The more we read of Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, the less it seems we know. Amid the excessively voweled names and shifting POVs and multiple timelines is a political plot so many-sided you'd need a degree in IR (you know, interstellar relations) just to parse the gist. Aatr's tits! Luckily, there's five of us and all of you to help. Read up on our theorizing, then join us in the comments for further discussion. We'll tackle the book's final third next week. Good luck!

So Is Breq's Body a Reanimated Corpse?

Sarah Fallon, Senior Editor: I don't think so. That horrible, horrible scene where the new ancillary is jacked into the matrix, I think Leckie makes a point of saying that, not only are the ancillaries alive, they are conscious. But also in that scene, we see Awn being tender and defensive of her ancillaries, which not everyone is.

Jason Kehe, Associate Editor: Then there's that line Strigan says to Breq: "Live the life that was denied you. Don't sacrifice yourself for nothing."

Fallon: Yes, but Breq doesn't think much of Strigan's liberation theology.

Jay Dayrit, Editorial Operations Manager: I am inclined to believe Breq is a reanimated corpse. The conversation in which Strigan eggs her on about a life that was denied certainly points in that direction. Plus, I like the potential of a dual consciousness (two distinct personalities) in addition to the multiple branches of one consciousness. As if things aren't hard enough to keep track of as it stands.

Fallon: I dunno Jay—it says at one point that they'd tried with dead bodies and failed. But yes on the dual consciousness. Like, Breq/One Esk has her AI consciousness and then her sub sub sub sub consciousness from before she was ancillaried. And don't we all have that? Our logical processing brains and then the part of our brains that jump in front of a bus to push someone out of the way because we just ... do. Is this related to the singing? Is the capacity for art and a thirst for unnecessary knowledge the thing that keeps this sub sub sub brain alive?

Kehe: Seems like! The emotions ancillaries feel are probably less a result of their programming and more the fact that they're thinking and acting with (formerly) human brains.

Dayrit: A part of me feels the Berg/One Esk's inclination toward song is a residual trait from a previous human life. Perhaps I am hanging onto rather primitive notions of AI; the AI in this world could be far more advanced, able to appreciate music and be driven by revenge, not just survival.

__Peter Rubin, Senior Editor: __Jay, I'm not sure whether by "Berg" you meant Breq or the Borg, but either way works for me, and in fact, the Star Trek race is the closest conceptual kin to the ancillary system—which is to say, these are not corpses, but living (if suspended) organic forms assimilated into the hive mind. I side with Sarah on this one.

Kehe: Plus the fact remains that no two ancillaries are exactly alike. One Esk is special, unique. I suspect elements of their human hosts persist in their psyche, never quite eradicated fully.

Lexi Pandell, Assistant Research Editor: Or there could be something at play with Justice of Toren's creator. We don't quite know the details of how the ship's "brain"was developed and whether someone could have manipulated her to feel empathy or to have a sort of moral compass. Seems to me like that could connect to her appreciation of art. Song, after all, is deeply human and deeply emotional.

"Justice, Propriety, and Benefit”? Ha!

Pandell: I brought up colonialism last week and I'm bringing it up again! There's this twisted view that they're "spreading civilization,"which is the exact crap that colonizers have said while pushing out other cultures and taking people's land. It's rhetoric that tries to justify political violence. But imperialism is always for the economic or social benefit of the conquering force.

Fallon: Indeed, justice, well, you don't feel you've been dealt with justly when your whole civilization gets annexed. Benefit, samesies. Propriety, I kind of want to talk about that in relationship to the gloves. What's the deal with the gloves?

Kehe: So weird. Is it an easy identifier? A mark of cleanliness? Status? No clue. But it's so important that the Radch can't even play instruments bare-handed.

Fallon: Compare to the muslim veil/headcovering, which seems so unfamiliar to us, but which is so essential to that society. So, in that case, does "propriety"really mean "assimilation”?

Kehe: Frankly, I don't need a clear explanation. As you say, it's a culturally unfamiliar practice, like the gender pronouns. There's something radical about Leckie not providing easy answers.

__Rubin: __Co-sign. The pageantry and protocols of the Radch—or the Nilt, or even the sweet, furry Rrrrrr—don't need to be fully explained to be persistent. However, and we'll get into this, I would love some clarity on the many moods of Mianaai. (Ready fi kill!)

Fallon: Speaking of colonialism, can someone help me understand what's happening with the annexations being over. Why are they over? Who benefits from this? Who does not? I think the answer helps get at what Lexi is talking about.

Pandell: I'm with you. It's clear that Mianaai wants something out of this, but I'm still parsing out exactly how the Radchaai forces benefitted from the annexations. Do they want land? Manpower? Basically, is it simply a matter of conquest for the sake of power ... or is there something else at play? (Because there's gotta be, right?)

Fallon: On page 214, Anaaaaaander says "it's the appropriation of resources during annexations that drives our economy.”

Dayrit: Like all colonial efforts, it's all about resources, resources, resources, to fuel a much larger Radch community we have yet to see. It could have been galaxies wide. Who knows? We know they like tamarind. Weird crop to favor, but sure.

How Can Justice of Toren Have Multiple Personalities?

Dayrit: I'm taken by the notion that some ships have gone insane over the loss of a captain. Insane with grief! Now that's intriguing. Multiple personality, on the other hand, just seems like a logical glitch in a system of ancillary minds, particularly when individuals, even entire platoons, can fracture off for a time and then come back online, presumably bringing with them the memories from the time when they had gone dark.

Who Is Anaander Mianaai?

Fallon: The status quo, I suppose. Relatedly, is she saying that the aliens, the Presger, infected the ships with some kind of consciousness-dividing software worm?

Pandell: Looping back to my comment about the possibility of Justice of Toren being programmed to have some sort of moral compass...there's definitely a possibility that morality and/or defection is a glitch in the system or the result of a hack. Technology is only as good (or bad or moral or immoral) as its makers. Or its hackers.

Dayrit: I'm not peeling the layers that far back. In a world where it's challenge enough to keep track of any particular character's gender, let alone motivations, I've pegged Anaander Mianaai to be our capricious antagonist, the evil emperor, because is sci-fi emperors are always duplicitous.

What Is Breq's Goal?

Kehe: To kill Anaander Mianaai, the right bastard. But how? There's no way she can wipe them all out. Of course, I guess she's concerned with the eviler Mianaai twins. Is she still loyal to the other half, the ones that got to her ship first? Even in her vengeful state, Breq still seems pretty pro-Radch. "But at the end, after all the blood and grief," she says to Strigan, "all those benighted souls who without us would have suffered in darkness are happy citizens." Very white (wo)man's burden of you, Breq.

Dayrit: Yes, killing Anaander Mianaai seems to be the endgame here. Why else the super cool, morphing, cloaking gun? I'm not really sure how it works or how it morphs. I don't care. It's pretty awesome.

Why Is Seivarden Suddenly So ... Endearing?

Fallon: Well, we're learning more about her, which I think always can endear someone to us.

Pandell: Now that (s)he's snapped out of her kef-induced haze, Seivarden has a roguish quality not unlike Han Solo. And now we have a question in common with him/her: Why is Breq helping Seivarden if she says she hates him?

Kehe: I think it's love.

Fallon: I think it's loyalty. Breq feels loyalty to Seivarden, that's inherent to who she is. But I don't think it's love. On page 220, Seivarden says to Breq "If that's what you're willing to do for someone you hate, what would you do for someone you loved."That gave me chills. Breq loved Awn so fucking much that she is willing to destroy civilization to avenge her.

Pandell: I think it's a glitch!

__Rubin: __Same here. Breq might be accustomed to a life of servitude—hell, the whole raison d'etre of the mission is avenging a slain master—but just as Esk One was unaware of its own hackedness, I have a feeling that Breq's umpteen-strikes approach to Seivarden stems from a subconscious subroutine.

Dayrit: Seivarden is endearing because she has flaws. I'm just gonna say it right here. Because a vast majority of characters and voices in Ancillary Justice are either AI, diplomats, or AI diplomats, they're either programed or forced to practice restraint, and as a result, the book isn't exactly brimming with personality. Seivarden, drug-addicted thief that she is, offers a much-welcomed relief from largely antiseptic interactions.

Classism As An Organizing Principle of Society. Go!

Fallon: Leckie is kind of saying (I think) that people in the upper upper classes can afford to ask questions, and people who have ascended from the lower ranks have those questions thrust upon them. But people in the middle, they like things just. The. Way. Things. Are.

Pandell: You're right, Sarah. Those in the lower classes are constantly having their decisions questioned—things like whether they're just sleeping with someone for social mobility, for example. Their lack of freedom goes far beyond the literal wealth or status, or lack thereof, of their house.