Lindsay's Reviews > Translation State

Enae has spent hir adult life caring for hir controlling and emotionally abusive grandparent. When hir grandparent dies, Enae leaves the only home sie's ever known on a mission that no-one expects hir to succeed at, to find a 200-years missing Presger translator. To the shock of every one, sie sort of succeeds and precipitates a major political situation concerning the upcoming Presger Treaty negotiations caused by the events of the Imperial Radch trilogy.

Most of the action centers on the other two main characters, a juvenile Presger translator named Qven and Reet, a young human who's an adopted child of minority ethnic group who's also at the center of his own political problems.

Ever since they appeared in Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, the Presger Translators have been a fascinating and weird concept, so a book where we learn much more about them is a wonderful addition to the series. They're nowhere near as funny as in the trilogy, but they're every bit as weird here, if not more so. The biology of the Presger Translators makes for a useful substrate for a story about identity, biological imperatives, choice and the responsibility of individuals to the societies to which they're born. There's also a strong theme of politics framing choices of individuals as inevitable.

I think there's a strong allegory in the central drama of this novel to the current state of US and UK politics around transgender issues, where one side of politics want to see individuals forced (through inaction) to undergo biological changes that they don't want, and for politically expedient reasons. The way that the last quarter of the book unfolds works well into this reading I think, with circumstances establishing a sense of urgency to Reet and Qven's decisions. What they do, and what they eventually decide, is essential to the themes of the book.