Translation State

Translation State is a 2023 science fiction novel by Ann Leckie. It is set in the same universe as her Imperial Radch trilogy and her novel Provenance.

Plot
The Presger are a dangerous alien race; nevertheless, they respect other sentient species. Presgers use Translators as intermediaries to communicate with humans. Translators can pass as human. Presgers do not view individuality in the same way that humans do; adult Translators have multiple bodies shared by a single mind. After the events of Ancillary Mercy, artificial intelligences declared themselves to be a sentient species and demanded a new conclave from the Presger. This conclave will allow the renegotiation of the Presgers’ relationships with all sentient species, including humans.

After hir grandmother dies, Enae Athtur is forced to leave the family home. Sie is assigned to track down a Presger Translator who disappeared in human territory 200 years ago. When sie arrives at Rurusk Station, a local man named Reet Hluid is assigned to be hir liaison. Reet is a mechanic and an adoptee with no information about his biological family. He suffers from persistent desires to vivisect other humans. Reet learns that he could be a member of the royal Schan family, the former rulers of Lovehate Station. The station was populated by members of the Hikipi ethnic group. Many Hikipi believe that the Presger are a hoax created by the Radchaai to maintain their cultural supremacy over human groups.

When Enae examines Reet’s DNA, sie suspects that he is not a Schan, but instead is a descendant of the missing Translator. When Enae’s report is published, Reet is arrested by the Radchaai and sent to the Presgers’ Treaty Administration Facility.

Qven is a juvenile Presger Translator. As part of their life cycle, Translator offspring are supposed to “match”, a process by which they will completely merge with another individual. It is originally planned for Qven to merge into Translator Dlar, but Qven is attacked by another juvenile and the plan is scrapped. Qven is then told that they will match with Reet. Qven and Reet become friends, but both desire to maintain their individuality.

Various interest groups debate whether to classify Reet as legally human. The Radchaai wish to define human as narrowly as possible in order to exclude AI; this also means that they would turn Reet over to the Translators. Qven and Reet are summoned before a committee comprising different sentient species and their ambassadors; both Reet and Qven claim to be human. The hearing is interrupted when a Hikipi protester stabs Translator Dlar. The Hikipi also attack the station; Dlar is able to move some of the characters into a pocket dimension. Qven and Reet rescue everyone; as a result, the committee declares that they are human.

Reet and Qven disable the attacking Hikipi ship. They decide to merge into a single entity spread across two bodies. Enae returns home.

Major themes
According to a review for Locus, the novel opens with "a dollop of Austenian social machineries". When the Athtur family matriarch dies, Enae is "nearly sixty [with] no career, no friends, no lovers, no marital partners, no children". Despite the fact that Enae is not female, sie is coded as a "maiden aunt". The new matriarch's desire to "provide for" Enae in a socially acceptable way leads to the beginning of hir quest.

David M. Higgins of the Los Angeles Review of Books writes that one of the hallmarks of Leckie's work is "that small details (like a character’s obsession with trashy adventure serials) can ultimately shape and influence the largest possible events (such as the fall of an empire)". For example, Reet and Qven first bond by watching "a trashy pulp adventure series called Pirate Exiles of the Death Moons". This sparks Qven's desire to be known by e/em pronouns, and eventually to declare emself to be human and have that identity recognized by the committee. Higgins also writes that Translation State "represents an extraordinary leap forward in Leckie’s approach to representations of gender identity". In her initial novels beginning with Ancillary Justice, Leckie "thoughtfully explores an agender society", namely the Radchaai. However, the Radchaai Empire imposes their cultural norms onto others "with staggering imperial arrogance". The diversity of gender and sexuality outside the Radchaai Empire "helps to highlight how jarring it can be when Radchaai characters thoughtlessly refer to everyone as “she,” regardless of their gender identities and pronouns." Eventually, Qven and Reet declare themselves to be human. This draws attention to Leckie's belief that "individuals should have indisputable rights to self-determination and legal recognition around key categories of identity ... but that these categories are very often imposed by others." In this way, the novel critiques contemporary issues in the United States, such as anti-trans legislation supported by politicians like Ron DeSantis.

Style
The story is told from the perspective of three point of view characters: Enae, Reet, and Qven. Enae's and Reet's chapters are narrated in third person. Qven's chapters are narrated in first person.

According to the Berkeley Fiction Review, "language is an important backdrop for the novel". The Radchaai language has only one gendered pronoun (she/her), but the novel explores how language can be adapted for new purposes. Non-Radchaai characters speaking the Radchaai language often add new pronouns such as he/him, sie/hir, and e/em to their speech. While "sie/hir" and "e/em" are used to indicate nonbinary genders, "they/them" pronouns are used to indicate genderless identities. In one scene, a Presger Translator states that "gender is something humans have".

Reception
The novel has received critical acclaim. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews called the novel "another of Leckie’s beautiful mergings of the political, philosophical, and personal". Publishers Weekly also gave the novel a starred review, praising Leckie's "humane, emotionally intelligent, and deeply perceptive writing ". Isabel Hinchliff of Berkeley Fiction Review gave the novel 4.5 out of 5 stars. Hinchliff called the book "a coming-of-age novel for all who need a reminder that our ongoing quest to find where we belong doesn’t stop when we turn twenty, or thirty, or even fifty."

In a review for Locus, Russell Letson praised the novel, calling it "a story about nature, identity, role – the need to belong – and pathological versions of that need: to invent an identity or place in the world, and to deny or control roles and identities of others". In another review for Locus, Adrienne Martini states that Leckie "asks big questions about trauma, power, and secrets". Martini predicted that the novel would deservedly "be on most of the award slates at the end of the year". A review for Los Angeles Review of Books called the novel "daring" and "thoughtful", stating that novels such as Translation State are performing "vital cultural work".

A review for Paste Magazine called Leckie a "luminary of modern SFF", praising the novel's exploration of deep questions and its simultaneously relatable characters. Liz Bourke of Tor.com wrote that the novel is "rooted in more personal, bounded concerns" than Leckie's previous Imperial Radch trilogy, and that the "intimate, personal stakes ... give it even more power and force than its predecessors."