REVIEW: Translation State by Ann Leckie
First, a note on my review: Most of the characters in Translation State use three different pronoun types for nonbinary characters—sie/hir, e/eir, and they/their–as well as the typical gendered pronouns he/his and she/her, according to how that person prefers to be addressed. In addition, the characters from the Imperial Radch don’t recognize gender and have chosen to use she/her for every character regardless of their gender. Characters who come from Presger or Presger translator background don’t recognize gender among their own (I can’t recall if this extends to others) and therefore have no pronouns at all, I think, but the author uses they/their for their pronouns. This was challenging to keep track of for me and I’m worried that I may have used the wrong pronoun somewhere in my review. I apologize in advance if I have.
Dear Ms. Leckie,
I had read and enjoyed all four of your prior Imperial Radch books so when I saw that you had a new one coming out, I requested it. I was particularly excited since the book featured one of the mysterious Presger translators. They are very dangerous and in this book we find out why.
The book is set in the far future. There are three POV characters, Enae, Reet, and Qven. The Qven chapters are narrated in first person whereas Reet and Enae’s chapters are written in third person. The chapters always alternate in the same order: Enae, Reet, and then Qven.
Enae is human and Qven a Presger translator. As for Reet, what he is a question that doesn’t get answered right away so I won’t spoil the answer.
The book starts with fifty-something Enae (hir pronouns are sie/hir, and hir surname is Athtur) who has spent hir life taking care of hir demanding, critical grandmaman. Enae’s grandmaman has just died and Enae’s greedy cousins and relatives show up hoping to make off with Enae’s inheritance.
Only it turns out there isn’t an inheritance. Enae’s grandmaman, they soon find out, had no money but she did have an old venerated family name, and that is something that is very valuable in their world. It confers privilege, carries respect and can be leveraged in many ways. So Enae’s grandmaman made a deal with a wealthy parvenu, Zemil Igoeto. Zemil supported her extravagant lifestyle in exchange for being adopted by her, with the stipulation that the adoption wouldn’t be revealed until the time of her death.
This makes Enae Zemil’s niece. While Enae isn’t greedy, sie wasn’t expecting to be without financial resources. Fortunately hir grandmaman made certain that Zemil would provide hir with some means of survival. And indeed a job has been found for hir in the Office of Diplomacy. One of Zemil’s other nieces (not from Enae’s original family), Caphing, will be hir supervisor.
(Enae and Caphing hit it off and after only one on-page conversation come to care very much about each other. Because we didn’t see them together much this friendship felt somewhat unearned. I didn’t mind too much because I was glad for Enae.)
Enae is torn about the job at first. Sie always wanted to travel and see the other space stations and planets but grandmaman discouraged it while she was alive. Now Enae is essentially forced into the position but it is a way to earn a living.
It’s essentially a nothing job—the Presger, terrifying aliens, are part of a peace treaty that is about to be renegotiated. They have asked for a fugitive murderer to be tracked down but the murder is 200 years old and the murderer a Presger translator (unlike the Presger themselves, the translator have human form, but a lot of their biology is alien and scary). No one actually expects Enae to do hir job, they just want hir to travel around asking questions on various planets so they can say they did due diligence. Enae starts out traveling in high style, as a new cousin recommended sie do, but sie’s quickly bored and decides to actually do the job no one expects of hir so that sie will have a sense of purpose.
A second character is Reet. Reet lives on a space station far from Enae’s home. He is the adopted / foster child of loving parents, but he’s never felt he belonged. He has disturbing impulses to dismember and/or eat people. He’s horrified by this himself and has never done it but the impulse is a powerful one. Reet was found as a baby and his DNA was tested for identification, but turned out to be very strange and unlike anyone else’s.
Now Reet works in isolation, essentially fixing conduits, or rather fixing the robots that break down in the course of trying to fix conduits. In some ways it’s ideal because he’s not around anyone he might eat or dissect, but it makes Reet lonely.
A group of Hikipi, a minority on his planet, approach Reet because they believe him to be a Schan, the last survivor of the ruling family of a space station that was destroyed centuries ago. Since Reet is only thirty this seems unlikely, but they make a persuasive case and eventually he joins their meetings and befriends them. One of them gets him a job in the local office of diplomacy that involves escorting prominent visitors.
Qven, the third character, is an adolescent Presger translator recounting their life from early childhood (I’m using “they” and “their” but the Presger don’t have the concept of gender so for most of the book Qven has no pronouns; I won’t spoil what ends up happening with that). Qven is from a high clade (a clade is a class or caste that shares the same lineage) and this gives them a lot of protection.
Presger translator children and adolescents are horrifyingly violent—they kill, eat, and/or dismember each other. In adulthood this urge subsides. Qven has participated in this enthusiastically so I really disliked them at first and found their sections disturbing for the first third or so of the book.
When the Presger translators reach adulthood, they are expected to merge with another Presger translator, becoming one person where there were two. Qven witnesses such a merging and it horrifies and terrifies them because it entails extreme vulnerability. They don’t want to do it but are told they have no choice—if they don’t they’ll be killed.
(Have I mentioned that Presger translator adults think nothing of killing children who don’t conform? Yes.)
Qven is eventually attacked in adolescence by another adolescent, Tzam, a student at their school. Tzam tries to force a merge on Qven. Qven fights them off and cuts them away except for a hand which Qven absorbs into their shoulder. This tarnishes Qven and they are no longer eligible for the prestigious match that was planned for them. Instead they’ll be “lucky” to merge with anyone, no matter how low clade. They’ll only get to do that if they are extremely well behaved and follow every rule and expectation. If they are not, they’ll just be disposed of.
Qven is watched like a hawk and has to hide the fact that they plan to escape. They are terrified by the thought of merging with anyone, all the more so after what happened to them.
Meanwhile, Enae arrives on Reet’s space station and he is assigned the job of escorting hir during hir investigation of the murder. Serendipitously, through hir exposure to Reet, Enae figures out that hir escort Reet is not a Schan but the child of the Presger translator fugitive sie is looking for.
The fugitive is assumed dead but despite that and even though sie likes Reet a lot, Eane reports hir finding to hir Office of Diplomacy, which notifies the Presger. Now the Presger translators want custody of Reet, and since Reet is still an adolescent in terms of Presger translator aging, he has little say in the matter. Reet wants to stay on the space station near his adoptive parents.
What will happen to the three characters? Will Reet get his wishes, and Enae hirs (she wants Reet to have the freedom she unintentionally cost him)? Will Qven escape having to merge, or will they have to? Also hanging in the balance is the crucial treaty. Any killing by one side or the other could tank the whole thing.
I started out really freaked out by Qven and the other Presger translator kids, and by Reet’s body horror storyline (he’s changing and doesn’t know what it means). Eventually these things either died down or decreased and then the book became really enjoyable. I liked all three characters by the end. Surprisingly, Qven actually became my favorite.
Spoiler: Show
The plot was intricate and original as was the world building, typical of Leckie. The book kept me turning the pages—I read it in three days, that’s fast for me. Leckie’s characters are always interesting and unusual, too. This is a B+ and a recommended read for me.
Sincerely,
Janine
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Huh. I’m intrigued but not sure I’m up for the violence and body horror. Thank you for this review.
@cleo: You’re welcome.
Have you read any of her other stuff? All the books in the Imperial Radch trilogy are LGBTQIAP+. I think Raven Tower (her fantasy novel) probably is too but I haven’t read it.
My favorite of her books is Ancillary Justice. It’s superb science fiction. Provenance is pretty good if you can deal with a protagonist who starts out naive and gullible and it’s a very cozy book (no violence as far as I recall).
Anyway I do recommend her. I think she’s one of the most skilled SF authors around.
@Janine: Raven Tower is indeed queer AF, and I love it deeply
@Floating Lush: I need to read it! Have you read her SF novels? Her Ancillary series is brilliant.
@cleo: Correcting myself—when I said “all the books in the Imperial Radch trilogy” I should have said “all the Imperial Radch books,” not just the original trilogy.
@Janine – I read and loved the original trilogy but haven’t tried anything else. I keep meaning to but honestly, I loved the trilogy so much I think I’m just not that motivated to read anything else by her. Which sounds weird but sometimes happens to me after I read something that feels particularly special.
@Janine: I have read and loved them all! <3
@Janine: Oh and I forgot to add, Raven Tower is verrrrrrrrrrry loosely inspired by “Hamlet,” and like all her books perforemd by the fabulous Adjoa Andoh on audio
@Cleo: I understand completely, that happens to me sometimes too. I don’t want to be disappointed in the author’s next book and I know I will be because it couldn’t live up to the one I read.
@Floating Lush: I must read it. I love Hamlet. I’m glad you enjoyed her others too, she’s really a terrific writer.