Ancillary Sword is the sequel to Ancillary Justice, the debut which is the only novel to ever win the Hugo, the Nebula and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she only has a single body and serves the emperor she swore to destroy.

Given a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to the only place in the galaxy she will agree to go: to Athoek station, to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew - a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.

So good, and so unexpected - at once a first-rate space opera and the best science fictional exploration of gender since The Left Hand of Darkness.