BooksOfTheMoon

Qven was created to be a Presger Translator, but things don’t go according to plan. The fallout from that brings them in contact with Enae, who’s been tasked with finding a two hundred year old fugitive; and Reet, a mechanic who’s adopted and interested in seeking out his past. Their paths collide in a way that could change them and those around them forever.

My big fear going into this book was that it would demystify the Presger Translators who, when they appeared in the Ancilliary trilogy, were always extremely other. They look human but their thought processes were very non-human. And to some degree that fear is realised. The internal politics of the Translators are depressingly similar to that of the rest of us, and Translator Dlar seems to just spend most of their time worrying about status and plotting. However, the time we spend with Qven learning to do human things (like making tea and polite conversation) is more convincing that these people have very different thought processes.

The two human PoV characters are interesting in their own ways. Enae has survived by keeping hir head down and not being noticed. Sie has to learn to stand up and be seen, while Reet is from a culture that is looked down by the ethnic majority and he has to navigate that, but through it, we see his adoptive parents being supportive and loving, offering a contrast to how they’re perceived.

The later part of the book takes place at the Treaty Administration Centre for the treaty with the Presger, and we spend a bit of time with some non-humans, including Sphene from the Ancilliary trilogy. There’s an enclave coming, which will determine if the AIs will be declared a “significant species”. That’s obviously running in the background here, but it’s not a major part of this book.

I do wonder if Leckie is going to write that book? I’d totally read it, but I almost want to leave it alone to just my imagination. This is a much smaller scale story than that of the Ancilliary trilogy. It affects the future of two people rather than the whole galaxy but I enjoyed the change of pace. Leckie has a sharp eye for characterisation and there’s a chunk of humour in there, amongst the angst over identity and belonging.