I'm reviewing this for a print publication. Love this book. Love Leckie anyway, but the Presger translators, a wonderful creation, are at the center of this novel. It's a lot of fun to see the translators from their point of view, The culture is truly alien, as well, in a way we don't often see in science fiction. Excellent! Five stars!

The next installment for Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series explores the mysterious Presgar translators and their bizarre, deadly fascination with taking other living things apart. Without the earlier novels, including Provenance (my favorite of the bunch), Translation State won't make much sense. If you know the political dance that began with Ancillary Justice, feel free to dive right in. We begin with Enae, recently bereaved and given an impossible task - track down a missing person from several decades ago, with literally no information about this person. This assignment should be a sinecure, but Enae is determined to do hir best. Next we meet Reet, an adopted mechanic who has never fit in, and with odd habits that draw the attention of a rogue political group willing to exploit Reet's desire to belong. Finally, we meet Qven, a Presgar translator who has lived their entire life growing and learning to take their place among the adults, only to learn that the place assigned to them is nothing they want. Somewhat slow, but a filling meals of a book, great for those long days with not much to do.

I love a good science fiction mystery and Ann Leckie sure delivered with her latest novel Translation State! Like Ann Leckie’s other books, Translation State is progressive (and very gender spectrum inclusive), political, philosophical, character-driven, and engaging.

This book is set in the Imperial Radch universe but can easily stand alone— lucky for me, since I didn’t have a chance to re-read the earlier books in the series. The book alternates between three POV characters

Enae, who after spending the first five decades of her life as a human looking after her controlling grandmother, receives a busy-work mission to find an alien Presgr Translator, whose disappearance 200 years ago has caused some inter-world political tension. Even though no one actually expects Enae to solve the mystery, Enae decides to give it her best effort.

Reet is a human mechanic who was adopted at birth and is trying to discover his heritage; in doing so, he unwittingly becomes embroiled in a hairy political situation and will find himself in need of Enae’s assistance.

Lastly, Qven is a juvenile Presgr Translator and experiencing these chapters from their alien perspective is fascinating!

Ultimately, Translation State explores existential questions of identity, self, and purpose, all within the vehicle of a detective adventure story. Leckie also gives us terrific, endearing protagonists you will want to root for. I have no doubt Translation State will land on my year-end list of favorite novels!

Thank you to Orbit Books and Netgalley for the advanced readers copy!

I want to thank NetGalley, and Orbit for allowing me access to an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I’ll start by saying that Translation State is my first book in the world of the Ancillary Justice series. I saw that it was intended as a standalone, so I thought I’d give it a try. That said, I think Translation State is an excellent book regardless of if you’re a fan of the series. The Universe building is extremely engaging. The story is told from three separate perspectives as we discover how these three characters lives eventually intersect. This does a great job of getting us a behind the scenes look at multiple lifestyles lived in this expansive universe.

To give a quick synopsis, the story has three main characters Enae, Reet, and Qven. Enae’s story starts as an Edwardian mystery steeped in the banal, as sie is given a job that nobody expects hir to complete. Sie must track down a missing person’s case that has been cold for two hundred years. If that was intriguing enough, our second subject is Reet who is told he may be the last living relative of a great, and maybe terrible, leader of a space station destroyed ages ago. Although seemingly content to live his life and watch his favorite TV show, he can’t help but wonder if there are answers out there for him. Lastly that brings us to Qven, Qven is still coming of age, but who or what they are becoming is still a bit of a mystery even to themselves. There is so much political intrigue and mystery at the heart of this story, and I could not stop reading.

I have been trying for a while to explain exactly how I felt readying this, but honestly all I can say is that it is such an amazingly atmospheric piece of science fiction. The Universe it’s set in feels real and alive with a variety of species and lived experiences. The Universe seems to be a bit of a mystery, even to the people who appear to run it. The story had me hooked until the very end, and I really look forward to diving into more of the Universe with the existing Trilogy. If you like political drama and space opera, then this is definitely a great read, and I sincerely hope you have as much fun with it as I did.

I started this thinking that it was a standalone but quickly realized it was in the Imperial Radch universe. This is much better than Ancillary Justice in my opinion. Leckie continues to do good work around pronouns and making the universe interesting. The writing was smooth and witty.

Absolutely fantastic. Loved seeing the world of the Radach past the Radach. Loved following a lady of a certain age on her first real adventure and seeing her blow the rest of the universe away with her persistence and, most importantly, her competence. Satire of the highest caliber embedded in high adventure and stunning pathos. Leckie at her best.

Review will be posted on my blog on 7/12/2023

In 2013, Ann Leckie's debut novel Ancillary Justice introduced the world to a new type of space opera - one that explored gender and what it means to be called "human". We were introduced to the world of the Imperial Radch, of the uneasy truce with the Presgers, and worlds beginning to exist in an uneasy truce. She followed these up with Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy. These form the core of worldbuilding for this universe, and include the stand-alone novel Provenance and now Translation State, which is her first novel since 2019.
In this novel, we are taken deeper into the politics and worlds that Leckie has presented us with. Even as she uses the universe to describe overarching political mechanics, she also manages to challenge some of her previous assertions.

The story follows three main characters: Enae Athur, a woman who has spent the majority of her life (six decades!) taking care of an aging relative who was incredibly abusive and unable to appreciate Enae's ability to keep her household running. Enae's Grandmamman is old money, and without Enae, would have driven her household staff away (at the least). After she dies, Enae is given the job of tracking down someone who has been missing for so long that the no one really expects her to find them. However, Enae doesn't do anything half-heartedly, and begins to make unexpected progress, which takes her out of her routine and into interesting places.

The second main character is Qven, a Presger translator. Their story is told in first person, and is a very deep look into the aliens that serve as a driving force in the other novels. It's a very in depth look at the life cycle of some of the Presgers - it seems very alien in some ways but in others very familiar. In the beginning, these alien creatures are practically feral - eating, torturing, and hurting each other without any real knowledge of who or what they are. As they move from age group to age group, the expectations for how they should act change drastically. They are taught how to act human, essentially. Presger translators are expected to merge with another, and become essentially subsumed into that older Presger's personality. Qven doesn't want this and will do anything to escape it.

The third main character is Reet Hluid, who was adopted into a large family with two mothers who care for foster children, and is currently working a low level job on a space station in a place called Zeosen. Despite his loving family, he feels he has never really fit in. He has had odd, violent urges his entire life - urges that nearly got him in trouble as a child. As an adult, he is stand-offish and has difficulty relating to others, even his own family. His preferred activity is being alone and watching his favorite adventure show. When he's approached by a diaspora group who claim he's related to a ruling class on their former station, he finally begins to feel like he might find out who he really is. He either misses or ignores the political undertones of the group, and is happy with the new job at they have gotten him.

Reet's new job brings him into contact with Enae, who figures out (quite accidentally), that Reet is the one she has been looking for. This leads to his immediate quarantine and arrest. Enae, who feels awful about destroying his life, rallies his family and the lawyers to help get him out.

Because of this, Reet and Qven come into contact with each other, and are put into a situation where they are told that they have to merge or die.

While this is happening, the treaty that has been negotiated with the Presgers is coming up for renegotiation in order to include other races or species, including some of the original characters from the previous novels.

While this seems to be a sweeping epic, and the decisions reached will have consequences for the entire universe, it is tied up in more personal concerns. There are discussions of complicated feelings towards family, on how we identify ourselves and what those implications are. It's about autonomy and how it clashes with how society thinks we should behave or what we should do with our lives. It isn't about rescuing an entire world or overthrowing a tyrant, but it is about finding ourselves, finding what's right and what we want for ourselves, even if it is simply not what our elders demand.

This novel came at a time when my identity is being heavily challenged by the world around me. While I have a wonderful support network, I identify with Reet's struggle to fit in, to find his place in a world that doesn't entirely make sense to him as he's been told it should be. I love that despite the happy conclusion for everyone, there's still a journey to be had. Enae's story reminded me that it's never to late to make a change, to step outside of your routines and become something more.

Since this novel is a stand-alone, you don't have to read the previous novels in order to understand what is going on, although you'll miss why some of the characters are so important.

Remember to support your local bookstores!

NetGalley ARC

3.75 stars.

The book follows three characters: Enae has been sent on an impossible mission to travel the galaxy in search of a fugitive who had been missing for 200 years. Reet is a municipal employee on a space station, looking for human connection. Qven is Presger, an alien species. They are under pressure to enter Adulthood, but are weary about the process.

These three characters find each other at odds with a treaty with the Presger. If you like books about political intrigue, you may enjoy this book even if Sci-Fi isn't your normal genre. This book deals not only with different ethnicities and races of humanity, but also several alien species and AI. The discussions between all parties involve what it means to be human, which I found very interesting. I have not read the Imperial Reach trilogy which I'm guessing includes a lot of world building. It was difficult at first to understand this world, but I enjoyed this book despite not reading the earlier works.

4.25

The ebook was granted to me as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I picked this up, but I really really really enjoyed it. The world building is fantastic and has motivated me to seek out the other books in this universe. The science and politics of how this world was presented and explained felt very dense at times—personally I enjoy this quite a bit. When a hard sci-fi book doesn’t shy away from giving its audience a fat hard chunk of lore to chew on and understand, I eat that up. I did feel that there was ‘more behind the veil’ that was being kept in terms of characters and world events, but this makes sense as there are four other books in this universe and crossover seemed all but guaranteed. The diversity is characters (especially pronouns/gender expression) was wonderful, and I really enjoyed some of the themes of identity, family, and personal freedom that were explored here. Ultimately we had ~characters~ that were in ~difficult situations~ who merely wanted a corner of the universe to belong to and be free to pursue their own fulfillment…this is such a fundamentally human want and I enjoyed seeing aliens (and humans) go through this quest. I recommend this book, bravo Leckie, I will be reading more of yours in the future!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely spectacular. I expected nothing less from Ann Leckie, and she did not disappoint. I knew this was going to be a five-star read from the very first page. Enae, the first character we meet, really captured my attention and remained my favorite character throughout the entire novel. Ann Leckie is a master worldbuilder; she really knows how to create believable and fascinating alien cultures. I was a little worried about this book having three POVs before I read it, but Ann Leckie balanced them all incredibly well and weaved their stories together masterfully. They all had very different voices and I looked forward to reading every single chapter, because all of them had backstories we could sympathize with and goals to root for. The nonbinary representation, including the use of neo-pronouns, was great as well. I am so happy to be back in the Radch world and I hope that Leckie will continue writing in this universe!

god I love Ann Leckie
5/5 stars bc she just gets me ✨

if you liked the Imperial Radch trilogy and/or Provenance just assume you're gonna like this book and pick it up. you're not gonna regret it lol


Translation State gives us another side to the political mess we got peeks of in the original trilogy. this book comes after the trilogy; there's multiple mentions of the ships' petition to join the Alliance, though the mcs don't know much about the details.

I thought this was a lot of fun. I absolutely love Breq and no one has shit on my girlie but it was cool seeing other people moving through these wild politically charged conflicts. Breq was always playing 4D chess and frequently twenty steps ahead of her enemies, and no offense to the mcs we get in Translation State but they are ,,,, not that lmao. bless their hearts but these folks are not very politically minded and have such minimal information on the big picture that they are, at best, playing checkers.

the mcs of Translation State are very different people from the mcs of the previous books. we follow Enae, a young person determined to make the best of hir sudden diplomatic assignment to find a Presger refugee who went missing 200 years ago; Reet, an adopted kid trying to figure out where he came from and searching for a family (and getting in way over his head lol); and Qven, a Presger translator who gives the audience a fascinating look behind the Presger curtain.

I really enjoyed all three mcs. there were never times I dragged my feet through a specific chapter or character; they all had such different voices and vibes that it was fun chasing them through the escalating chaos. Qven especially was fascinating! we learned so little of the Presger in the previous books that I was delighted to see more of their society (kinda).


Translation State ended up a philosophical meditation on individualism, family, and belonging. I loved it a great deal, watching Enae and Reet and Qven figure out who they were and what they wanted to do and where they wanted to belong.

overall, a delightful character-driven story with a brewing political catastrophe in the background that I am looking forward to seeing implode in a future book lol

btw !!!! Sphene is in this book !!! I absolutely loved Sphene from the Radch trilogy and I was so flipping excited when I recognized her Vibes. rest assured, she remains as dry, whip-smart and merciless as she was the first time we met her.


queer rep - 3 pov characters, 2 use neopronouns; tons of bg queer rep (& I mean tons)
thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨

Published by Orbit on June 6, 2023

As liberals and conservatives argue about whether the constructs of male and female are inflexibly determined by biology at birth or have a gender identity component that might be more important than external genitalia, Ann Leckie continues to project the argument into the future. In her future, humans have largely moved beyond what it means to be male or female and are contemplating what it means to be human. Is human identity, like gender identity, a product of a deep inner feeling or does it depend only on genetics?

As Leckie’s fans know, the Presger are not human. They are driven to eat humans and members of other species. A treaty with the Presger took humans and some nonhuman species out of the Presger diet. To communicate with humans, the Presger and the Radchaai (the most powerful group of humans) created Translators — sort of a hybrid of Presger and human — who go through a growth and maturation process that teaches them to interact with humans without eating them. Qven has gone through that process without being eaten by his peers and is approaching the next stage of a young Translator's life.

But then there’s Reet Hluid, the apparent offspring of a human and Presger Translator. He was adopted by a human family after he landed on Zeosen. He has recently been suspected of being a Schan, a lost scion of the ancient rulers of a branch of humans called Hikipi who have long been exploited by a branch called the Phen.

Reet doesn’t think of himself as a Schan or as a Presger Translator, although he comes to accept that a Translator might have been his biological parent. He liked to bite when he was a child but it’s under control now, apart from an occasional urge to rip someone to shreds. Is he human or Presger? Does anyone other than Reet have the right to answer that question? And should he be forced to choose between being human or a Translator? Can’t he choose to be himself?

The parallels to contemporary debates about the right to be who you believe you were born to be are obvious, which is one reason sf fans on the far right are so disdainful of Leckie. After all, the traditional sf hero is a straight white male human who protects weak human females from dangerous aliens who are bent on conquest. There is little room in that mythology for stories that value women or members of other racial/ethnic groups, much less changing notions of sexual identity. Leckie freaked out those fans when she started writing award winning fiction that played with pronouns. It’s ironic that a genre based on opening minds to unexpected possibilities has a vocal minority of fans who believe they are defending tradition by keeping their minds firmly closed.

A number of humans (Hikipi in particular) don’t believe the Presger even exist. The Presger Deniers believe the Radchaai invented the Presger to control the rest of humanity through fear. Perhaps Leckie is mocking people who refuse to believe any fact that is politically inconvenient. The Hikipi seem to have invented a conspiracy theory to explain away facts they don’t like. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

In any event, the Presger Translators must decide what to do about Qven, who has reached an age where he can match (or merge) with another person in a process that— well, as I understand it, the two beings eat each other until they recombine as a single entity that occupies two new bodies. Qven began that process (against his will) with another Translator juvenile and is now regarded as defective.

The Translators would like to dispose of Qven, but they would have to admit that his lineage was a failure and other members of that lineage are loathe to make that concession. They decide instead to give him a chance to match with Reet, whose half human parentage might give him unique insights into human behavior. Neither Qven nor Reet are keen to match with anyone, but they feel comfortable with each other in a way they don’t with anyone else. The theme of feeling isolated as an “outsider” who doesn’t belong to a recognized group is advanced through certain nonhuman characters, as well.

Reet petitions the diplomats at the Treaty Administration Facility to recognize him as a human and to shield him from the Translators. Qven likes that idea, declares himself human, and adds himself to the petition. If people cannot decide upon their own identity, Leckie seems to be asking, does the government have the right to choose their identity for them? Ron DeSantis seems to think the answer is yes.

A Presger Translator argues that if Reet is allowed to live among humans without matching, his offspring may be unable to develop the self-control needed to keep them from eating humans. The story calls to mind objections to interracial marriage, spiced with beliefs that members of certain groups are too uncivilized to let loose in society.

The other key character is Enae Athtur. Forced to uproot after the death of an elderly relative for whom she was caring, Enae is given a cushy job investigating the disappearance two hundred years earlier of a Presger Translator. The Translator, of course, is Reet’s biological parent, a circumstance that eventually puts Enae and Reet together in the Treaty Administration Facility. The novel works its way to a conclusion after the hearing to determine whether Reet is human is disrupted by an assassination attempt and a threatened Hitipi attack upon the facility.

Leckie is an amazing storyteller whose stories of the future reveal important truths about the present. Despite her detractors, it’s heartening that Lecke has so many admirers. She is an imaginative, original writer whose characters are easily relatable (even to many of us cisgender white male readers) because they ask the question that is central to science fiction and perhaps to all literature: What does it mean to be human?

RECOMMENDED

A fun installment, although the denouement was a little over-long. But this will definitely be enjoyed by anyone who is following Leckie's Radch-universe books (I am not sure it would be a good first entry into the series, however.)

A worthy addition to the Imperial Radich series. Follows a new set of characters but expands upon the complexities of the society and adds significant depth to the world that the author has created. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the opportunity to review a copy of this book.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me. This is my first Ann Leckie book. I was not familiar with the Imperial Radch series that this world takes place in. It’s also my first book in which I’ve encountered an authors use of the pronouns shi, hir, e, and em. I have nothing against the use of alternative pronouns but given my lack of experience with it I was thrown out the book. I thought my kindle was broken and showing me misspelled words until I realized it was intentional. I eventually got used to it and will now be more aware of alternative pronouns in the future. That being said, I don’t feel there was enough explanation or background into this world for new readers given it’s marketed as a standalone story. I didn’t feel connected to the three main characters in any way. Other reviewers of this book, who are more familiar with the author’s prior series seem to really love it and I am looking forward to trying those prior works and will return to Translation State in the future.

A new standalone adventure set in the Imperial Radch universe, centered around the mystery of a missing alien and three people caught up in it: Enae, a competent but unexpected diplomat; Reet, a lonely mechanic with impulses he can’t explain; and Qven, an alien born to be an ambassador, attempting to figure out their place in the world and their own society.

This was a really excellent read which I thoroughly enjoyed. the characters were all engaging and deeply sympathetic, even when their ways of thinking were Very Not Human; the plot is fast-paced and immersive; it’s pervaded with a really charming mix of humor and thoughtfulness; and it does a really excellent job of “localizing” the political/social/ethical conflicts of its world into what is, in the end, a really personal narrative. I loved the commentary on gender and family and civil liberties and what it means to choose the life you live, topics which we get to see form the wildly different lenses of all three protagonists, and I truly did not want to put this book down once I started it.

You don’t necessarily need to have read all the original Imperial Radch books to pick up TRANSLATION STATE (i haven’t), though it probably helps a little if you have (but I was able to follow everything without issue, despite not having done so). It’s a fine entry point or standalone, though I am confident there were things I would have better appreciated had I actually finished the Imperial Radch books first.

Highly recommended, and I will be very excited to read whatever Leckie does next (and also the rest of her back catalog). thanks so much to Orbit and Netgalley for the ARC!

I quite enjoyed Translation State, the latest in stallment of the Imperial Radch series. While I did not like it as much as the trilogy itself, I did like it significantly more than its predecessor Provenance. Indeed, this book did much of what I wished the prior one would -- in my review of Provenance I wrote that "I would have liked more focus on the alien species and the upcoming conclave, but that was treated moreso as the backdrop" and this book focuses much more on both the significance of the conclave and the alien species, with significant characters who are Presger, Presger Translators, and Geck. I like how the themes of translation/language and identity are treated here, and for the most part I enjoyed the main characters (the way Qven and Reet's dynamic develops toward the end was a little too angst-filled for my preferences but I do like them overall; Enae read very much younger to me than hir age). The plot was fast paced and held my interest - an exciting space opera! - and I like the alternating POV chapters. I'll happily read the next Radch book.

Content warnings: cannibalism, body horror, violence, assault, injury detail, blood, gore, death, forcible confinement

Love this brilliant Sci-Fi book!

Enae has lived hir (a whole new set in this book for gender) whole life with hir utterly abusive grandmother, who has just died and freed Enae up from a passive life of servitude and subservience. She’s given by the new heirs a hopeless assignment: travel the universe in search of an elite Galaxy translator who went missing 200 years prior.

As taking on this task is requisite for getting a living stipend, Enae throws hirself into the task (as you can see, it takes a while to get used to this clever new pronoun set). Enae’s quest leads her into the center of galaxy diplomacy, where a handful of species who have formed a Conclave rely on translators to continually negotiate Galaxy Space. The key issue facing the mostly human conclave is keeping peace with a mostly hostile alien race known as the Presgr who lives operate in ways not actually understandable to humans. Qven, a young Presgr, has been raced since birth to quell her attack instincts and to learn the weird, formal ways of interacting with humans in order to possible emerge a new Presgr translater.

Along the way Enae encounters adopted orphan Reet who does not know his biological origins, a political action group intent on causing mayhem to break up the Conclave, a newly independent group of AI’s looking to be recognized as a race and serving as observers to the Conclave, and the power hungry Ambassadors vying for power at the seat at the Conclave table.

All the swirls together into an edge of your seat adventure, full of insights and heart, and having you cheering Enae on! Now I’m heading back to read more of Ann Leckie’s books – she’s such a fabulous author!

Thanks to Orbit Books and Netgalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Let me start by saying that I have not read the rest of this series. I will say that after reading this, I really, really need to get my hands on the rest of the series. This stands alone as it's own story. I'm sure there are clever things I missed that would have been rather impressive if I had done my homework, but this is a gem in it's own right. It is part reluctant romance and part political process novel. There are moments where I was reminded of the personhood debates from TNG around Data. That's what really moves the story here, the question of what makes a person and what rights that person should have. The fantastic character portrayals just make it all the richer.

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.

(I mention 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.

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.