These events occur 19 years prior to Breq’s arrival on Nilt.

Much of the novel unfolds as a series of flashbacks, focusing on the last days of Justice of Toren and the series of events that left its consciousness isolated in the single human body known as Breq. (The Radchaai do not acknowledge gender and use “she” and “her” as universal singular pronouns, as does Breq/ Justice of Toren). Shortly after her arrival on Nilt, Breq finds one of her previous officers, Seivarden Vendaai, passed out in the snow from a severe beating and strung out on kef (a drug). The book opens with the sole surviving ancillary segment of Justice of Toren, who uses the name Breq, visiting the icy planet of Nilt, a remote world outside Radch space. Talented people of humble background now enter the officer corps, much to the annoyance of high-born Radchaai who think their place in the Radch’s rigid class hierarchy entitles them to exercise authority. Each ship and its ancillaries share a unified consciousness.Īt the time the story takes place, the pace of annexations has considerably slowed, as human soldiers increasingly replace ancillaries and other signs of moderation appear. The Radch kills some prisoners of war and keeps the rest frozen on board the troopships for future use as ancillaries: The same artificial intelligence that controls the ship later animates the soldier bodies (non-Radchaai refer to ancillaries as “corpse soldiers”). The word “Radchaai” itself means both “citizen” and “civilized.” The Radch has been expanding aggressively for millennia, “annexing” other planets, eliminating those who resist, and assimilating the survivors into the political order and culture of the Radch. The interstellar empire in which the story takes place is known as the Radch and its inhabitants as Radchaai. The title of the book refers both to the protagonist’s origins as Justice of Toren’s ancillary and to her desire to right past wrongs. Breq, the first-person narrator and protagonist, embarks on a quest for vengeance. Ancillary Justice tells the story of Breq, the sole surviving “segment” of the artificial intelligence that once animated an interstellar troop ship, Justice of Toren, and its ancillary soldiers.

Ancillary justice trilogy