The only part that I take issue with is the standalone bit. Yes, Translation State takes place in the universe she kicked off with her brilliant debut novel, Ancillary Justice, and yes, it’s terrific. However, the door is clearly left open for more adventures with the main character. She’s a middle-aged woman who has spent her life taking care of her aging, unpleasant, and supposedly wealthy grandmother and finds herself at loose ends after the funeral. In a turn of events worthy of Jane Austen, Enae Athur finds herself turfed out of the house, given reasonable means, a request not to be underfoot, and a job that nobody expects her to actually do; finding a missing Presger Translator, one of the alien-human hybrids that the Presger’s created from DNA on the human ships they tore apart and who are the only way they can communicate with anyone else. There’s a treaty conference coming up and it would be nice to tie up this loose end, even though the missing translator slipped away 200 years ago.

It’s the classic give the job you don’t really want done to somebody who won’t actually do it, with the predictable result that Enae digs her heels to find them.

The story revolves around three protagonists. Enae, on the hunt for the translator, Reet, a maintenance worker who’s never fit in anywhere, and Qven, a juvenile translator who has not yet matured enough to undergo the process of matching, where they fuse with another to become adult and full Presger Translator.

The big conflicts that arise are all about personal freedom and overcoming cultural programming in the face of inflexible authority. If you want to read it as a referendum on gender rights, it works that way, but I was happy to enjoy it at face value for the adventure and excellent character work by the author. Fans of Murderbot will love Reet right off the bat, a misfit uncomfortable with others who finds solace in his favorite series: Pirate Exiles of the Death Moons.

Though it’s set in the “Imperial Radch” universe, you don’t need to read the previous books. Ancillary Justice deservedly won Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards, and the following books were very good, but being following books they lacked the conceptual playfulness of the first. Translation State brings it back and sets the stage for fresh explorations of the author’s universe.  Highly recommended.

Ann Leckie. Translation State (Kindle Locations 424-425). Kindle Edition.

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