Forget Dune, This Overlooked Sci-Fi Book Is the Space Opera Streaming Has Been Waiting For

Streaming services are always looking for the “next great thing,” something that will keep their subscribers engaged and, hopefully, bring in new subscribers. It’s where they look to find it that differs from project to project. HBO turned to video games for The Last of Us. Apple TV+ expanded on film’s MonsterVerse franchise for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Prime Video has taken a page from J.R.R. Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Long story short, there’s no shortage of places to turn to for any genre. With HBO delivering Dune: Prophecy later this year and Apple TV’s Foundation Season 4 still waiting on a premiere date, the space opera is a genre that never gets old, and a 13-year-old sci-fi book, Ancillary Justice, might just be the answer.

‘Ancillary Justice’ Tells a Tale Over Two Timelines

Ann Leckie‘s Ancillary Justice opens on Nilt, a remote ice planet. It’s on Nilt that the novel’s protagonist, Breq, finds and rescues a drugged and beaten Seivarden Vendaai, who once served as lieutenant aboard Breq’s starship, the Justice of Toren, 1,000 years earlier. Only Breq is, or at least was, the Justice of Toren. Breq is an Artificial Intelligence, and for over 3,000 years she was the spaceship, while concurrently controlling thousands of “ancillaries,” brain-dead human bodies whose sole purpose was to serve as disposable soldiers. But 19 years prior, the Justice of Toren was destroyed, forcing Breq to reside in a single human body, ironically in sole control of only one ancillary.

The rest of the story plays out in a dual timeline: in the present day, where Breq, aka One Esk, is on a quest for revenge; and 19-years ago, in her final days as the Justice of Toren. Both timelines occur within the Radch empire, an expansionist regime aggressively annexing planets, killing or assimilating survivors, prepping the latter to serve as ancillaries. The regime is overlooked by Anaander Mianaai, the Lord of the Radch and AI that occupies thousands of bodies between 13 royal palaces. It’s Mianaai that has earned the ire of Breq, who holds her responsible for the destruction of her spaceship form, which plays out in the flashback timeline around the planet Shis’urna. She is on Nilt in the present to find Arilesperas Strigan, who has a Garsedd alien gun that can be used to assassinate Mianaai. What follows is a broad, expansive tale of class divisions, independent versus collective thought, identity, redemption, and revenge.

‘Ancillary Justice’ Has What It Takes to be the “Next Great Thing”

Image via Orbit Books

Ancillary Justice is smart, wide-reaching, and has everything it takes to be the “Next Great Thing” for a streamer looking to fill their space opera niche. Its dual timeline is something that has been proven to work for a streaming series, as evidenced by a show like Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The idea of an expansionist empire, one looking to conquer and assimilate, has shades of the infamous Borg of Star Trek. As for the quest for revenge? Take your pick.

But there are two aspects of the novel that would bring something different to television. One is the idea of AI being a protagonist. It’s far too easy to make AI the bad guy, and, let’s face it, it’s a concept that’s been beaten to death. And while AI is both the protagonist and antagonist in the novel, the idea of that AI gaining conscience and breaking off to fight itself is a fascinating perspective. Additionally, exploring that idea of collective versus individual thought is rife with possibilities.

The second is the notion of gender that is presented in the book. In Radchaai culture, gender isn’t used as a distinguishing characteristic, so “she/her” pronouns are applied to all characters, universally. It’s an aspect of the series that makes the universe unique compared to several other space operas. Ancillary Justice has the makings of an epic series that leans toward the introspective, a character-driven project as opposed to senseless spectacle. Yet within Ancillary Justice, and the two follow-up books that make up the Imperial Radch trilogy, there is potential for grand, effects-driven moments as well. Although the series has been optioned in the past, it’s never made it to production, which is a shame, as the award-winning novel would be a sure-fire success for any streamer willing to take a chance on Ancillary Justice.