Ancillary Justice

Highly recommended!

Very original premise: The last surviving remains of an artificial intelligence travel the universe, pretending to be human, in order to avenge the death of an officer she had a deep emotional attachment to.

Breq is at the same time very human and completely alien (the gaps in her understanding go far beyond the gender blindness so much has been made of); the implications of ancillary multi-bodiedness are explored deeply.

The conflict does not allow for easy answers - this book gets you to think about what it means to be human. In addition to that a bit of intelligent action, an interesting empire and a promising villain (or is she?).

I am very much looking forward to reading the second and third books.