Radiant Star

A new Imperial Radch novel is always a cause for celebration around here, and I am pleased to say that Radiant Star did not disappoint. It is, however, a very complex novel, and I suspect may confuse some readers.

Recently on BlueSky Ann Leckie has come out as a recovering Catholic. Had she not done so, it should have been obvious from this book. Much of it is about the moral traps that lie in wait for those who choose religion for their profession, especially when the reach positions of authority within it.

In the city of Ooioiaa on the planet Aaa you can find the temple of the Radiant Star. It is home to three rival religious sects, all worshiping the same celestial body, and to a large number of mummified saints. The nature of the differences between the sects are largely incomprehensible to outsiders, but the nature of their religion should be obvious from the nature of their world.

You see, Aaa is a rogue planet (some of you may remember Robert Reed’s excellent novel, Marrow. I’m sure that Leckie does). Long ago it left its parent star and began to voyage through space. The people of Aaa have survived by digging a city deep inside the planet where it is warmed by Aaa’s molten core. One day, they believe, they will once again encounter a star to call their home.

Unfortunately for the people of Aaa, they will. In about 2000 years their planet will be captured by a new star. At that time, it will become a site of strategic importance in the galaxy. And so Anaander Mianaai, never one to leave things to chance, ordered that Aaa be added to the Radch Imperium.

Years later, Charak Sov, Captain of the Justice of Albis, has become Governor of Aaa. Her main problems, it appears, arise from the disputatious nature of the religious sects that occupy the Temple of the Radiant Star. Little does she know that Anaander Mianaai’s various selves are about to plunge the Radch into civil war. Aaa, being far from the main spaceways, and now heavily dependent on imports for food, is going to be in deep trouble.

This alone would be plenty of drama, but Leckie adds to it plenty of politics. One of the richest men on Aaa is Serque Tais, owner of the monopoly sewage company that keeps the city of Ooioiaa clean and healthy. He is very old, and needs to plan for succession, but he despises his son whom he thinks, with some justification, is a foolish wastrel. And Tais wants to be remembered fondly by his people, which on Aaa means joining the ranks of mummified saints in the Temple of the Radiant Star. The sect that he chooses to represent will be important.

Throw in a celebrity prophet, some unscrupulous clergy, and a young man who, through no fault of his own, may become the fulcrum on which the world turns, and you have an excellent political drama.

The Radchaai, of course, think that the people of Aaa are deeply foolish. But they do have to govern them, and you can’t govern effectively by despising your population, even if you do have a mighty warship and its attendant army of Ancillaries on call. So the book is also about the difficulty of governing a city during a period of serious civil unrest and potential environmental collapse.

Oh, yes, the book is also about living on a planet with a very fragile ecosystem, and how the selfish rich can put everyone’s survival in jeopardy. I think you can see what that’s about.

So yeah, there is an awful lot going on in this book, and that’s before you start on the gender issues. The Radchaai, as I am sure you remember, refer to everyone as ‘she’. Aaa has at least three genders. Leckie deftly switches between pronouns for characters depending on who is speaking.

I think also that Radiant Star has the best description of Radchaai Ancillaries that Leckie has done. They are genuinely creepy in a way that probably wasn’t possible when she needed us to sympathise with Breq.

There is so much going on in this book that I think I really should have read it through again before reviewing it. But sadly there are too many books and too little time, so I had to move on. I look forward to reading some academic papers about this one.

Title: Radiant Star
By: Ann Leckie
Publisher: Orbit
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