History Literature / ImperialRadch

''Ancillary Justice'' won a pile of awards for Best Novel in 2014: The Arthur C. Clarke, Nebula, and UsefulNotes/BritishFantasyAward, topped off by being the far and away favorite for (and winner of) the 2014 UsefulNotes/HugoAward for Best Novel.

** Anaander Mianaai also counts, having thousands or millions or identical clone bodies all across her empire, all connected to the same mind so she can efficiently run her empire and oversee its operations.

** Breq and the other ancillaries might also qualify in most regards given how heavily the point is made they aren't human in the ''Ancillary Sword'', although they are unusually benign for the trope.

--> '''Seivarden:''' Here I am going ''Oh, stations are weak,'' but Station was a [[PrecisionFStrike ''fucking badass.'']]

* NotInThisForYourRevolution: [[spoiler: As explained by Translator Zeiat, she and the rest of the Translators have a vested interest in seeing the Presgr treaty with the Raddch remains in effect, as if there is no treaty there would be no need for Translators.]]

* NoTranshumanismAllowed: With the exception of their [[HiveMind emperor]], the Radchaai consider people with cybernetics past a certain level to not be human (and thus to [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman not be people]]). It is implied that most other places have similar views on transhumanism, though some small societies embrace it to the point of being [[TranshumanAliens practically unrecognizable as human]] and consider it odd that others don't do the same.
* NotSoStoic: Breq isn't as unfeeling as she thinks she is, even when she's still ''Justice of Toren.'' This is mostly conveyed through others' reactions to her[[spoiler:, a good example being when Anaander Mianaai is threatening Lieutenant Awn and after Awn's death, when the entire ''Justice of Toren'' crew picks up on its ancillaries' anxiety]]. Several people laugh at her insistence that she doesn't have emotions.
** Breq's self-deluding attitude about this can be a point of humour throughout the books as she regularly makes a point that of ''course'' AIs have emotions and feelings...while simultaneously, and regularly, stating that she's lucky that, as an AI, she doesn't have emotions. Y'know, on her [[spoiler: 20 year long revenge quest]] having spent, by her own admission, [[spoiler: a decade crazed with grief]].

* OverrideCommand: ''Justice of Toren'' and every other Radchaai ship or station AI has these, [[spoiler:and by the time of the series have each been given multiple conflicting commands from [[SplitPersonality Anaander Miaani]]]]. In the third book, [[spoiler:the ships and station in Athoek system have their overrides removed using the overrides posessed by Lieutenant Tisarwat.]]

** [[TheRemnant ''Sphene'']] is even older, to the extent of seeing Anaander Mianaai as an upstart usurper and expressing displeasure at how people keep referring to the massive space empire as 'The Radch' rather than the Dyson Sphere at its core.

* RemoteBody: The entire idea of ancillaries is to provide these to [=AIs=]

* SirSwearsALot: By the standards of Raadch society and her house and breeding, Seivarden is ''very'' foul-mouthed.

* StarfishAliens: The Rrrrrr are described as snake long, furred, and multi-limbed, and speak in growls and barks. While certainly alien, they at least seem to be relatable. The Presger aren't described physically, but they're implied to be even weirder and are explicitly stated to use a [[BlueAndOrangeMorality completely alien logic]].

* ThatManIsDead: The ancillary processing apparently severs one's connection to their past identity, and it's confirmed that removing the implants does not reverse the effect. We see this first hand in ''Ancillary Sword''[[spoiler: when Tisarwat undergoes an identity crisis after having her implants removed.]]
* TheOnlyWayTheyWillLearn: [[spoiler: Translator Zeiat's explanation for why the Presgr aided the Garseddai. The Presgr seemed to think it would somehow stop the annexations under the theory the burnt hand teaches best.]] It didn't work.

* CloningBlues: Subverted by [[TheEmperor Anaander Mianaai]] who has successfully ruled for three thousand years by being a HiveMind of clones, each of which are considered relatively [[ExpendableClone expendable]] while also legitimately her, with all of her authority. [[spoiler: [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]] by how she eventually develops a SplitPersonality, resulting in a struggle between two hive minds which each have an equal claim to being the emperor.]]

** In ''Provenance'', Radchaai are noted to be disconcertingly difficult to gender to the Hwaean people.

* TheUnSmile:

* SympatheticPOV: It's easy to forget, since Breq is so used to it, that the ancillaries, or "corpse soldiers" as non-Radchaai call them, are walking horror movies to everyone who isn't Radchaai. To Breq, she just is what she is and that's normal. To those outside the empire, she's a zombie animated by horrific technology.

* EnsignNewbie: The "Baby Lieutenants" (they can be given command as young as 17) in general and Tisarwat in particular[[spoiler: is actually something of a subversion, her brief time as Anaander Mianaai giving her wisdom beyond her years]].

** Radchaai does have pronouns, they just work on a person vs non-person divide (i.e. she vs it), rather than being based on sexual characteristics/presentation lines. The potentials for ambiguity get discussed InUniverse in Ancilary Mercy during a penis festival.

** Breq is one of the few Radchaai whose gender we know... and it's ''wrong''. She's an agender AI, but if that fact were widely known it's life would very quickly come to an end.

** A hallmark of Breq's narration, particularly in the ''Justice of Toren'' flashbacks. Sometimes it's [[DeadpanSnarker funny]], and sometimes it's [[UncannyValley creepy as hell]], especially since she often appears ''more'' serene when she's too busy or upset to concentrate on mimicking human expressions. Special mention goes to her calm description of the process of having a segment replaced, [[spoiler:which turns out to be a nightmarish [[TheAssimilator assimilation]] of a terrified, weeping HumanPopsicle, freshly-thawed and fully conscious]].

* UncannyValley (InUniverse): The ancillary "corpse soldiers" are usually expressionless, and One Esk freaks out an officer when she suddenly smiles. "Stop that! It looks like you're possessed."

* NoSell: In ''Ancillary Mercy'', [[spoiler: Translator Zeiat gets shot with the Garseddai gun.]] And she... vomits up some interesting things and then gets up like nothing happened. She's bleeding, but it doesn't seem to bother her whatsoever.

* OneGenderRace: Played with in the Radch. While the people are physically ordinary humans, the Radchaai don't have a societal concept of gender at all: when addressing foreigners, Breq often laments the difficulty of having to decide which pronoun to use to keep from looking foolish or offending someone, and finds it a huge relief not to have to worry about it when she returns to Radch space. Their society is, at least in theory, a completely egalitarian meritocracy, although in practice there is a strong class component.

* TerrifiedOfGerms: A religious example: Radchaai religion puts a lot of emphasis on 'purity.' They have a nudity taboo about gloves, when it's learned that Breq has washed her hands in the temple basin it's referred to as 'polluted,' and apparently after touching a dead body everything ''they'' touch needs to be ritually cleansed by a priest. 'True' Radchaai inside the dyson sphere take this UpToEleven, to the extent of considering those born outside of it too impure to enter.

** Breq is one of the few Radchaai whose gender we know... and it's ''wrong''. She's an agender AI, but the sole body remaining to it is female.

** Radchaai does have pronouns, they just work on a person vs non-person divide (i.e. she vs it), rather than being based on sexual characteristics/presentation lines. This gets discussed InUniverse in Ancilary Mercy during a penis festival.

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge quest]]. Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was ''Justice of Toren''--a colossal starship with an [[HiveMind artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers]] in the service of [[TheEmpire the Radch]], the empire that conquered the galaxy. An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only [[SoleSurvivor one fragile human body]]. And only one purpose--to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge revenge herself]] on [[TheEmperor Anaander Mianaai]], [[HiveMind many-bodied]], [[BodyBackupDrive near-immortal]] Lord of the Radch.

Note: Due to TranslationConvention, all Radchaai characters will be referred to as 'she.'

** How Breq sees herself. Her main motive to [[spoiler: kill Anaander Mianaai is to get revenge for being forced to kill Lieutenant Awn.]]

* CommonalityConnection: [[spoiler: ''Sphene'']] greatly warms up to Breq after learning [[spoiler: that they are both ancillaries trying to get revenge on Anaander Mianaai for the deaths of their favorites and crew.]]

-->“Varden’s suppurating cuticles,” said Seivarden.\\
“Lieutenant, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that outside a historical drama.”

* DeadpanSnarker: Quite a few, though Breq and Anaander Mianaai are standouts. Becomes SnarkToSnarkCombat whenever they're in the same room.
--> '''Anaander Mianaai:''' 'Breq' is the last remaining fragment of a grief-crazed AI.
--> '''Breq:''' I haven't been ''crazed'' with grief [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne for at least ten years]].

* AmbiguousGender: Everyone in the trilogy; Radchaai culture does not mark gender differentiation in language or personal presentation, and we have only Breq's perspective on gender systems from other cultures. Moreover, in a series set many millennia in the future, cultures with gender probably do not match up to modern Western concepts of gender; the trilogy mentions a bearded Orsian referred to as a 'she' and Anaander Mianaai is called 'he' in some languages and 'she' in others.

* BenevolentAI: Station's main concern is always the well-being of its residents. Also ship AIs in general: even otherwise antagonistic warships are shown to care deeply about their crew. In the second and third books, Station is deeply distressed (and has been for ''centuries'') about not being able to see and care for a significant portion of her population.

* NotSoStoic: Breq isn't as unfeeling as she thinks she is, even when she's still ''Justice of Toren.'' This is mostly conveyed through others' reactions to her[[spoiler:, a good example being when Anaander Mianaai is threatening Lieutenant Awn and after Awn's death, when the entire ''Justice of Toren'' crew picks up on its ancillaries' anxiety]]

** Radchaai and tea. No exceptions.

* SpotOfTea: The Radchaai have tea as their drink of choice, and are seen complaining about places outside the empire that don't have tea or that have a different drink of the same name. The second book takes place on a planet with tea as its major export.
-->''[Tea] wasn't really a luxury. Not by Seivarden's standards, anyway. Likely not by any Radchaai's standards.''

** In addition to apparently being an EarWorm, the first song even suffers a {{Mondegreen}} in universe at the hands of an inebriated Bo Ten. The original isn't in the Radchaai language, so she improvises something with phonetically similar words. This song comes to represent the Fleet Captain not knowing where her metaphorical ass is. (Or just one of her crew being in a cheery mood.)

* ChasteHero: As a former A.I. inhabiting what is essentially a heavily modified corpse, Breq generally considers ''[[TheFourLoves eros]]'' to be [[{{Asexuality}} something that happens to other people.]] She also ignores or doesn't notice [[spoiler:Seivarden's rather transparent crush on her]] for the first book. That said, she, like all A.I.s, is fully capable of feeling ''[[TheFourLoves storge]]'', ''[[TheFourLoves philia]]'' and ''[[TheFourLoves agape]]''; she also misses being able to use her multiple bodies to comfort each other and sometimes appreciates close contact to make up for it.

* SpeculativeFictionLGBT: the Radchaai Empire has no societal concept of gender, their language's TranslationConvention defaults to female pronouns, and no mention is ever made of Radchaai basing their choice of partner on which anatomical features they might have. In addition, the main character's {{Asexuality}} is acknowledged and accepted by her crew. When asked how the genderless Radchaai have children, Breq says they do it in the usual way - they go to a medic and have their contraceptive implants disabled, or they grow a baby [[PeopleJars in a tank]], or they have surgery so that one partner can carry a child, or they hire a surrogate.