If the context is not about sex or gender, the
Radch think of she/her as being the acceptable default. And finally, the
AI whose fragment is the narrator was not raised as a gendered human and
just does not care.
There are strong hints as to the genders of many characters, but Radchaai
pronouns aren't among those hints.
And, as you say, non-Radch cultures have different assumptions. Most of them
pay more attention to genders in pronouns.
-dsr-

Thinking about it some more, do the Star Trek Borg care what gender they
are ? No, they are so integrated into the machines that they have
become genderless. That is the Radch.

Lynn