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Ann Leckie

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http://annleckie.com

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Science Fiction, Fantasy

Member Since

June 2011

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While I understand the concept of a gender neutral being, and appreciate the use of the feminine pronoun, I remain a little confused about the word 'human' when describing the beings. Are they human as we know human? And if so, how are they gender neutral? Is the word used to describe some evolutionary version of human far into the future where gender has become neutral? Thank so much.

Ann Leckie So, I don't think I've ever said that Radchaai are gender neutral--just that they really don't care about anyone's gender, and don't mark it socially …moreSo, I don't think I've ever said that Radchaai are gender neutral--just that they really don't care about anyone's gender, and don't mark it socially or linguistically. So, they're humans, and as such come in all sorts of genders, and they know gender exists, but it's not really a thing they care much about. They care about it, maybe, as much as we care about hair color.

I think it's worth considering (though I know you didn't bring this up explicitly, but I feel it's sort of lurking in the background of your question) how much of what we consider to be "obvious" about someone's gender when we look at them is actually a set of social cues. Hairstyle, kinds of clothes, even certain colors of clothing. Ways of standing or moving. These can change from culture to culture, or even from decade to decade (just a couple hundred years ago, high heels and hose were a guy thing. Less than a hundred years ago, pink was a "boy" color.) And cues that we will often talk about as though they're non-negotiable are full of exceptions--breasts, for instance. I know unambiguously masculine cis-men who have more breast tissue than some unambiguously feminine cis-women. And consider that while quite a lot of people will say that one's genitals are the defining element of one's gender, we very rarely see the genitals of the people we quite automatically assign gender to. We're not actually gendering the people around us based on their genitals. We're making assumptions about their genitals based on a complicated mass of social cues.

Just something to think about.(less)

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Dryadka Its so interesting to learn that Finnish is a nongendered language! To me, as a Czech speaker, even English is less gendered than my native tongue (th ...more
30 août 2023 19:13 · flag

Sadifura dear ann leckie,

i really appreciated these parts of ancillary justice and ancillary sword. although much of the internet perceives the characters in dear ann leckie,

i really appreciated these parts of ancillary justice and ancillary sword. although much of the internet perceives the characters in imperial radch, and many of the characters marked by colonization within radchaai space and forced to learn radchaai, as all women (because of the blanket epicene she/her pronoun), it's still interesting how many people interpreted certain characters genders differently. seivarden, for instance, is often perceived as a man or he-himmed on other planets, while in other instances she gets read as a woman or they get read as gender neutral. seivarden i personally interpreted as a nonbinary, agender, gender apathetic butch because of this aspect, this ambivalence to being gendered as male or as female or really as any gender, and moreso a concentration on being a person. breq, too, despite most of the cultures who still had gendered signifiers gendering breq as female or a "she", seemed very genderless to me; perhaps because of her degendering/third gendering due to being an ancillary, perhaps because of her natural detachment from gender due to previously being an ancillary and a ship ai who was also multiple other people (who probably had distinct senses of gender). i personally interpreted the Lord of the Radch, anaander miaanai herself, as somewhere in between grace jones, moses sumney, and musician jhariah in appearance, albeit with gray hair, wrinkles, and a unilateral mastectomy with visible scars (my main theory for anaander developing "she" as a purely neutral pronoun is to not only ungender herself, to dissasociate herself from gender, but to also remove other colonies she would plan to colonize's genders that were important to her; moreso a unary, neuter gender that the lord of the radch applies to all the citizens, and an unspoken "second gender" in the way that many societies have third genders to often punish transfeminine people as they are viewed as "gender deviants" of ancillary that is less neutral and ungendered and more degendered and dirtlike and genderless because they're not human, because they're partially ship ai, because they're often colonized bodies and not technically "radchaai" as in "civilized". it's something i personally like thinking about, gender in radch space. i really like this series of novels, and i have a lot of theories about the way society and gender in particular work in both radchaai and other society spaces and in particular with ancillaries. great work on the novel overall, and i'm sorry for writing practically a novel myself with analyses that MAY in all likelyhood be wrong. ...more
26 oct. 2024 17:14 · flag

How long do we have to wait for the third in the series? And is there a possibility of a secondary trilogy? Now that I am "in" that world, I don't want to leave it!! Count me as one of most enthusiastic fans!!

Ann Leckie Currently Ancillary Mercy is scheduled for October of 2015. And I'm so glad you're enjoying the books!

I'm not certain what my next project will be, bu…moreCurrently Ancillary Mercy is scheduled for October of 2015. And I'm so glad you're enjoying the books!

I'm not certain what my next project will be, but there's a very good chance I'll want to write more in this universe.(less)

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Ann Leckie’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 311,463 ratings · 31,475 reviews · 58 distinct works • Similar authors

	Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) 3.99 avg rating — 118,978 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch #2) 4.08 avg rating — 60,508 ratings — published 2014 — 58 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ancillary Mercy (Imperial Radch, #3) 4.22 avg rating — 50,025 ratings — published 2015 — 47 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Raven Tower 3.91 avg rating — 22,778 ratings — published 2019 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Provenance 3.84 avg rating — 21,373 ratings — published 2017 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Translation State 4.05 avg rating — 16,970 ratings — published 2023 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Long Game (The Far Reaches, #4) 3.60 avg rating — 8,069 ratings — published 2023 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lake of Souls: The Collected Short Fiction 4.02 avg rating — 1,777 ratings — published 2024 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Night's Slow Poison (Imperial Radch, #0.5) 3.62 avg rating — 1,378 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	She Commands Me and I Obey (Imperial Radch, #0.6) 3.83 avg rating — 1,134 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Translation State Release Schedule

Two weeks until Translation State is available in bookstores! So here’s all the information you might want or need about that.

First off, the audiobook is being narrated by the always awesome Adjoa Andoh! Here is photographic proof:

The amazing and fabulous Adjoa Andoh sits in a recording studo with a copy of Translation State

The audiobook is available for pre-order and will be out June 7, the same as the paper/ebook.

Next!

I will be doing an in-person event at Left Bank Books in St Louis. That

Series by Ann Leckie

Imperial Radch (3 books)
by

Ann Leckie (Goodreads Author)

4.04 avg rating — 270,836 ratings

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Readers' Most Anticipated Books of June

At the beginning of each calendar month, Goodreads’ crack editorial squad assembles a list of the best, hottest, and most popular new...

Polls

FEBRUARY SCIENCE FICTION: This run-off poll decides which book will be our February SF Book-of-the-month.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

44 votes, 51.2%

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

42 votes, 48.8%

86 total votes

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