Ann Leckie is one of those authors that my brain just clicks with so well that I love everything she writes, like a warm bath for my mind. I always feel very comfortable reading her books because I can trust that she’s taking the plot somewhere that will work for me and that I’ll be satisfied with. She may not be on lists of cozy sci-fi, but it’s somehow cozy to me. I was therefore extremely thrilled to see a collection of her short works at the bookstore that I had somehow missed coming out.
Lake of Souls is split into three sections — one of stand alone stories, one with stories from her Imperial Radch universe, and one from the Raven Tower universe. I loved Raven Tower and was really excited to read more from that universe since it was a standalone novel. I thought that the overall level here was strong and there were a lot of interesting ideas. I especially liked the concept of space faring dinosaurs! “Another Word for World” was a good take on Ursula K. LeGuin’s idea of communication devices having the opposite effect, and “Lake of Souls” was a thoughtful first contact story. Leckie tends to grapple a lot with ideas of colonialism, gender, capitalism, and morality, which are all things I appreciate thinking about from multiple angles. This whole book went down very smoothly for me.
I’d been putting off reading Translation State until the right moment struck me, which it finally did recently. I found this book more stressful than Lake of Souls, mainly because I developed an attachment for the characters and the events of the plot were putting them through a lot of stress. I did have to flip to the end to make sure I was going to be okay, but I was happy with the overall arc of the novel. Translation State is a stand alone Imperial Radch novel, and you don’t have to know the other books to understand this one (although I do think it would help and give some depth to the reading experience). It follows three main characters — Qven, who is bred and trained to be a go between for the alien Presger race and humans but is not having a good time; Enae, who has been sent as a diplomat to try to solve a 200 year missing persons case; and Reet, an adoptee who is trying to figure out his background in a politically tumultuous world. All three of the stories intersect in a satisfying way, and watching the three of them heal their various issues and traumas through the power of family, love, and friendship was very satisfying for me.
These are both keepers and I hope Leckie continues writing for a long time!