What does Ann Leckie get when she combines the deep character and history of The Raven Tower with her complex Imperial Radch sci-fi universe? I really anticipated finding out with Radiant Star. Ooioiaa is an ice planet on the fringe of settled space where it’s single city has only a single export; the cult-like worship of the Radiant Star which is supposedly a temporal anomaly the blesses its followers with visions of the future. Each sect of worshippers is convinced that the others are heretics but they all agree that there is good money to be made from the visions with pilgrims coming from nearby worlds. For the Colonial Governor, it’s just a big headache until they lose all contact with the with the Radch empire and it’s interstellar supply lines. As food runs low, and religious quarrels flare up, the story focuses on a diverse cast of characters as their lives are changed in surprising ways. 

This was a great blending of the small focused story style and the more complicated and expansive Imperial Radch series that I could never get into. Reading the prior Radch books isn’t necessary, although those who have might know what caused the communications blackout before it’s explained here. It might actually have been better that I didn’t know. For the Colonial Governor, it’s a terrible crisis and dealing with it in the Radch way runs into planetary quirks no one bothered to tell her about. Society was already in turmoil because a wealthy man decides to become one of the “living saints” who essentially poison and mummify themselves in the Radiant Star’s shrine to witness its eventual return. The turmoil has to with temple politics and which sect will get to watch his money for him while he “waits”. His only son sees his inheritance vanishing and scrambles to keep control. A forgotten boy finds himself caretaker of a strange uncommunicative Radch woman that he thinks might be something like their own seers. Then there is the exceptionally talented seer who believes it is his own destiny to become a Saint but the foreign invaders consider the practice blasphemy and will allow only this last Saint.

While I must admit that I preferred The Raven Tower’s ending, Leckie has delivered another in depth look at people dealing with unexpected and life altering events. It reminds me of Guy Gavriel Kay’s writing where characters and their choices are the real story with a backdrop of major events. Just like with Kay the resolution of the events left me with mixed feelings. While the commentary on how religion affects different people and cultures was what drove events I was particularly impressed by the representation of colonialism and the cultural turmoil it can cause. 

Radiant Star has received mixed reviews, with many fans of the Radch series unhappy with a low key story lacking any real action. Others couldn’t get into the characters or found the story too focused on the religious politics. This isn’t exactly an entertaining read and I don’t think it was intended to be. The most “modern” idea Leckie focuses on is gender equality and how we have barely begun to envision how it might be used and abused in the future. Colonialism is something we tend to think of as historical but it’s still happening. While there is definitely some cynicism directed at how religion, politics, and social standing are intertwined in this culture it wasn’t noteworthy unless you count the glaring exception, the living saints. In a way, that practice and, our reaction to it, only brings us back to colonialism. Is Leckie saying something, or several somethings here? That’s up to the reader but it might make you think for a second or two.