Radiant Star by Ann Leckie. Orbit, 2026. 978-0316290357. 336pp.
I love Leckie’s books set in the Imperial Radch universe. They scratch the itch in my brain for Le Guin’s worldbuilding and, in some ways, the everyday weirdness of Philip K. Dick’s science fiction. It’s not necessary to have read any of them before this one, but Ancillary Justice (the first in the series) is so good that I recommend it to everyone, and my favorite of them is the coming-of-age novel, Provenance.
Radiant Star is set in a city beneath an ice world hurtling through interstellar space. It’s a planet frequented by religious pilgrims that has been taken over by the Radch because it will, at some point, become militarily significant. But the empire has seen better days, and for most of the book, the planet’s governor is out of contact with their superiors.
Two individuals want to become Saints of the temple and await the return of the Radiant Star. There’s a young man who was raised to be sold and sent away, rather than to serve on the planet, who awakens after years in storage. And there’s a ship that inhabits, like many of Radch’s other ships, thousands of bodies from captured worlds. Worth noting: This ship is stranger than most. This cast of characters comes into conflict over inheritance, holiness, favors, flavors, colonization, and culture.
Radiant Star is compelling in many ways, all of them best discovered by reading it. It’s quiet and thoughtful and a fantastic addition to the series of interrelated novels that also includes Translation State and the two direct sequels to Ancillary Justice.