Ann Leckie’s most recent book Translation State (2023) covers a vast universe of (human) peoples, non-humans, and ideas. At times, I could have used some more translation to understand was going on, but that said, Translation State makes for a good read and, despite my occasional confusion, I wasn’t ever tempted to put the book away. Translation State is set in the same universe as some of Leckie’s earlier works - and while it is a stand-alone novel, at times it would have been helpful to have some prior knowledge about the way the world works in Leckie’s universe.
At its core, the book follows three named entities: Enae, Reet, and Qven. Only one of the three main characters is properly human (in a world where the concept of being human is challenged by at least some human personalities having migrated across multiple bodies and machine intelligences claiming human status).
In Ann Leckie’s world, we have humans (as we know them today) who are by now spread far and wide across the universe and split into different factions or peoples (with the Radch seemingly dominating the rest of humanity). Then we have the Presger, a very much non-human species struggling with even basic human concepts such as individual existence. And we have machine intelligences, which are claiming to be sentient and thus deserving of status equal to humans. The Presger and humanity have maintained a fragile peace: By their nature, the Presger are a destructive species - that doesn’t even appear make them evil, they appear to destroy to explore - but have settled on a treaty with humanity (and other sentient species) that sets a few key ground rules (most importantly: don’t kill each other) and is administered on the Presger side by translators, human-looking Presger delegates who have been trained since birth to blend in with humans (even though they have very little idea what they are really doing and why humans would enjoy having a cup of tea or admiring flowers).
There are also the Rrrrrr and the Geck - clearly non-human species. However, while they have a place in the administration of the treaty, their role in Leckie’s universe is not made clear at least in this book. This is one of the areas where prior knowledge from earlier books by Ann Leckie would have been helpful.
When machine intelligences ask to be recognized as a sentient species and party to the treaty, the whole setting becomes more fragile and political tensions run high. Interestingly, the exact nature of the Presger remains unclear throughout the book - it is not even clear whether they have a physical manifestation outside of their bio-engineered translator entities.
Against this setting, we follow Enae, a human, who is sent on a seemingly futile goose chase for a Presger translator fugitive who may or may not be moving around in human space.
Next, we meet Reet, a space station maintenance worker. An orphan, he has grown up in a loving foster family, but has never really fit in with other people (and has had strange and violent urges as a child). Coming into contact with Reet, Enae begins to suspect that he might be the offspring of the missing Presger - and thus a risk to all humans around him (and by his hidden present amongst humans, a risk to the treaty).
And finally, Qven is a Presger Translator. Qven’s story starts in early childhood and follows Qven through various stages of translator training and a growing ability to mimic human behavior, but simultaneously exposing the reader to the very violent (but not necessarily evil) alienness of the Presger. As they grow up, Presger translators frequently “merge” with older translators, effectively having both their body and their mind consumed by an elder. When Qven realizes the fate planned for him, they (Presger appear to have no gender although Qven later decides on a different set of pronouns) try to escape only to be caught and fearing again to be merged against their will.
All these stories come together when Enea exposes Reet to the authorities, and all three, Enea, Reet, and Qven end up at the the treaty’s court where Reet and Qven try to challenge the jurisdiction of the Presger over their future by fundamentally questioning who and what they are. Are they Presger, as their genes suggest, and thus fully under Presger jurisdiction (which would imply that they can be directed to merge), or can they chose to identify as humans and thus enjoy the protections granted to humans under that treaty?
Translation State is an interesting book: Part space opera, part coming of age story, and to a large degree an exploration of what it means to be human. (It is very interesting to follow Qven’s challenging path to learning to simulate a human, and even more his evolution to beginning to feel human.) That makes is hard to describe the book, but that doesn’t take away from the overall positive experience reading the book.
Gender plays a big role in Translation State: The Raadch exclusively use female pronouns, the Presger have no real concept of gender, people freely chose their pronouns, and mis-gendering is frequent but called out where it happens. I have to admit that it took me a while to get used to fluently reading 5 different pronouns and mentally connecting pronouns to the right names (including when the same honorary title was used for people with different gender identities). But then, that’s part of the point, I guess.
There were definitely times where Translation State left me a bit confused. Ann Leckie has placed her story in a complex universe - a universe that would probably have been easier to understand if I had read some of her earlier works in the Raadch universe. As much as Translation State is an independent story, it is tied back into an existing universe and Leckie doesn’t always make it easy to understand this universe for new readers.
Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable read and one that rightly has been praised by many early reviewers. Good stuff.