History Literature / ImperialRadch

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The Radchaai consider their own empire to be [[OfThePeople synonymous with civilization]] and hold very little value for the lives of non-citizens. They therefore consider it perfectly acceptable to invade and annex neighboring countries to bring them civilization. In a more minor example, the Radchaai have a nudity taboo about not wearing gloves.

* AssholeVictim: Jen Shinnan and her faction are part of a less-populous more-prosperous ethnic group than the Orsians, consider them subhuman, pre-annexation would kill them on pretenses and plant guns to 'discover' as justification, and they try to do exactly that again in an attempt to maneuver themselves back to the top of the hierarchy, even [[spoiler: murdering Jen's fifteen-year-old niece to pin her death on Orsians]]. Lieutenant Awn and, indeed, ''Justice of Toren'' are angry and very willing to contain them and send them to "re-education", but [[spoiler: Jen's faction's summary execution at Anaander Mianaai's order]] is horrific.

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Breq can't resist helping as many people as she can, as her narration stubbornly insists that she doesn't know why she does things like that.

* FantasticDrug: Kef. It [[EmotionSuppression suppresses emotions]], so people either take it in the mistaken belief they will become [[TheSpock transcendent beings of pure rationality and logic]] or they use it to dull emotional trauma. If used for the latter it can be incredibly habit forming and addictive.

* 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.

** The horrific process by which people are turned into ancillaries. A HumanPopsicle wakes up, disoriented, soaking wet, choking, a medic implanting the ancillary tech in her head, struggling in terror until suddenly she's no longer herself.

** Seivarden accepts being Breq's servant very easily and practically jumps at the chance to re-join her even after being 'freed'.

** All over the place. There are many languages spoken, Seivarden's BlueBlood speech pattern which gets into InformedAttribute territory, and everyone in the Radchaai language defaults to female.

* UnreliableNarrator: Many of the things Breq states about herself are subtly (or not-so-subtly) belied by her actions, from her supposed lack of interest in tea, to her [[spoiler:awful singing voice]] as One Esk Nineteen, to her claims of [[spoiler:inability to love or feel "human" emotion]]. She also omits mentioning when she's crying, at most mentioning taking a steadying breath or having her eyes wiped by other characters; it seems to be the one uncontrolled sign of emotion that she has.

* 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. Some minor characters are explicitly identified, but in a series set many millennia in the future, their genders probably do not match up to modern Western concepts; the trilogy mentions a bearded Orsian referred to as a 'she' and Anaander Mianaai is called 'he' in some languages and 'she' in others.

* AmbiguousGender: Radchaai citizens are this; their culture does not mark gender differentiation in language or personal presentation. Only Breq (female), Seivarden (male), and a couple minor characters are ever explicitly identified, and Anaander Mianaai is the only character given a potential sex marker - a baritone voice, implying she's sexually male.
** In ''Provenance'', Radchaai are noted to be disconcertingly difficult to gender to the Hwaean people.

* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Presger, whatever they are, require ArtificalHuman Translators just to interact with normal humans, and have offensive technology that the Radch can't even understand, never mind defend against.

* AmbiguousGender: Radchaai citizens are this; their culture does not mark gender differentiation in language or personal presentation. Only Breq herself, Seivarden (male), and a couple minor characters are ever explicitly identified, and Anaander Mianaai is the only character given a potential sex marker - a baritone voice, implying she's sexually male.

* 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 with jobs determined by a standardized test called the Aptitudes, although in practice there is a strong class component.

** Subverted with the 'reformist' faction of Anaander Mianaani: she's in favor of a less violently, more ethical Radch, and helps Breq rather than having her and everyone she knows rounded up and shot... [[spoiler: but just when Breq's unwavering hostility is starting to feel unreasonable, we find out [[MindRape what she did]] [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable to Tisarwat.]] ]]

** Breq. It's clear from her narration that she very much believes in the principles of "justice, propriety and benefit" that the Radchaai empire purports to be based on. She thinks Anaander Mianaai has corrupted these and so wants to kill her no matter what the consequences (see WhatTheHellHero below).

** In the third book, [[spoiler: it's outright weaponized as Breq asks the Presger to confirm that the non-human AIs are sentient beings and therefore subject to the same consideration as humans.]]

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Presger only recognize two kinds of entity - Significant ones, which are entirely inviolate by other Significant species, and Insignificant ones, which are prey, property, or plaything. have an odd view that anything they find "Significant" is inviolate.

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

* FeministFantasy: The Radchaai language and culture do not defferentiate between physical sexes and the pronoun "she" is used for everyone. This extends to the narrative. With a very few exceptions, a character's sex is left unspecified. Those that are specified are only acknowledged through occasional hints.

* BigBeautifulWoman: Station Administrator Celar is complimented several times on her "broadness" (though she might be a BigBeautifulMan to a non-Radchaai). It seems to be something of a cultural ideal, marking her as someone wealthy enough to buy extra food rather than someone who has to subsist on Station's daily allotment of rations.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Presger have an odd view that anything they find "Significant" is inviolate. They force any species they deem significant to sign treaties to enforce their view, and they have the technology and military might to ensure those treaties aren't violated without serious consequence. The treaties leave justifiable reasons to kill members of a significant species, but they are so complex and unintuitive to a human mind that most people are entirely unwilling to deal with aliens for fear of violating some seemingly-minor rule.
** Notably, their criteria for "Significance" isn't entirely synonymous with what humans think of as "personhood." The fact that Translators have a constant low-key identity crisis and that Translator Zeiat seems genuinely confused by the idea that Breq [[spoiler: minus a leg]] is the same person she used to be.

Note: Due to TranslationConvention gendered pronouns should not be taken as indicative of the physical sex of a character except in a few specific cases, most notably Breq and Seivarden. Even where a character's physical sex is noted, please use the in-story convention for simplicity's sake.

* AmbiguousGender: Radchaai citizens are this; their culture does not mark gender differentiation in language or personal presentation. Only Breq herself, Seivarden (male), and a couple minor characters are ever explicitly identified in cultures that do amrk gender, and Anaander Mianaai is the only character given a potential sex marker (a baritone voice, implying she could be considered male).
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Most of the Radch, with darker skin tones being fashionable, especially among the upper class.

* AmbiguousGender: Radchaai citizens are this; their culture does not believe in gender differentiation in language or personal presentation. Only Breq herself, Seivarden (male), and a couple minor characters are ever explicitly identified, and Anaander Mianaai is the only character given a sex marker (a baritone singing voice, implying she's male).

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 the ''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.

* BattleButler: Kalr Five serves this function for Breq aboard the Mercy of Kalr. She's first introduced fretting over the ship having a nice enough tea set for hosting visitors, but she's still a member of a warship's crew.

* ConflictingLoyalty: [[spoiler: In the first book, Justice of Toren is made to kill one of its officers by [[TheEmperor Anaander Mianaai]], but immediately afterwards turns against her. At the end of the book the entire Radch faces one when it is revealed that Mianaai has a Split Personality and is at war with herself.]]

* DecoyProtagonist: Played with, in a way. [[spoiler: The flashbacks focus on the perspective of the ancillary One Esk, who was assigned to Lieutenant Awn, while Breq in the present is from the perspective of One Esk Nineteen, who was ordered to escape the ship before its destruction. In fact, Nineteen is seen coming into existence near the very end of the flashback. Although given the nature of the ancillaries and AIs they are technically just different parts of the same person, Justice of Toren.]]

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Medic and the crew of Mercy of Kalr. The latter are greatly disturbed the few times Breq tries to address them by name. Granted, their previous captain had enforced this by making them imitate ancillaries.

** How Ekalu justifies [[spoiler: bringing the ''Mercy of Kalr'' back to rescue Breq.]]

* LoveDodecahedron: There's one onboard the ''Mercy of Kalr'', involving the captain, two out of three lieutenants, and the ship itself. It helps that Radchaai relationships don't seem to have an expectation of monogamy, so this isn't itself played for drama.

* MindHive: Ships with multiple decks function this way, and older ships that still have ancillaries take it even further. Not only can the AI of a ship love a particular commander or lieutenant, each ''deck'' on the ship can do so as well. Then, each ancillary brings with it its own emotional and physical needs. The AI of the ship dominates the ancillary bodies, but those bodies still retain their personalities. The destruction of ''Justice of Toren'' was launched when an Anaander Mianaai discovered the ship had already been compromised by her counterpart, and also because Mianaai ordered the death of Lieutenant Awn, who was a favorite of Justice of Toren One Esk (Breq's body, post-destruction, was Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen).

* MistakenForRomance: The crew of the ''Mercy of Kalr'' initially has this impression of Breq and Seivarden, before the former manages to set the latter up with a fellow officer.

** [[TheRemnant The 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.

* ReplacementGoldfish: The ''Mercy of Kalr'' (a ship who's lost her ancillaries) almost immediately identifies Breq (an ancillary who's lost her ship) as this, [[spoiler: to the point of lobbying to have her assigned as her captain.]]

* SinisterSurveillance: Every Radchaai citizen has tracking implants, and can be watched at any time by government AIs with enough precision to read emotions. Downplayed in that while loyal to the ruthless empire, the AIs otherwise seem to generally care about the citizens they are watching. This is especially the case with AIs on military ships towards their crew, such as the protagonist Justice of Toren.

%% ** Also [[spoiler: the ''Sphene.'']]

** Averted by the crew of the ''Mercy of Kalr:'' despite having a clear affection for their caption, Ship notes that they're uncomfortable with the idea of acting as proxies for its affection.

* ThatManIsDead: The ancillary processing apparently severs one's connection to their past identity, and a conversation in Ancillary Sword implies that removing the implants does not reverse the effect. We see this first hand in Ancillary Mercy [[spoiler: when Tisarwat undergoes an identity crisis after having her implants removed.]]

* TheRemnant: ''The Sphene,'' who was damaged during a Radchaai civil war three thousand years ago and has been quietly lurking about causing trouble since.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Zig-zagged. Handling psychological issues seems to be a function of medical techs, and the ''Mercy of Kalr's'' medic takes an active role in helping Tisarwat manage her depression. However, this mostly tends to be handled through medication, with serious issues escalating to the level of GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul. We don't see anyone practicing anything like modern talk therapy.

From debut author Creator/AnnLeckie and the first book in the Imperial Radch trilogy, Ancillary Justice is a stunning SpaceOpera that asks [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman what it means to be human]] in a universe guided by artificial intelligence.

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

* InLoveWithYourCarnage: [[spoiler: Sphene]] thinks much more of Breq after finding out how much damage she has done with Anaander Mianaai. Fairly understandable, given how much they [[EnemyMine hate Mianaai.]]

* ThatManIsDead: The ancillary processing apparently severs one's connection to their past identity, and a conversation in Ancillary Sword implies that removing the implants does not reverse the effect. We see this first hand in Ancillary Mercy [[spoiler: when Tissarwat undergoes an identity crisis after having her implants removed.]]

* FeministFantasy: The Radchaai do not acknowledge a person's physical sec and the pronoun "she" is used for everyone. This extends to the narrative. With a very few exceptions, a character's sex is left unspecified. Those that are specified are only acknowledged through occasional hints.

* FeministFantasy: The Radchaai do not acknowledge gender and the pronoun "she" is used for everyone. This extends to the narrative. With a very few exceptions, character gender is left unspecified. Those that are specified are only acknowledged through occasional hints.

* InLoveWithYourCarnage: [[spoiler: Sphene]] thinks much more of Breq after finding out how much damage she has done with Anaander Mianaai.
Fairly understandable, given how much they [[EnemyMine hate Mianaai.]]