Translation State
"Translation State" is a 2023 science fiction novel by Ann Leckie, set in the Imperial Radch universe. It follows three characters whose lives intersect as they deal with the mystery of a missing Presger Translator, exploring themes of identity and belonging.
Stats for nerds
4recommend
5mentions
5people
2025–2026years
80% recommend20% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Why are they recommending a China Miéville book which won’t be out til the end of the year? I mean, it’ll probably be good, his stuff usually is. But I don’t think even reviewer copies have gone out yet?
And while Ann Leckie’s Translation State is great, I think you pretty much have to read the Ancillary Whatever books first; otherwise it’ll just be baffling.
- Blindsight by Peter Watts
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
Startide Rising by David Brin
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
Semiosis by Sue Burke
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Translation State by Ann Leckie
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
This is what sprang to mind as answering that sort of brief off the top of my head.
- My favourite SF book this year was "Translation State" by Ann Leckie. It is set in the Imperial Radch world so having read the Ancillary trilogy is useful but not essential.
I like it because it contains the strangest aliens (the Presger) that I have come across. They are as far from humans in costumes as you could get. What the Presger do (and their proxies in the Human world the Translators) is totally unguessable.
A fabulous hard SF read and a must if you read the Ancillary trilogy.
- I enjoyed Translation State so much. It thought that Leckie got lost in the depths of Octavia Butler’s extra weird shit (and Xenogensis) and cross bred it with the political novel style of the Ancillary trilogy, and the result was chefs kiss.
I feel comfortable recommending it even if you haven’t read any other Leckie.
Edit: if you haven’t read the Bloodchild anthology by Butler, give it a read. Some of the short stories will seem very familiar after Translation State, especially the alien parts.
- I put in Translation State by Anne Leckie and at first glance the recommendations looked good. But at a closer look, what I was getting was "female scifi authors". Exclusively female. And as I scrolled down, the "scifi" part got dropped and it was just female authors of all kinds. So apparently the only recommendation worthy thing about this book is the author's gender.
