When you have decided what you want, remember that what one will not acknowledge is what one cannot properly control.
Teacher speaking to Qven in Translation State
Translation State is now my third Ann Leckie book and I have come to the conclusion that Leckie as an author is hit and miss for me. The Raven Tower was a miss, Ancillary Justice was a hit and this was a miss.
Let’s start with the things I liked about this book. The premise itself is very interesting. The world it is set in is the same as Leckie’s Imperial Radch books. I’ve only read Ancillary Justice but that was enough to provide a frame of reference for some of the characters. That said, I felt like I missed some subtler character references and details because I haven’t read the other Imperial Radch books.
I think that’s about it for things I liked.
Now for the things that didn’t work for me. I only liked one character (Enae). Everyone else was a big ball of meh for me. This book tells the story from three different characters’ POV – Qven, Reet, and Enae. I don’t have a problem with multiple POVs, but in this case I only really liked reading from Enae’s perspective which made large sections of the book mildly annoying to read.
Another problem I had with this book is its pacing. The first half of this book is the author setting things up, moving pieces in to place. It doesn’t feel like anything interesting happens till the second half of the book. I don’t exactly have a problem with a slow burn (see also Babel) but in this case the second half and especially the last arc of the book feels like its dragging on forever.
The combination of a lack of enjoyable characters and bad pacing meant that by the time I got to the end of the book I just wanted to get it over with and didn’t really feel positively about the ending.
This book is unfortunately the first book this year that I can say I didn’t enjoy. I don’t like doing star or number ratings for books because I find the concept reductive. So this one gets a big ol’ “Meh” from me.