Ann Leckie

Set in the Imperial Radch world this is a story of Qven, created to be a Presger Translator who is going to make a match some day and become an intermediary between the Presger and humanity. It's an upbringing that is strange and very alien there's a veneer of humanity pressed into it. Chance brings them into contact with Enae, a diplomat who is sent on a mission she isn't expected to solve, to find someone who went missing over two hundred years ago, it's a job to reward her for putting up with Greatmaman for a long time. Meant as a sinecure, it's an opportunity to travel the universe and have some enjoyable experiences. Only she finds Reet, an adopted mechanic who has always felt out of place in his world what happens to the three of them will change things forever.

I didn't realise when I reserved this that it was in fact part of the Imperial Radch universe which I have only read the first book of the series. It did make me want to read some of the other titles in the series.… (more)