ANCILLARY JUSTICE

On a distant icy planet, the soldier Breq is pursuing a long and patient quest for vengeance.

Behind this seemingly simple storyline, author Ann Leckie has constructed a vast and complex universe made up of diverse interplanetary cultures, life forms, languages and multiple means of communication, and gender. Ancillary Justice, first of the series, introduces us to the intricate system of the Radch Empire, where the meaning of human and alien life is debated, where human and artificial intelligence and consciousness coexist in uneasy yet necessary unity, and where gender is not as neatly defined or obviously visible as on the planet Earth.

Leckie’s narrative is suspenseful and her characters portrayed with insight and humour. After a brief initial moment of puzzlement faced with the strangeness of the cultures Leckie describes, we are quickly caught up in the history and the action of Breq’s quest. As our understanding grows of what the Imperial Radch culture is based on and, more particularly, who Breq the soldier once was and now is, we notice a shift in our own attitudes concerning the definition of a human being and a once-human being, questions of gender and AI, including that all-absorbing one of whether AI can feel emotion, affection and attachment, hatred and even the desire for vengeance. Reading the series, fond memories of Asimov’s R. Daneel Olivaw and the Three Laws of Robotics will inevitably surge forward, as well as Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, which was a precursor in the theme of androgyny.

Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice
Orbit Books, 2013
In the same series:
Ancillary Sword
Ancillary Mercy
http://www.annleckie.com/novel/ancillary-justice/

AMERICANAH

Reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, I felt touched beyond any specific considerations of culture, ethnic groups and nations. Yet these themes are woven into the narrative of the novel, which follows its characters on their individual journeys abroad to prestigious Western universities, and simultaneously describing their difficult inner voyage towards self-knowledge and a sense of personal identity.

The character of Ifemelu, a vibrant, intelligent and perceptive young Nigerian girl, immediately caught hold of me. Her ideals and aspirations struck a chord of memory, as did her struggle to find herself and her way in a totally different social and cultural environment where she assumes she knows the rules and how things work. The bases of her assumption are provided by - as for so many others - Hollywood and great American literature. As Ifemelu discovers with shock, dismay and amazement that at practically all levels of American society, she is not simply seen as Nigerian but very specifically as black, she starts a blog Understanding America for the Non-American Black. Her blog becomes the means of expressing sharp, witty and wry analyses of her personal experiences, exploring such topics as "American Tribalism", "Hair as Race Metaphor", "Traveling While Black", Thoughts on the Special White Friend"...

Adichie takes us on several journeys of self-discovery and initiation as we follow her characters from Nigeria to the US or to Britain and back, shedding their innocence and growing into maturity or even a certain cynicism. The novel also reveals and explores Nigerian society, with its own inner contradictions of tribe, language and class, yet equally revealing is the feeling of pride and profound attachment to a certain sense of being Nigerian.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2013

http://chimamanda.com/books/americanah/