Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hugo and Nebula award winner Leckie (Ancillary Justice) returns to the Imperial Radch universe in a staggering standalone novel that follows three people brought together by the mysterious disappearance of a translator. After Enae's Grandmaman dies, diplomat Enae finds a welcome distraction in an impossibly open-ended assignment to track down a fugitive who disappeared 200 years before the start of the book. Aboard the station Enae is headed to, diplomatic liaison Reet searches for answers about his past as an orphan and adoptee, but finds only further questions. Meanwhile, an attack on juvenile Presger translator Qven, part of a spectacularly weird alien race designed to translate alien Presger into human, derails Qven's life and ruins their prestigious prospects. When Qven understands what their clade has planned for them as punishment, Qven decides to flee, putting them on a collision course with the other protagonists. It's exhilarating to see the way these seemingly disparate story lines knit themselves together as all three protagonists become embroiled in a political mess that threatens the treaty that safeguards interspecies coexistence in space. Leckie's humane, emotionally intelligent, and deeply perceptive writing makes this tautly plotted adventure feel fundamentally true while also offering longtime fans a much anticipated glimpse into the Radch's most mysterious species. Readers will be thrilled. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Co. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Leckie (Ancillary Mercy; Provenance) returns to the universe she created in her Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning "Imperial Radch" trilogy. Her latest can be read as a stand-alone and explores belonging and self-definition through three central characters, all expertly narrated by Adjoa Andoh. No stranger to Leckie's work (Andoh narrated the other Radch books and the author's debut fantasy, The Raven Tower), she captivates with perfectly placed inflections and superb pacing. Even listeners unfamiliar with Leckie's previous works will be spellbound by Andoh's character portraits, including Enae Athtur (sie/hir pronouns), whose Grandmaman's death thrusts hir out of comfortable complacency into a new diplomatic position. What might have been a meaningless, family-financed sinecure puts Enae on a collision course with Reet Hluid, an adoptee searching for his past, and Qven, a Presgar translator afraid to complete the next stage in their species' life cycle. Together, and with the help of a distinctly voiced supporting cast, these three challenge continuing injustice in Radch law and Presgar custom. VERDICT Gripping on its own or as a series continuation; highly recommended.--Lauren Kage
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A seemingly pointless quest ignites a political firestorm in this space opera follow-up to the Imperial Radch trilogy and Provenance (2017). Enae Athtur (whose pronouns are sie/hir) is forced from hir childhood home and hir comfort zone to take a job for the Saeniss Polity's Office of Diplomacy that's intended as a sinecure: searching for traces of a fugitive Presger Translator who disappeared 200 years ago. Meanwhile, despite having been raised by kindly foster parents, Reet Hluid has never quite fit in anywhere. Ignorant of his origins, trapped in a dead-end job, friendless, and tormented by strangely compelling daydreams of vivisecting the people he meets, he thinks he's finally found community with the Siblings of Hikipu. On what appears to be very little evidence, they claim that Reet is a Schan, a scion of their long-vanished royal line, and welcome him to their fellowship, which celebrates their cultural heritage…and perhaps dabbles in a little terrorism. And Qven, brought up in the innocently violent nursery of the Presger Translators, fears losing themself in the transition to adulthood, which involves a physical and mental merging with another person; their attempt to escape that apparent inevitability leads to Qven's permanent disgrace. When Enae does what no one expects--actually finding the trail of the lost Translator--it upends the lives of Enae, Reet, and Qven and threatens the treaty that protects humanity from the Presger, an impossibly powerful and enigmatic alien race. It all sounds very complicated--and it is, enjoyably so--but basically, this is yet another opportunity for Leckie to explore her favorite themes: the meaning of family, humanity, and the right to one's personhood. Although the novel is mostly set outside the Radch Empire, the events of that trilogy and of Provenance have a profound effect on the action here, and they also share some characters. This work also addresses many questions from the previous books about the peculiar behavior of Translators, whose originally human DNA has been substantially reengineered by the Presger. Another of Leckie's beautiful mergings of the political, philosophical, and personal. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
