 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book about chosen family.
Translation State, by Ann Leckie. This book is set in the same universe as Leckie's Imperial Radch (Ancillary) trilogy and Provenance. It works as a stand-alone, but I liked the way it gave insight into the different human and nonhuman cultures in this space opera, and how they view each other. The three POV characters are people who never felt they fit in. Enae is human, estranged from hir family (Enae's pronouns are spelled sie/hir and never explained). Sie's been given a make-work job looking for a Presger translator who disappeared 200 years ago. Reet is a foundling, raised by humans from a marginalized minority group. He had a problem with biting people as a child, and continues to fantasize about doing so. Qven is an adolescent from the much-feared Presger species. Qven was raised to be a translator, and has been molded physically and behaviorally to fit in with humans - but doesn't want the life path dictated by others. There's some pretty disturbing scenes. Presger children will mutilate, dissect, and even eat other children, just out of curiosity. There's also a scene where another Presger tries to force a mental merge on Qven, leaving Qven feeling violated in a way that's clearly meant to resemble rape. The assailant's eventual fate is equally violent. Leckie's books always stretch our thinking about gender. The Presger are shape-shifters with no gender, so everyone is "they/them." Enae and Reet come from human cultures that have male, female, and nonbinary (e/em/eir). The Radchii are also human, but their culture regards gender as irrelevant, so they call everyone "she/her." On one level, the book could be seen as an allegory for being transgender. Reet knows himself to be human - but it turns out he's the son of the missing Presger translator. (Not a spoiler; it's telegraphed from the start.) He has to go before an international forum to argue that he's human under the law - while the other Presger and the Radchii ambassador argue, "But biology!" Then Qven declares that they are - or rather, e is - human too. The book is also about the connections that form between the characters, including Reet's adoptive parents. Adorably, one of the ways that Reet and Qven bond is by watching Reet's favorite serial, Pirate Exiles of the Death Moons. This teaches Qven more about humans than all the tea-party lessons that the Presger had deemed essential.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |