Ann Leckie

I’ve always been a sporadic blogger, and now I’m busy with book stuff my non-announcement entries have become even sparser. Sorry!

I did write a couple thousand words about C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner over at Far Beyond Reality. It happened kind of the way any of my long blog posts happen–I got to thinking about a thing and then realized I wouldn’t be able to stop until I’d unburdened myself. I really appreciate Stefan’s being patient and generous enough to read and post it.

Word to the wise, if you haven’t read Foreigner it’s probably best to read the book first. The post is one long, massive spoiler. But hey, you could read Foreigner and fix all that right up! If you enjoyed Ancillary Justice, I daresay there’s a very good chance you’ll enjoy Foreigner as well. It’s not that they’re quite exactly the same sort of book–I don’t think they are, really, but, well, I learned a lot from Cherryh.

And in more book-related news, if you missed the signing at Subterranean Books in University City last month, you’ll have another chance to find me at Barnes & Noble on Friday, November 22 as part of their Discovery Friday events. Sadly, I cannot promise cake for this one, but hey.

So, a few guest blogs have gone up. I mentioned the Booksmugglers post yesterday. There are a couple more, though.

John Scalzi kindly let me do a Big Idea post.

Over on the Orbit blog I talk a little bit about why I made the choice to use (nearly) all feminine pronouns.

Fabulous writer and historian Gillian Polack (whose story “Horrible Historians” appeared right next door to “Hesperia and Glory” in issue number four of Subterranean Magazine. (Link is a PDF) I have a special emotional attachment to everything in that issue, because it was my first ever spec fic sale) I got lost in that parenthetical information, didn’t I. Let’s start again. Fabulous writer and historian Gillian Polack very generously allowed me to natter about Ancient Egypt and it’s (vague) connection to Ancillary Justice

And the Qwillery has a brief interview up.

Oh, and I don’t think I linked this here, but you can read the first chapter at the Orbit website.

And, editing to add, just as I hit “publish” I found that my post on AI and emotion has gone up at SF Signal.

Yesterday was the most amazing day. So many people tweeting, reviews–my Amazon rank, you guys, I didn’t even know Amazon did this thing where they keep track of which books have increased in rank by how much in the past twenty four hours. It turned up on twitter, which is how I found it. For a brief period, Ancillary Justice was the number one “Mover and Shaker” because it had increased in rank by I don’t know how many thousand percent. It started the day ranking somewhere around thirty-five thousand and ended around three hundred something, and is currently number nineteen in science fiction, and now I forbid myself access to Amazon until next Monday because otherwise I’d just be sitting there going “…” all day.

The signing is still a thing! If you’d like a signed copy, you can order one from Subterranean Books in St. Louis and I will sign it Thursday night. You won’t get cake, sadly, unless you come to the signing itself. I’d pack some up for you if I could, but as things are, it’s better if I don’t try it.

Ancillary Justice is out today! It is available wherever fine books are sold! In the US you can go for local to you, local to me, or Amazon or Barnes and Noble if that’s how you roll.

If you’re in the UK, you can get the book at Waterstones, or Amazon UK.

I have received one complaint about the fact that the ebook is only available with DRM. I suspect it won’t be the last. And to be entirely honest, I sympathize. But I have no control over that. There’s really no point in telling me you won’t buy the book as long as the ebook is DRMed, because I can’t do anything about it. I do, however, understand such a position and why someone would take it. I would be happy to see DRM gone, myself.

So. Ancillary Justice is officially out and people can read it! Worldcat tells me it’s already at some libraries. (I love you, Worldcat! I love you, libraries!)

I have a guest post over at the Book Smugglers, on Influences and Inspirations. Regular readers of this blog will probably not be surprised at what influences I mention. They’re also giving away a copy!

There will be a few more guest posts here and there as time goes by.

And there are reviews. This morning the October issue of Locus was delivered to my inbox (I love you, Locus esubcription!) and, it turned out, there’s a very nice review inside. And there have been others!

io9 seems to like it.

SFX liked it too! They get extra points for being the first reviewer to note the influence of C.J. Cherryh.

Lots of people have been tweeting nice things!

Staffers Book Review, Pornokitsch, Jen Phalian, Paul Weimer (for Skiffy and Fanty), The Bibliosanctum…I could go on. In short, there are lots of good reviews. This could be a much longer paragraph.

And I am gobsmacked. You guys, this is amazing. I mean, I believe this is a good book. I’d never have sent it out otherwise. But to see so many other people enjoy it, too, is really fabulous and strange and wonderful and terrifying all at the same time.

Yes, I have a feeling the next three weeks are so are going to be all about the book.

So, if you’re in St. Louis, you could, if you so desired, come to Subterranean Books at 6pm on October 3 and get your copy of Ancillary Justice signed.

If you aren’t in St. Louis, or won’t be on the third of October, or that’s the night of your kids’ band concert or you just can’t be there for any reason at all, but you still want a signed copy, just click on that link above and order the book, and include a note letting them know you’d like me to sign it. Or phone the order in and let them know–they’ll be happy to help, and I’ll be happy to sign!

Thus, the signing. Now, the review!

Liz Bourke has reviewed Ancillary Justice over at Tor.com. It’s a lovely review, and I’m very, very happy she liked the book. I know full well that if she hadn’t, the review would have been less pleasing to me, and I know that she isn’t one to pull punches in reviews–which is as it should be, and I would say so even if she hadn’t liked Ancillary Justice, though of course I wouldn’t have been happy on a personal level. Though, I suspect a negative review from this particular reviewer would bear careful consideration–sometimes it’s important to hear criticism.

She did, in fact, mention something I’ve been thinking about for the past few months. She says, of the choice to use the English feminine pronoun pretty much throughout the book, “It’s an interesting choice, one that adds to the sense of reading in a different culture, but also one which (as had to be pointed out to me) runs the risk of reinforcing our existing linguistic and cultural gender binaries.”

It’s a fair cop. This is something that I didn’t realize until the book was well past the copyedit stage. It’s something I wish I’d thought more about. I don’t think it would have changed my mind about using “she” throughout, but I would have handled some things about it a bit differently. I have to be honest, the question of avoiding or questioning assumptions of gender being binary were on my mind–Breq herself, is, after all, not actually a binary person, even though her body has internal reproductive organs and would, in our culture, be assigned female–but in retrospect, it wasn’t something I’d done as much thinking about as I could have. Going back over the text, I do see moments that make me wish I’d handled them just a bit differently. Questioned assumptions and language just a bit more.

Of course, this is how writing is. You do your best, and then when the work is published you immediately see half a dozen things you’d like to fix. The only thing for it is to do better next time. I can’t promise I’ll be perfect, but I can say it’s something I know I need to pay attention to.

There are currently two giveaways going, one at LibraryThing and one at Goodreads. They both run until the end of September. It looks like these are finished copies, not ARCs, which is kind of cool because that means I might be seeing finished copies myself, soonish!

The LibraryThing giveaway will only ship to the US or Canada, the Goodreads one only the US. Since it’s Orbit running both giveaways this time, I have no control over that. I still have a few ARCs left, and should be getting some finished copies, so probably soonish I’ll give a few away here on the blog, which I’ll be happy to ship pretty much anywhere.

So far reviews have all been good. And yes, there’ve been some outrageously complimentary tweets that yes, I’ve seen. I mean, are you kidding me? Of course I search my book title every now and then. Some I’ve retweeted (I could not help but laugh out loud at “Ankylosaurus Justified”), but some I’ve looked at and asked myself, “Ann, are you vain enough to retweet that?” and decided I wasn’t. (No judgment implied of folks who would choose to retweet such compliments. Self-promotiony stuff is weird, emotionally, and I can only speak to where my own weirdness is.) But I have noticed, do notice, and do appreciate it very much.

The negative reviews (and perhaps even non-complimentary tweets) will surely appear in the fullness of time. And that’s as it should be. I appreciate anyone’s reading my work, and going to the trouble to think and talk about it.

Now, I’ve got a couple more chapters to go, and a deadline to finish them by, so I’m going to clear my mind of tweets and giveaways, make myself some more tea, and get to work.