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Ancillary Sword
by Ann Leckie
Orbit, 2014 (($16))
This follow-up to the Hugo Award–winning novel Ancillary Justice tells the story of Breq, a soldier who once controlled many bodies, and even an entire starship, through artificial intelligence but is now left stranded in a single human frame. Breq has achieved a measure of vengeance for the act that stripped her of her bodies and is now forging a new path for herself in an empire on the brink of a galaxy-spanning civil war. She must learn how to command a new ship and a crew beyond her mental control. Through a unique use of language—Breq's people barely notice gender and use only female pronouns—and a thoroughly drawn culture with intricate rules, Leckie investigates what it means to be human, to be an individual and to live in a civilized society.