Translation State
Ann Leckie
Harcover / Paperback / eBook
ISBN: 9780316290128
Orbit, May 2024, 448 pages

Greetings, readers, and welcome back to another book review! This month we’re rewinding time a bit to take a look at a book that might have initially skipped your attention, but was on the Hugo shortlist for this year, and it’s one I think is worth revisiting (this was my second time reading it, and it only got better). It’s a suspenseful investigative thriller that asks us to consider what it means to belong to a family, a society, and a culture as a whole—that’s right, it’s Translation State, by Ann Leckie!

Translation State takes place in the same universe as Leckie’s Ancilliary Series (which are all also excellent books), but is a standalone entry that offers us a different perspective than the sentient warships we’ve all come to know and love. The story weaves between three initially very different viewpoints: Enae Athtur, whose grandmother’s death has led to the family name being bought by new money and who must now find out what sie is going to do with hir life; Reet Hluid, a mechanic on a space station grappling with a thousand years worth of racial tension; and Qven, a juvenile Presger Translator trying to navigate the treacherous shores of adolescence. The three are gradually brought together as Enae searches for the truth behind a Presger Translator who went missing over two hundred years ago, and I’ll leave the synopsis there so as to not spoil anything (but the stakes get quite high since Presger Translators and the Presger Treaty are the only things keeping the alien Presger from eating humanity wherever they find it).

For those who haven’t read the Ancilliary Series, Translation State works quite well as a standalone intro to the universe those novels take place in, with various salient prior plot points explained naturally throughout the course of the story (since it takes place after the events of the Ancilliary Series there are some light spoilers due to the passage of time), and continues the author’s excellent investigations into the themes of gender identity, cultural belonging, and how those who hold power tend to use it. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on found family, even for those who may not necessarily be temporally the same age, and what it means to belong somewhere.

However, lest you think the book is all critical reflections on humanity’s various woes through a thinly veiled SF curtain, let me assure you that it is also one heck of a suspense thriller. Enae’s investigation, Reet’s desire to belong, and Qven’s search for who they are leads to a constantly rising tension, and Leckie does a masterful job leaving the reader never quite sure what is going to happen next (but in that really good way that makes you want to read just one more chapter even though it’s an hour past your bedtime). I also found it quite impressive how Leckie was able to consistently ratchet up the tension without necessarily resorting to violence or big action setpieces (though there are enough of those for what the book requires), and there are points where a conversation hits with the same impact as a missile into the side of a space station.

One last note—for those of you who have read the Ancilliary Series, Translation State is a really interesting look into the other aspects of the universe the Radch Empire rules over, and fleshes out a lot of previously unexplored edges. It also made me immediately want another book just like it, but unfortunately I’ll have to wait for that.

Overall, I could probably spend another two thousand words going in depth into the various layers that make up Translation State and how elegantly they all work together, but I only get so much space here, so I guess I’ll leave it at this—there’s a reason Translation State was nominated for a Hugo, and it is well worth your time to read. In a world that can feel very unwelcoming at times, Leckie reminds us that there’s humanity in everyone, even those who first appear alien, and family isn’t necessarily who you’re born to.