Night’s Slow Poison – by Ann Leckie

A copy of Translation State stands invitingly on my shelf. Should I just go and casually sink my metaphorical teeth into it? Or should I re-read the entire Radch series from the beginning first, without neglecting its shorter, lesser known bits? But of course! So, let’s begin with Night’s Slow Poison, the short story that got everything started, and that’s now available for free here.

Synopsys

It takes six months to traverse the Crawl, the space anomaly that lays between the Radchaai Empire and Ghaon, and that has so far protected the latter from invasion; in order to survive the passage, a ship must proceed slowly, following particular routes only known by trained pilots, and keeping all communication devices offline.

Inarakhat Kels, a native of Ghaon, works as a security officer on the Jewel of Athat, a ship that takes cargo and the occasional traveller through the Crawl. At the beginning of the story, he’s welcoming a passenger aboard; his name is Awt Emnys, and he’s a Gerentate man who wishes to visit his grandmother’s native planet.

As the long and claustrophobic journey proceeds, the two interact over and again, motivated by boredom as well as by their own musing. Awt is seemingly naive in his dream to reconnect with his roots; Kels, on the other hand, is driven to recall his youthful love for a girl of the same noble family as Awt’s grandmother; a relationship that was ended abruptly due to their difference in status.

The voyage is slow, apparently uneventful – until on their last day inside the Crawl, Kels finds the pilot in a trance, being questioned by Awt, who reveals that he is a spy for the Radch, and Kels is forced to act quickly despite the complexity of his feelings.

Analysis

Style – The story is written in third person, following Kels’s limited perspective. The nature of the subject imposes some degree of exposition, as there are features of the setting the reader must be made aware of, however it is handled gracefully enough: Kels conveniently ponders over astropolitics in enough detail to inform us of the powers at play, highlighting why the role of the Crawl is so important; when it comes to other features of his culture, however, such as masks and polyandry, he casually mentions then as befits a native, treating them not as oddities that require explanation, but as natural facts of life.

Leckie’s writing is terse and efficient, but not simplistic by any means; descriptions are sparse but poignant, with small details effectively conveying the ambience the author is going for. The tone is deceptively dispassionate: cold and objective on surface, the storytelling actually dives into the messy realms of conflicting emotions and personal biases, exposing the protagonist’s experience and leaving us to draw our conclusions.

Plot Structure – Night’s Slow Poison is a very short story with a rather peculiar rhythm: a slow-paced, pensive opening made of nostalgic thoughts and meaningful conversations gives way to the brief description of months and months of oppressive nothing, just for the events to precipitate at the end, leading to a surprisingly action-packed conclusion, which is very effectively evokes the surprise of the protagonist, who had so far fallen for Awt’s deception.

Setting – The story is set at the borders of an aggressive empire known as the Radch. While all the events take place in the secluded ambience of cramped cargo ship, there are continual references to the world outside, and especially to Ghaon – a planet that has so far preserved its independence only thanks to its impervious location – and to a smaller extent to the Gerentate, where Awt grew up as a half-foreigner outsider.

Of course, if you’re reading Night’s Slow Poison nowadays, odds are you are already familiar with the Ancillary trilogy, where the same setting is much more expanded, however it’s worth keeping in mind that this short story was published before the novel, and as such it’s not supposed to rely on any external information.

Here, the setting is much more barebones, and not particularly groundbreaking, however it already shows a remarkable attention both for power dynamics and cultural nuances.

Characters – Inarakhat Kels, unassuming security guard on a cargo vessel, is a man still haunted by his past; after the brusque and miserable ending of his romantic relationship, he decided to leave his planet for good, embarking on the first spaceship that took him, however he still doesn’t seem to have truly moved on. Not only that, he’s also prone to question his own character over any sort of past failure – such as his lack of resolution in severing his own hand after being bitten by a venomous animal.

When he meets Awt Emnys, he develops a special attachment for him, motivated by his ancestry and by his physical resemblance to his lost love, and exacerbated by the alienating experience of their journey through the Crawl. Awt seems to have a much more naive and optimistic view of his ancestry, which he trustingly hopes to track down, and Kels ponders how much to warn him against the possibility of disappointment and rejection, having experienced firsthand how callous the Ghanonish nobility can be.

Of course, at the end Awt drops the mask and reveals himself as not only a spy, but an entirely different and more cynical person, casting a different light on all their previous interactions. At that point, Kels takes action – but he seems to do so less out of duty, or of a genuine desire to protect his planet, and more to disprove his own insecurities.

Themes – Night’s Slow Poison is a story about memory and heritage. The main characters display very different attitudes towards their roots, in a way that prompts a reflection on the gap between reality and romanticisation. Where Kels can offer a real, lived-in experience of Ghanoish culture, it is called into question whether it makes him more or less objective on the matter: sure, Awt seems to see it through rose-tinted glasses, but isn’t Kels biased by his own heartbreak when he discourages the young man’s curiosity? Besides, what makes a culture worth preserving, after we’ve denounced its own tenets?

The story also draws a first sketch of a universe where characters are entangled into power dynamics on multiple levels: on the one hand we have the inevitable clash of imperialistic expansion and local cultures, on the other hand each and every tradition has its own hierarchies and prejudices.

Overall Thoughts – At first, I was drawn to this story by sheer completism. As in, if I am reading the Imperial Radch I must read all of it, no exception. In the end, however, I thoroughly enjoyed this short story in its own right. While not exceedingly ambitious or experimental, it does manage to combine worldbuilding and personal motives in an intriguing way.