SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Translation State by Ann Leckie

 

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 6, 2023 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Translation State is the long awaited return by Ann Leckie to the world of her Imperial Radch trilogy, which was most famous for the multi-awarded Ancillary Justice (her 2017 stand alone book Provenance was also set in this universe but was far more distant in its setting).  The Imperial Radch trilogy was well deserving of its awards as it dealt with gender, identity, and power, and was one of my first reintroductions into reading modern SciFi/Fantasy.  So while Translation State was promised to be stand alone, its description - featuring a plot that involved the alien Presger Translators who were a major side character of the Radch trilogy - really intrigued me and had me really excited to read it.  And of course now it's a Hugo and Nebula Finalist among other awards.  

And Translation State delivers as I'd hope.  Its story is a lot more personal than the Radch trilogy, with it featuring three characters struggling with their identity and purpose: Enae, who spent hir entire life taking care of hir emotionally abusive and irritable grandmaman and who is cast out of hir home upon hir grandmaman's death; Reet, an adopted mechanic who has grown up with strange urges to bite and eat people despite his loving family and has genetic abnormalities no one can explain; and Qven, a being growing up to be a Presger translator - the strange human-like beings who interpret for the super dangerous and super alien Presger - who is essentially forced upon by another juvenile and has to deal with no longer fitting in the plans of their superiors.  The result is a story that isn't one of major galactic conflict, but one that is no less interesting as it deals with power, identity, trauma, and one's choices of whom they want to be.  More specifics after the jump:


Plot Summary:  

Enae Athtur had no expectations of any inheritance when grandmaman died - after all, while Sie had been the only one living with and caring for grandmaman, grandmaman had never shown any gratitude and had done nothing but isolate Enae in the process.  Yet even sie didn't expect the family house to be given to an outright stranger and Enae sent away on a mission that is probably a wild goose chase - to find a Presger translator that has been missing for over 200 years.  

Reet Hluid has always felt something wrong or different with him. He has a loving foster family who cares for him and have covered for him when he has had very strange urges - like to eat and take apart other human beings. Yet he's always wished he could find out where he came from...so when a member of the Hibiki ethnic group claims he is the long lost descendant of their royal Schan leaders, he is intrigued....and yet the idea doesn't quite fit...

Qven is a juvenile in the latest batch of Presger Translators and they belong to a very prestigious Clade, or so they've been told. Their growth towards adulthood is brutal and bloody...but then it is derailed by an attack by a juvenile from a rival clade who seeks to force a "match" upon them. Qven thus finds themselves no longer in their Clade's plans and searches for a way to escape...

When Qven, Reet, and Enae's destinies intersect, the three of them will find who they are and what they want to be a matter of close debate among people in substantial power among the galaxy...whether they like it or not....

Translation State is hard to describe in a short description because there really isn't a single overarching conflict at the heart of everything (the book jacket's description basically only describes Qven's plotline) but rather the struggles for purpose and identity of three main protagonists, from whose perspective each chapter is told (the chapters go Enae -> Reet -> Qven and then repeat the rotation).  The story, without being heavy handed, very much parallels each of the main trio in ways that really really work with regards to the book's themes, and so the constant switching - even as Enae turns out to be entirely human and very different from the other two - really helps the plot be very effective overall.  

And that plot, as I've mentioned before, has to deal with family, identity, and choosing one's own purpose in the face of familial, cultural and systemic powers trying to restrict those very things.  For Enae, hir identity was entirely subsumed by their grandmaman for years, with grandmaman basically chasing away hir friends and leaving hir with nothing but their life of living in grandmanan's house when grandmaman passed.  And then grandmaman left the house to a total stranger and, while still providing hir an income, essentially allowed that stranger to exile Enae from the only home sie had ever known.  And so Enae's plotline deals with sie trying to figure out what to do with hir life, and coming to the conclusion that in the absence of anything sie will decide to do their best to actually investigate the mystery sie was supposed to just use as an excuse to go away and in the process, hir determination will not only drive the plot, but show hir worth in the end...and might even result in sie finding some friends and people who sie can actually enjoy having time with.  

For Reet, he - unlike the other main characters - actually has a happy and loving adopted family (even if his Nana is occasionally rude with comments).  Yet Reet has always felt like he didn't quite belong due to his urges to bite and do damaging things to human flesh and has always wanted to know why he felt that way, even as he learned to hide those urges.  So when he first is approached by the Hibiki about being the descendant of their long lost leaders - and their anthems are deliciously bloody - he hopes that could answer his hopes...and yet it's not right either.  So of course - and this "twist" is so obvious that the book doesn't even hide it for long - he has connections to the Presger translators, and that revelation forces him in his plotline to try to figure out what he wants with that connection: does he want to be a translator?  Does he want to Match?  Who is he and what is the right thing to do for himself and for those he cares about?  And will they even have a choice in the face of a system that is more afraid of the alien translators and the Presger than his own safety?

Qven has similar problems, as they have to deal with the fact that they don't always feel the same feelings that are clearly desired by the people in power who make decisions about how Presger Translators are supposed to grow up.  Then they deal with the equivalent of sexual assault - a forced match - and their superiors respond by blaming them and trying to force upon them another match to "salvage" what they see as a wasted potential for their Clade.  And so Qven has to decide: Who are they and who do they want to be and how can they be that in the face of a system that doesn't seem to want to give them a choice?  

I've spent a lot of time going through these three characters rather than talking plot to preserve surprise and because these characters really are what matters, although the plot and side characters really further the themes here of finding one's own identity and purpose in the face of powers - so you have an asshole ambassador of the Radchaai who refuses to allow Reet a chance when it could hurt his own declining power, you have a translator determined to control Qven's life as part of a system that is more concerned with the power of its individual clades than the idea that its individual members could have any purpose other than what the group chooses, etc.  Leckie writes this all really well as everyone deals with the chaos caused by bringing everyone together, as she shows the struggle against institutions by those who don't quite fit in them, and how wrong those institutions are as a result.  

A really strong novel, well worth its nominations for the major awards.