Colonization and its impacts Mission Child takes place on a planet that was
colonized by humans, forgotten, and then later re-discovered. The re-discovery brings new arrivals from Earth, whose more advanced weaponsalong with the germs that follow them from Earthradically disrupt the planet's ecology and the existing residents' way of life. These existing residents, which include the protagonist and her Hamran people, are cast in the narrative as
Indigenous peoples coming newly into contact with colonizers. The Hamra mission, set up by off-worlders, parallels real-world
religious missions. Multiple reviewers have noted similarities between the fictional Hamrans and the
Sámi peoples of
Sápmi, and one described the Hamrans' "plight" as "not very different from that of
Native Americans in the 19th century". Discussing the worldbuilding in her 2009 review of the novel,
Jo Walton wrote that "McHugh knows what colonial and
post-colonial societies are like, and sees no reason why it would be different on another planet." Critic
Thomas A. Easton described
Mission Child as a story interested above all in "the intersection of societies, the collision of 'primitive' and 'advanced'". The protagonist, Easton concluded, is the necessary person "who can bridge the cultures".
Gender The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes
Mission Child as a work of transgender science fiction. The novel's protagonist, known first as Janna and later as Jan, undergoes a change in how she understands her gender over the course of the novel; after living as a young woman and then as a man, she concludes that she belongs to neither gender. During her journey, Jan encounters a
shaman who teaches her how to pass as a man and a doctor who is accepting of her and of
transgender people generally. Writing for
Tor.com, Alex Dally MacFarlane described this as a depiction of
non-binary gender, stating that
Mission Child doesn't make "a grand statement" about non-binary people but rather explores one character's individual experience of gender alongside many other life experiences.
Technology Advanced technology is not a straightforward good in the world of
Mission Child. While it can be helpful, it is unevenly distributed among the peoples living on Janna's planet, and that uneven distribution creates social problems. The novel's ambivalence toward technology is also reflected in the protagonist herself, who early in the novel is given three high-tech bodily implants that she doesn't understand. The implants become both tools for survival and sources of pain and alienation, functioning narratively "much like the ambiguous magical gifts of fairy tales." In his review of the novel for
Interzone,
Paul J. McAuley described Janna as a character "culturally and sexually disenfranchised by carelessly-wielded technology" and identified this as a continuation of similar themes in McHugh's previous novels, which featured "hostile societies in which technology is estranging rather than ... empowering". == Publication history ==