I first read this back in 2014, not long after it came out, and absolutely loved it. I adore a good space opera, and this one has the added benefit of grappling with identity and language and gender and imperialism, all through characters who are compelling and surprising. After reading Translation State, which is set in the same universe but told from a very different perspective, I was promped to re-read this original series. A lot of interesting science fiction has been published in the past ten years, so this maybe doesn’t feel as remarkable as it did when it was first published, but it’s still a great book that does something fresh and interesting with the genre, and I look forward to re-reading the rest of the books.

Further reading…