#translation-state — Public Fediverse posts

Book Review – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

My first book of 2025 is the second book I’ve read by author Ann Leckie. Both books, Translation State and Ancillary Justice, are set in the same world of the Imperial Radch series, though the stories are not directly connected. Reading Translation State led me to Ancillary Justice, the first book of Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy, and I am eagerly looking forward to book two.

Ancillary Justice introduces us to Breq, a soldier, at least that’s how they present themselves. In reality, Breq is the last surviving ancillary of Justice of Toren, a destroyed warship of the Radch, and is on a mission of vengeance, one which will immensely change the empire, either in success or failure.

Characters like Breq, the last fragment of an artificial intelligence over 2000 years old now contained in a human body, and  Seivarden, a former Lieutenant on the Justice of Toren a thousand years ago. Both are fish out of water, Breq as an AI trying to pass as human and Seivardan, a human a thousand years out of time who has lost everything. These two do need each other, though, of course, neither knows or believes it for some time, and their shared journey throughout the book, along with Breq’s back story, is compelling on its own.

Ancillary Justice has the distinct honor of earning  the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the only book to do so. I can see why and I think you will, as well. I completed the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky and I look forward to reading the rest of this one.

#2025Intentions #AdrianTchaikovsky #AncillaryJustice #AnnLeckie #ArthurCClarkeAward #BookReview #ChildrenOfTimeSeries #HugoAward #ImperialRadchSeries #NebulaAward #ReadAtLeast15MinutesADay #TranslationState

#TranslationState von #AnnLeckie

"Ein empfehlenswertes, sehr routiniert erzähltes Buch, das sich mit dem Fremden und der Solidarität zwischen den Wesen in einer fernen Zukunft auseinandersetzt."

Herzlichen Dank an @tinderness für die ausführliche Rezi :)

https://www.literatopia.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28735:translation-state-ann-leckie&catid=64&Itemid=131

#AmReading #TranslationState by #AnnLeckie and just met the Human Ambassador to the Pressger on behalf of the Geck. She’s great.

I have such a weakness for Poli-SciFi

Going live with a #BookClub ep talking about #WitchKing, #StarterVillain, #TranslationState!

https://theincomparable.com/live

Last night I started #TranslationState by @ann_leckie . I was pulled right in, surfing the whiplash from a chapter one reminiscent of Bilbo's goodbye to a chapter two with character with a voice right out of #Murderbot.
What's next tonight in chapter three? (That's a rhetorical question. No spoilers, please) #sff

I’d preordered this and got it the day it was published, but I put off starting it as I was sure it would be good and I wouldn’t get anything else done. I was right. Haven’t been able to put it down. I can even listen to it just sitting down with no urge to pick up any printed text (if you’ve heard me talk about audiobooks before you know how incredible that is to me).
#TranslationState #AnnLeckie @ann_leckie

"I thought there was something wrong with me. But I was just not human the whole time! And you’d think I’d be happy to find out what I am but … I always thought I was human! And it’s not like I don’t want to be what I am, because that’s just pointless, but I’d rather be what I am with Maman and Mom and Nana. And, I mean, why can’t I be both?” he asks at one point.

And in the end, he gets to be both. A remarkable difference to the mythological standard.

(4/n, n=4)

#TranslationState #Books2023

He asserts his humanity, even gets a committee to agree on it. He stays in contact with the family who took him in - and they come through for him, are there for him, make clear they /are/ his family in every way that counts. I love that.

But he doesn't reject the new identity either. He doesn't ignore the facts, he learns about his kind - not from the propaganda, but from someone he comes to trust.

And in the end, he forms a new identity.

(3/n)

#TranslationState #Books2023

But that's being broken up, "queered", if you like, in different and interesting ways. First, he learns that him being a Schan isn't true, but that he's even more powerful in fact - not a leader of some rather obscure ethnic group, but part of a group with great abilities and influence.

But instead of accepting that, letting his impulses (who, as he now learnd, are not defects, but "normal" for his kind) run free, and claiming that identity, he... doesn't.

(2/n)

#TranslationState #Books2023

So, Reet's arc in @ann_leckie's "Translation State". I've noticed before that it starts as a mythological classic: foundling's a loner, has unusual traits, learns that he's special: a lost leader, a person with great abilities. Think Moses, or Luke Skywalker for good measure.

Him being introduced to the Siblings of Hikipu and learning they think he's a Schan certainly fits this pattern more than well, and he likes it, too.

(1/n)

#TranslationState #Books2023

One detail I really like is Reet's parents (who belong to an ethnic minority) teaching him how to deal with the authorities, police and court system; how not to talk to them and what to do.

Realistic.

#TranslationState #Books2023

We get thoughts on identity and the right to assert one's, how one's not necessarily determined by one's assigned place, role, gender, and heritage but can choose what to be if one is accomodated somewhat.

We also get a courtroom drama with added space-time twisting, which certainly is a new one.

It's a great and mostly enjoyable read, which at times reminded me of @ArkadyMartine's Teixcalaan duology. Reet's (hero's?) journey I'll write more about 🙂

(4/n, n=4)

#TranslationState #Books2023

We're on the Radch fringes: our protagonists learn about Radchaai culture and language, but have introduced new pronouns in it, disliking the general "she/her"; we meet arrogant Radchaai (and Sphene!), but we're in a different space and that's an interesting addition.

Even more interesting, strange, and disturbing is the insight into the Presger translators - we knew them to be weird, but are now seeing the extend of that weirdness - hard to take at times.

(3/n)

#TranslationState #Books2023

... the Siblings of Hikipu offer him a possible heritage and leading role. But his ancestry turns out to be even more strange and disturbing than he thought.

Qven is a juvenile who'll become a Presger translator. We get to see eir violent and disturbing childhood, eir training, and the traumatic even leading to em wanting to escape and declare emself to be a human.

These three stories turn out to be related, and all three of them end up in a court meeting.

(2/n)

#TranslationState #Books2023

So, @ann_leckie's "Translation State", set about ten years after the events of "Ancillary Mercy" on the fringes of the Radch.

The standalone novel weaves three characters' stories together.

Enae's on a mission to find out where a Presger translator vanished to 200 years ago - a mission more designed to get hir out of the new family head's way than expected to succeed.

Reet has unusual genetics, strange urges, and was a foundling, so he's intrigued when...

(1/n)

#TranslationState #Books2023

Saw a poster about an exhibition about gloves from
the German Leather Museum...

...and thought "wow, Radchaai cultural exchange!" immediately.

😅

#TranslationState #ImperialRadch

So, what to make of the claim that the Presger are a Radchaai invention? The Siblings of Hikipu certainly sound like conspiracy theorists over it, but that doesn't mean it can't be true.

But it doesn't seem to serve the Radchaai that much, and that spacetime topology twisting sure doesn't seem like Radchaai technology.

#TranslationState #Books2023

I love the complex topology the station ends up being twisted into. That's just a great idea and mental image. And yes, it totally used some extra dimensions, so maybe there's a connection to gate space!

I also think that higher dimensions are not such a difficult concept humans can't comprehend them (even if we don't experience them), so the translators being unwilling to elaborate is just... them being unwilling.

#TranslationState #Books2023

Considering how important the choice of a pronoun set is in the novel, and how every review mentions that it has all the pronouns™, the number of reviews that refer to at least one character with the wrong ones is... surprising.

#TranslationState #Books2023

And I don't really get what the advantage is here. Why you'd do it this way, as you then have to "civilize" and train them extensively over long periods of time.

Is it something the Presger took from their own evolutionary history? Some sort of social darwinism they have (this childhood reminds me a bit of "Ender's Game", actually) philosophically?

I just don't get how putting them through this violence and trauma could help with,well, anything they do.

#TranslationState #Books2023

"The problem is, sometimes sacrificing yourself is the wrong thing. Sometimes a sacrifice won’t really save anyone. The problem is, when someone comes to you and says /only you can save us by sacrificing yourself/, how do you know they’re right?"

Important thought. In general, I'd be wary if someone informs me I'm the Messiah...

#TranslationState #Books2023

"I thought there was something wrong with me. But I was just not human the whole time! And you’d think I’d be happy to find out what I am but … I always thought I was human! And it’s not like I don’t want to be what I am, because that’s just pointless, but I’d rather be what I am with Maman and Mom and Nana. And, I mean, why can’t I be both?"

That hits so close right now it really, really hurts.

#TranslationState #Books2023