Radiant Star

Like other Radch, there are complicated gender things happening (one sect expects only women to be serious people and men to keep a household or be servants), there are at least eight sets of pronouns for the locals, and all the while the official Radch language only has she/her pronouns for everybody. Either I've gotten used to the way Leckie does this, or Leckie has gotten much better at making this gender-pluralism more clear, but this one seemed easy enough to follow and also fun.

Noted on June 29, 2026

The plot of Radiant Star involves a newly-conquered Radch planet, which seems to consist mostly of one city, and its competing religious sects. The three main sects all uneasily share a central temple (the 'Temporal Location'), like Jerusalem. The key religious conflict is about sainthood; one sect has 'living saints' which sounds like the Japanese practice of self-mummification (sokushinbutsu) - the devotee starves and meditates, finally drinking a preservative, and becomes encased in gold. A rich mogul decides to ascend this way, and the new Radch overseers are horrified but allow it, one last time. In the meantime things go wrong with the city.

Noted on June 29, 2026

This is the Ann Leckie book that I really wanted to take to the beach, but didn't get my library hold in time. But this one is great; it's also in the Imperial Radch universe, and includes a Ship and its ancillaries, but is mostly otherwise unconnected to the plots of those books. It's MUCH more conversational in tone, and does a these breezy exposition chats between the author and reader. "You probably already know about this [invented scifi religion] but in case there's anyone not familiar with the details let's explain it..." kind of thing.

Noted on June 29, 2026