Translation State
by Ann Leckie
read by Adjoa Andoh
Hachette Audio, 2023. 12 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written February 25, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
I’m not sure why it took me so long to discover that Ann Leckie has another book set in the universe of her Ancillary trilogy with AI spaceships trying to get status as a species, but I was delighted to discover Translation State.
Ann Leckie does mind bending so well! One of the three viewpoint characters in this novel is Qven, a juvenile Presger Translator – a species made by the Presger to interface with humans. We get the viewpoint of this creature when they’re young and driven to discover what is inside other beings by dismembering and eating them. As they grow, they’re taught how to behave to fit in with humans – to eventually become an adult and merge with another to get their final form. But Qven finds themself not always wanting to follow the rules.
The adult Presger Translators don’t let humans know about this. But they assert that it’s dangerous for humans to be around their juveniles.
And the treaty with the Presger is up for renewal in a great Conclave – most think it’s what has kept the Presger from destroying humankind across the galaxies. So most want it to continue.
Meanwhile we meet Enae, who had been taking care of her grandmother for most of her life, but has to leave after her grandmother’s death. Ze’s sent on a diplomatic mission no one expects hir to complete to track down a Presger translator who went rogue two hundred years ago. Surely they’re dead by now.
But that brings hir to Reit, who was abandoned as an infant and adopted into a loving family. Now he’s thirty years old and working a boring job. When he was small and tried to eat another kid, he was told in no uncertain terms not to do that any more, so he’s learned to keep those urges in check, but he does wonder what’s wrong with him. When some activists on his planet hail him as the long-lost heir of the captaincy of a space station that was destroyed, he likes thinking he belongs at last. But working for them in the diplomatic corps lets him meet Enae, who gets interested in his story.
And all this leads to the three characters eventually meeting in the context of treaty negotiations with the Presger. And then a catastrophe happens, and they have to work together.
I love the way Ann Leckie can get me inside even such an alien mind and feel like I understand it. This very alien universe becomes full of beings you care about. Absolutely brilliant. (Do read the Ancillary trilogy first. This book made me want to reread that – maybe I’ll listen this time.)
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/translation_state.html
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