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.

The Raven God's vessel, a possessed raven, is dead. According to the agreement between the people of Vastai and the Raven God, their ruler, the Raven's Lease, must now sacrifice himself to empower the Raven while it incubates in a new egg. The Lease's Heir, his son Mawat, returns from his military post at the border to find that his father has vanished without being sacrificed and his uncle claims to be the new Lease. It's supposed to be impossible to usurp the Lease so Mawat is certain something is very rotten in Vastai. Another god, Strength and Patience of the Hills, tells the story of Mawat's revenge intermixed with its own history to Mawat's faithful retainer Eolo. Only Eolo senses the doom descending on Vastai.