Radiant Star

Imperial Radch

by Ann Leckie

Ann Leckie returns to the world of the Imperial Radch in this standalone.

The Temporal Location of the Radiant Star has always been a source of both conflict and hope for the people of Ooioiaa. However, the imperial Radch see it only as an inconvenience, an antiquated religious site soon to be absorbed into their own, superior culture. But local politics is complicated, and the Radch have made one last concession: One last man will be allowed to join the mummified bodies in the temporal location to become a "living saint".

But this one decision will ripple out to affect every part of the city. Amidst a slowly worsening food shortage, riots, and a communication blackout from the rest of the Radch Empire, a religious savant will entertain visions of his own sainthood, a socialite will discover zer comfortable life upended, and a young man sold into servitude will find unlikely escape.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Queer, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adult, Speculative Fiction

400 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication May 12, 2026

Reviews

[Bente]

A NEW ANN LECKIE BOOK AND IT IS SET IN THE UNIVERSE OF THE IMPERIAL RADCH????? MAY 2026 CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH

[Caroline Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Leckie is SO back! This is by far my favorite extended Radch-verse novel outside of the main Ancillary ___ trilogy. 4.5

An ensemble cast gives you a look into a city in crisis at the fringes of the dissolving Radchaai empire. Seemingly small-scale household dramas, political machinations, religious disputes, and urban planning are somehow are somehow all woven together in a way that somehow make a compelling story. Although the decentralized plot and larger cast of characters took a while to get going, the second half of the book made me stay up until 12:30 am to finish.

So glad I got to read this ARC and definitely recommend to others once it’s published!

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d never read Ann Leckie before and I’ve always wanted to. Radiant Star is a standalone set in the same universe as her Radch series. I enjoyed the read but I suspect I would have gotten more out of it if I’d read the series first.

I loved Radiant Star and kept finding myself reading late just to race through it! The bureaucracy of colonizing a conquered planet is a constant presence throughout the book. I know this sounds impossible but it wasn’t boring!!!! I found myself crazy invested in the systems of religion & local government. I wanted every detail about the water treatment plant, the food shipped in from off world and how the military was utilized to control the local population.

Leckie is clearly highly intelligent. There’s so much to think about it could take a masters thesis to pull it all apart. It felt like it was all background to the story. The details contributed directly to understanding our characters, none of it felt unnecessary. I wish I’d read it with a book club and could spend an hour talking through it!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest book in the Imperial Radch series is an intriguing, thought provoking, and, at times, cheeky stand alone entry in this long standing series. This book is set just after the original trilogy (Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword & Ancillary Mercy) in the timeline, but focuses on the politics and religions of a small, isolated world that is almost entirely cut off from the rest of the Radch universe and, therefore, the plots of all the other books in this series. Despite this fact, however, this is a book best read after you’ve enjoyed the rest of the series.

As with all Ann Leckie novels, this book follows the stories of multiple characters through a series of politically heavy events. The characters grow throughout the tale and their stories eventually weave together through the narrative, even if some characters never meet. I find Ann Leckie’s books almost impossible to describe except to say that if you like your SciFi on the thinking side, you’re sure to enjoy her complex world building and examination of unique alien and planetary premises. No two books are alike and Ann Leckie is truly a master of creating alien beings and cultures that somehow are never alienating to the reader. These are the books to read when you want to see and feel the commonality and humanness even in the other. Radiant Star is no exception and any fan of Ann Leckie or thought provoking SciFi is sure to love both this series and this newest entry.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ann Leckie for an ARC of this book.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am delighted to read a standalone Radch book that I unequivocally enjoyed with no caveats! I loved the initial Radch trilogy, did not care for Provenance, and really enjoyed Translation State with a couple of sizeable "buts." Outside the Radch universe, I really enjoyed Raven Tower and Leckie's short fiction collection, Lake of Souls.

This book takes place during the events of the first trilogy but on a sunless ice planet far from the Radch civil war. Leckie does an excellent job of pacing the rising tension of the book--and there's a surprising amount, given that the book isn't particularly action-heavy. Themes of the relativity of cultural norms and practices will be familiar to anyone who has read Leckie before, but this book also does some nice deep dives into the personal, and how the shifting slipperiness of the stories we tell ourselves allows us to reckon (or avoid reckoning altogether) with things we have done.

Jonr and his charge were my favorite human characters in the book--I would be so happy to read more stories about them--and Justice of Albis was a total delight.

This book has politics without wandering into the weeds or getting mired in intrigue, characters it's easy to care about but that left me wanting to know more (in a good way), and high stakes for a planet without losing sight of the personal stories that made the outcomes matter. The macro and the micro were well-balanced and the pacing was excellent. Honestly, no notes.

This is a smaller, quieter story than the Radch trilogy*--the struggles and dramas are on a smaller scale--but it is very good and I'm so glad I got to read it. Netgalley and Orbit Books provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review, and I'm too fussy about books to give any other kind.



*It couldn't very well be otherwise, being so far from the center of the action... and honestly, not every story can have a supreme ruler of a systems-spanning empire going to war with iterations of themselves.

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that Leckie is coming back to the world of Imperial Radch but is willing to do one shots on the periphery. Also, ngl, I love that this novel's speaking voice is essentially similar to the narrators in a Victorian novel, except for a culture we don't know, and is willing to razz the reader a bit for not knowing "civilization". We get a fascinating comedy of manners that also overlaps with a pending Imperial annexation, and all the fascinating things that can happen when social rules are in flux, or the place where you live is in a liminal position of not knowing if it's going to be annexed or not. Incredible character and narrative voice work here, the plot's great, and I love that we get more ancillaries as characters while we're at it. Comes out in May, preorder it now.

[J. L. R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series was one of the first major series in the contemporary “space opera about empire and gender” SF movement of the past decade, and while those books featured giant warships and lasers and Imperial politicking, it was clear that Leckie’s heart was more interested in the quieter moments, quirks of character and the cascade of small decisions. Since that initial trilogy, Leckie has returned to her galactic setting three times, each for standalone books focused primarily on other locations interacting with the Radch. Radiant Star is the third and latest of this endeavor, and it’s a bit of an odd one.

Radiant Star is entirely set on the planet Ooioiaa, an ossifying, isolated world whose inhabitants live beneath its frozen outer shell, ruled by three squabbling sects of a faith focused on the prophesied return of the eponymous Radiant Star, a star that supposed once warmed the planet but has since left on its interstellar journey. Near the beginning of the book, the planet is conquered by the Radch, who have little tolerance for their strange faith, chiefly targeting their tradition of turning a celebrated few into “living” saints, kept perpetually in a near-death catatonic state and sealed in a tomb to wake the return of the Star. A series of self-serving political machinations lead to a pillar of the community being selected to become a Saint - the last one tolerated by their new Radch overlords. This small concession sets into motion a chaotic series of power grabs, honest mistakes, and embarrassing overreaches that threatens to destroy Ooioiaa.

That summary might lead you to believe that this is a novel filled with dramatic betrayals, action setpieces, and melodramatic scheming, but Radiant Star doesn’t feel like that at all. The book features an anonymous narrator describing the events of this tense moment with something of a jovial, mid-century British comedic voice. It’s not like Fire and Blood, the in-universe historic text of the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones world. But it does keep something of a remove from its characters, despite telling us their anxieties and plans.

The strongest part of the book is the carefully orchestrated series of events, each one stemming from some small decision or personal foible, each one fairly innocuous in the moment, but together, catastrophic. Leckie is fascinated with the ways societies and systems fail, the way each individual piece thinks they’re making rational, self-interested decisions while failing to see what fresh horrors await them.

But personally, there’s something lacking here. The Imperial Radch series’ contribution to the recent SF gender discussion was the empire’s lack of gender and universal use of she/her pronouns for everyone. In these subsequent standalone books, the narrative focus is on other planets and cultures, all of which have used some form of neopronouns. I’m supportive of this idea - more science fiction and fantasy should explore alternative genders and ways of being - but their use here feels perfunctory. Leckie rarely describes the physical appearances of her characters; perhaps this is to further alienate readers from assigning our gender roles to them, but combined with the liberal use of neopronouns without any meaningful cultural distinctions, they don’t signify anything at all. I’m a very visual reader, and need to have some image in my head to really connect with fiction. Without any physical or gendered markers at all to the characters, coupled with Leckie’s sparse and distant voice, it’s hard to connect emotionally with any of the characters, and with the story at large. Without going into spoilers, the way the story wraps up also feels quite anticlimactic, and left me wondering what was the point of the whole endeavor.

All that being said, Leckie is clearly one of the preeminent voices in contemporary SF right now, and the Rube Goldberg machinery of Radiant Star’s plot was always compelling, even if I was held at a remove.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own.

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing and original as usual

[Emma Cathryne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Leckie's extended Radch universe gains another expansion with this latest addition to her literary universe. While nothing will ever eclipse the brilliance and magic of the original trilogy, this probably hits an even tie with Translation State for my favorite of the Radchverse standalones. In both of her prior Radch installments, Leckie opted to focus on the culture and politics of alien races--the Geck/Rrrr and the Presgr, respectively.

Meanwhile, Radiant Star centers a very human story rife with very human drama: caustic interpersonal relationships, religious turmoil, and political unrest. Of the three original Radch novels, this is probably most similar in tone and content to Ancillary Sword. Like Sword, Radiant Star is smaller and more self-contained than Leckie's other work, in this case zeroing in a group of social, religious, and political elite living in small but isolated city. Like Sword, Star is also masterful exercise in the braided narrative, gradually seeding various conflicts and points of tension that untimely converge in a bombastic and satisfying third act. In fact, much of the initial story is incredibly domestic, reminding me more of 19th century novel of manners than a space opera. Despite the introduction of the Raddchai--an occupying military force--and the inclusion of weighty commentary about the complex nature of religion (as a method of control, succor, identity, and/or corruption, depending on how you look at it), the story never really loses this Austinien edge. A large part of this is the narrative POV, a third-person omniscient voice telling the story in the style of a society columnist (space opera's Lady Whistledown, if you will).

The only thing holding me back from a 5-star rating is some minor frustration with how the central plot resolves. The denouement & subsequent falling action of the novel seem to implicate human fallibility and the imperfection of all those involved as the driving forces behind the cascading series of events that occur in the city. I wish Leckie had done a better job of learning into the ground truth that characterizes her original trilogy - that the imperial ambitions of the Radch are ultimately to blame for the chaos and confusion that befalls the characters. The Radchaai colonizers are depicted as the calm, civilized narrative foil to the confusing, frustrating, and often self-serving actions of the native Ooians. I don't doubt that this was intentional on Leckie's part, and meant to to balance against the unspoken notion that their influence - no matter how "helpful" or "civilizing" - was ultimately to blame for the unraveling of the systems and cultural touchstones maintained by the native people for generations. Leckie subtly references this idea in regards to the Radchaai distaste for Ooian religious practice. Despite the Radchaii- and possibly the reader's--revulsion towards the Ooian practice of religious self-sacrifice (e.g. suicide), the book poses an interesting moral question: What grounds do a colonizing occupation force have to determine what is "just" or "moral" behavior, especially for people they intended to subjugate and ultimately assimilate?

These themes are excellent and reflect exactly the anti-colonial praxis I'm always hoping to find in Leckie's novels. Still, Radiant Star's discussion of them was surprisingly indirect, often left as under-text rather than explicitly reflected by the plot or engaged with by the characters. Ultimately, I think Leckie's devotion to curating a specific narrative voice was at odds with the power and poignancy of the themes she was aiming to convey. While this doesn't neutralize them, it does perhaps make their impact less profound.

[Asher · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an odd thing to suggest that a book that has as many things happen in it as Radiant Star does isn't plot driven, but more than anything this novel felt like a portrait of a city and a religion and an exploration of some of the themes that have defined the Imperial Radch books. Through a handful of interleaved perspectives, Leckie paints a nuanced picture of how personal ambition intersects with faith and family and how people deal with it when those things are at loggerheads. All of this dances around a fabulous setting that has been built with the sort of care characteristic of Leckie's work.

Ann Leckie's books are really good at showing characters that are limited in their ability to act for internal reasons. I really appreciate that the flaws and limitations characters have are fundamentally believable, and this has always made those characters feel really three-dimensional and fleshed out. Radiant Star stands apart from Leckie's other novels in the way that those character limitations are described: the narration here is arch and wry, offering details of characters' psyches and frank assessments of their limitations, and not infrequently addressing them directly to the reader. It's an omniscient third person narration that seems like it has been written hundreds of years after the events of the book, which makes for a very different voice to the first person narration of the original Imperial Radch trilogy or the first- and limited-third-person narration of the other sequels in the series. While I really like it, I also tend to prefer when I know who the narrator is, either because they're a character or because we eventually find out, and I missed that here.

I've also always appreciated the way Leckie portrays different relations to religion, from pragmatism to genuine devotion, without judgement or sense that one is inherently superior. It's an interesting and humane view, and the matter-of-fact tone that describes both divine visions and internal politics gives space for the characters to be worldly, self-motivated individuals while also being genuine devoted worshipers. The Radch Empire and it's agents are also given that treatment, and I was reminded of the recent A Drop of Corruption in the way the book talked about empires and how the political structures they replace aren't necessarily worth valorising.

The Imperial Radch books continue to be a heck of a lot of fun, and I continue to hope that the exploration of the aftermath of the original trilogy means that someday we'll get another entry returning to those characters. Wherever Ann Leckie takes me, I will go.

[Kate Kulig · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delight from Ann Leckie with some great humorous aspects, but still many themes to think about.

Aaa is a backwater planet with no sunlight to speak of, and despite what seems to be a permanent ice age, they have managed a fascinating civilization under the ground, with most of the book's action taking place in the city of Ooioiaa. It's a complex society and functions almost as a character.

The story opens with a person flouting convention, though the consequences aren't felt for a while as the culmination of that particular plan wasn't to happen for eighteen years. Meanwhile, The Imperial Radch arrived. You don't need to read the original Imperial Radch triology, but the background is helpfull

The ensemble cast includes a Radch governor, who borders on the trope of wanting to "civilize" the locals, but Leckie masterfully weaves the story so I ended up wanting them to succeed in some areas.

One area of this is religion. A strategy common to colonizers is to leave the local religions alone, at first. Then slowly show where there are parallels with the invaders' and start slowly taking over. The governor, however isn't good at the long game. To be fair, the Radch was suddenly out of reach and there were many problems to solve like people starting to starve.

The religious aspects of Ooioiaa are those you might find anywhere in any galaxy. Divisive sects compete with each other, even getting to fisticuffs at a couple of points. Any religion needs money to support itself and Leckie gives the reader insight to two members who may be strong in their faith, but have their own ambitions. A key plot point is a high-ranking member of society wanting to be enshrined as a living saint and the ripple effects this has throughout the church and the city.

Other POV characters include a young man (Jonr) who was born for a particular purpose, but because of the Radch's arrival, his life gets turned upside, but he gets a fresh start, sort of, improvising a life he never would have had otherwise.

Two other characters, a spoiled son of the impending saint and his long-suffering wife have their own set of social and familial machinations in and around power and money. They are a shining example of how people are people everywhere. There is less character development with these two (one could argue there was none at all with the husband).

The writing style pokes fun at everything with some snarky asides, which gave me several laughs even as my heart ached for Jonr and I wanted to throttle more than one other character. Still, I was left thinking about the impact of imperialism, the business of religion, strict stratification of classes, and social destiny vs individual ambitious. It was a delight to read and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the opportunity to review this ARC.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the jump, let it be known that the original Imperial Radch trilogy are among my favorite books of all time. Getting an approval to read the ARC of an all time favorite author is beyond one of the biggest privileges I've ever experienced, and I quite earnestly shouted when I received the notification of it waiting on my shelf.

One of Leckie's major strengths in her storytelling is the narrative voice given for each new one. While this novel may be set in the Radch universe, you can read it entirely on its own without previous knowledge of her other books (although I highly recommend reading them all the same.) The setting is the same, but the voice is one all on its own, Leckie shaping the prose around the experience of learning about the long off rogue planet of Aaa, its people, and its structures. Ever present, no matter the story, is a dry humor that by no means removes the impact of the stories and connections, but definitely helps the reader remain engaged and experiencing a wide array of emotions. In Radiant Star, Leckie employes the use of a narrator who likes to make various asides directly to the reader, making you feel as if you are being given a lecture at an educational institute or even told the dramatic story over a shared meal. (These asides often had me quite literally laughing out loud, my particular favorite line being a simple "Reader, have you ever been eighteen?" as a way to explain the logic of a particular character.)

Like most of her novels, this one features a large cast of characters, a consistent rotation of viewpoints laying out the outlines that slowly fill themselves in for a bigger picture. Some of my favorite books are about unbearable people, which the vast majority of said characters are; motivations are realistic, selfish, and perpetually groan worthy. Also ever present is one of my favorite things about Leckie: the way she plays around with the concepts of society and gender. It is not on the nose or preached on, but simply is, and I adore the privilege of experiencing the creations of this author.

This is a story of feuding religious sects, political intrigue, class injustices, the effects of empire, bureaucracy, and a question of what makes a person a person. I cannot recommend it enough, and I would say the best way to jump in is with as little information as possible. Don't worry, Leckie gives you the story in rich strokes and thorough worldbuilding, you will never find yourself lost, confused, or without the proper information to experience the story. Let it be known that it is a slower paced book, especially in the front half, but the careful laying of dominos is so worth the payoff.

I want to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the opoortunity to review in exchange of an ARC!

[nikki]

I was given a copy of Radiant Star in exchange for my honest review through NetGalley.

Set in the same universe as Leckie’s award-winning Imperial Radch series, Radiant Star leaves the imperial core for a more distant planet, cut off from Radch space, and the events that unfold there in the same time period. While it is quite different from Ancillary Justice and its sequels, it still showcases Leckie’s excellent prose, fantastic sense of both human understanding and alien society, while examining themes both familiar and new.

I am particular about the writing in books, so much so that it trumps plot in my estimation of the quality of a book. I have enjoyed all of the other entries in the Imperial Radch space opera universe, but Radiant Star has a specific quality in its writing that sets it apart from the rest. I won’t say it is better, because I do think that it is necessary to view it in relation to Ancillary Justice et al, but there is something special about the writing in this one. The book follows many characters as the story unfolds, as told by an admittedly non-omniscient narrator, but a narrator who knows much, and who often interjects with bits of history, opinions, and to address the reader directly. While I understand why more books are not written this way, it was extremely enjoyable and I do hope to see more of it. It makes the experience of reading like talking with a friend, and when the story is delightful as well? Well, it’s magnificent. That alone would give this book five stars.

On the remote and icy planet of Ooiaiaa, the people live underground, are prone to visions, and have been recently annexed by the Radch. They bristle against the new imperial forces in their singular city. The rule of the Radch clashes with the existing culture of Ooiaiaa, in ways of gender, religion, and most unfortunately, food. As the planet becomes cut off from the rest of Radch space, communication stops and starvation looms. Despite the grimness it contains, the book manages to be lighthearted and sincere, perhaps because of this loving narrator, checking in on the reader.

As always, Leckie manages to have something to say about the construction of gender in her books with the Radch. The commentary is not as present as it is in some earlier installments, but Radiant Star has the widest variety of pronouns in a novel that I have seen— which in itself, is a comment, isn’t it?

Overall, it is a fantastic read for fans of new and unique space operas. I believe Ann Leckie follows in the tradition of LeGuin’s Hainish Cycle, and it is always a delight to see where she will next take us.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I was so excited to hear that Ann Leckie was returning to the world of Imperial Radch, and this novel did not disappoint at all. We still have our Radchaai, with their obsession with tea and conquering with their ancillaries to bring civilization to far-flung planets, but this time, we get to see some of the consequences of the Radch Civil War play out in the microsm of the frozen planet of Aaaa. Here, Leckie shines as usual by outlining out the minutia of all the internal politics at play with the religion, family ties, shared cultural norms, and personalities of the power players of the city. Centering it all though, is the humanity and paradoxes of all the characters.

I loved first POV character we are introduced to, Jonr. He's 18 and very much lost, understandably so, and trying to find his place in a city that is coming under increasing strain with the space gates closing. He finds solace and kinship taking care of the Radch governor's cousin, and my heart was extremely warmed by the way these two broken people managed to both save and care for each other. My favorite though, is always going to be yet another ship, this time one Justice of Albis who likes to pilfer things for its eclectic collections. And my absolutely favorite moment from this book is when Justice of Albis laughs and reveals what Breq has done in the previous books to declare that while it is helping the governor, it will never take orders again

The plot itself is complex, with many characters driving it and coming into conflict with one another, but Leckie's writing shines here, because she gets into the heads of even the most despicable of characters, and makes you at least nod in realizing that this sort of person exists everywhere. The characters all carry paradoxical impulses that they themselves cannot decipher, none more than Keemat, who desires both fame and hermitage, and ultimately delivers on both. I loved all the little details of the religion of the Radiant Star and all its various schools of thoughts and clans and how they fight so hard against each other and how the Radchaai ultimately use it to calm the inflamed situation of the famine. It's an alien world, but you'll feel right at home at the end.

Yet another amazing read from Ann Leckie, and a fine addition to the Imperial Radch series!

[Pujashree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen, I'm a mere mortal in sci-fi-verse, and when Ann Leckie drops a book, especially in her Raadch universe, I go "Yes thank you ma'am". The Ancillary series was groundbreaking in so many ways, and one I go back to frequently when introspecting on empire, identity, personhood, gender, and language. Leckie's narrative style is so deeply profound yet not pretentious, and always a shot in the arm in considering human experiences and civilization in deeply visceral yet compassionate ways. This book takes place on the fringes of the world and time period of the original series. The far-flung rogue ice planet of Aaa and the city of Ooioia are as intentionally written as every detail of the Raadch empire, down to the very inscrutable Flora and fauna of the odd planet plays a significant role in the events of this story. Unlike the original series, this has a seemingly dizzying number of POVs and it could have easily been a scattered narrative, but in Leckie's seasoned hands, they all serve to tell a very specific story: what happens to fringe colonies of an empire as the empire itself crumbles from within. The Ooioia society is a deeply religious one with a very rigid structure of power around the various interpretations of the faith about the Radiant Star, the mythical one that the planet once revolved around and the devotees believe will return one day. The different sects do NOT get along, have priests and priestesses that get visions from the Radiant Star, and the occupying Raadchai government is having a heck of a time controlling the city by leveraging all hostile factions. Throw in a Raadchai civil war induced supply chain issue and famine, politicking around inheritance wars amongst the infrastructure family empire, and all the small folk who are just trying to do good and survive, including the ancillaries of the Raadchai ship occupying the planet, and you have a moving tale of a city state that is simultaneously too insignificant for an empire's notice and fiercely resilient in the face of invasion, starvation and revolution.
Leckie's narrative voice is so engrossing and gentle in guiding your attention to all the important details of an elaborate chess game of events and a thrilling ride through a time and place that is both fascinating and familiar. May she forever be up to good genderfuckery and anti-colonial trouble!

Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit for the ebook ARC.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

3rd person but narrator occasionally addresses the readers/multiple made-up pronouns/no or little swearing

Ann Leckie's newest book in the Radch series is a bit of a departure from her previous books in that most of the POV characters are not Radch people and none of them are ancillaries. The writing style seemed to have a sort of quirky charm about it, sometimes it seems to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. I mean the name of the planet where all the action takes place is Aaa. Yes that's it, just "Aaa". And the name of the city on that planet is Ooioiaa. I mean, are we expected to take this seriously? How do you even pronounce those words?! And occasionally the reader is addressed by the narrator, breaking down the fourth wall. At those times it really feels like you're sitting around the fireplace listening to someone tell you a fantastical story.

At the start of the book the Radch are no where in sight. Later the Radch invade and take over the governing of the planet, leaving the native religions to themselves...for now at least. The religion on Aaa revolves around the Radiant Star and the "Temporal Location" of it that the people believe to be on their planet. You see, their planet does not revolve around a sun like ours does but instead is a rogue planet traveling on it's own course. Why the people believe that the location of their star is on their planet is beyond me. There are two factions, actually three but there are two that butt heads about certain theological issues.

Now. On to characters. The first character we meet is a member of the third religious faction, actually more of a clan. All the children are boys and all the adults women (I guess they have a way to change their gender because some of the boys are chosen to join the group and become women). One woman is, well let's say a wild child, a free spirit who does whatever she wants. She leaves the planet like the prodigal son, going off to have a good time, and comes back pregnant, which is something that is not done in that group. She has a plan. After she gives birth and the boy is raised he will be sent to another planet to someone who made a contract with the mother to pay for the boy. Yeah, she's definitely not mother-of-the-year. That boy becomes one of the POV characters and important to the story.

Another POV character is in one of the religions and is very pious. He wants to become a saint, which are not likes the saints we have but interred while they are still barely alive into the temporal space of the Radiant Star to meditate and pray. But he is too young to qualify yet. There's another religious POV character who mostly bickers with someone from the rival religious order.

The Radch governor is another POV character.

There are at least two characters who have made-up pronouns (sie, per, and others). I found it difficult to read when those characters were referred to because I had to stop and try to parse what a sie is and it became annoying. So +1 to Leckie for being on the right side of history but -1 for the effect that has on the reader. I mean, what exactly is a sie or a per? I know what she and he are but a per? And how does one know when talking about someone that they are a sie instead of a she or a per instead of a he? I had trouble reading those sections because I could not imagine the person they were talking about. Now maybe that's just my limitation and other readers will have no problem reading about sie and per.

When I was reading along I thought this would end up being a 4 star book, especially because of the pronouns, but by the end it was wow, this book is good and so I changed my mind and despite my pronoun troubles I rate it a 5.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I have read all of Ann Leckie's novels so far and was very excited to be approved to read her newest work.

Like most of Leckie's work, this story focuses more on the politics of how various diverse cultures interact when they are all sharing a planet together. The story begins with the Radch Empire taking over a backwater (from the Radch's standpoint) planet and dealing with the social, political and religious fallout that ensues. It's a bloodless takeover - the planet cannot possibly defend itself from occupation and doesn't try. The many religions of the planet vie for power and importance in the upheaval, and the story follows major players in different sects, as a well as ordinary locals and Radch caught up in the situation.

As time passes and those who had read Leckie's other books are aware, the Radch Civil War breaks out. Though the actual fighting is far away from the planet, the repercussions and supply chain problems ripple out to affect even this remote planet as well, and the story morphs into one of people trying to avert supply and food shortages in creative ways.

If all this seems boring - it's not. Leckie is fascinatingly good at delving into cultural complexity and moral conflicts. There are so many gray areas for the characters to deal with, and if you are someone who likes reading about alien cultural and social politics this book is absolutely for you. I am one of those people. It did move a bit slow in places compared to some of her other works, but is still an excellent read. However, if you haven't read her other Radch books, I'm not sure this is the best place to start. Knowing the extent of the Civil War would probably be helpful for context, though I think you definitely could read this as a standalone without confusion. I just think you'll get more out of it if you've read the Ancillary Trilogy beforehand.

At any rate, I haven't changed my opinion that I'll read anything Leckie wants to write because it's all good, and this is no exception. Recommended for anyone who likes socio-political Sci-Fi.

[PlotTrysts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I talk about how I think far future SF and historical romance are related genres. After finishing Radiant Star, it just drove home the point. This book is set in the Imperial Radch universe and I think works best if you've read at least the founding trilogy of that series before trying to jump in here. Although there are no related characters or plot points, the world building is quite dense, and the specific political crisis in this book is related to the wider political crisis related in those initial 3 books.

Radiant Star is specifically set on Aaa, a rogue planet (e.g. it has no star) and, despite the SF elements that serve as drivers for the plot (e.g. food scarcity on a planet that has no star to assist with photosynthesis), it's above all a book about relationships and political maneuvering. Just like historical fiction gives us artificial parameters for our characters to navigate, the setting and cultures of a far future SF world function in the same way. Both genres require the reader to care about characters who are reacting to mores and accepted behaviors that are completely unlike our own.

This is a complex novel, with at least 6 different POV characters plus an omniscient narrator who addresses the reader in the second person (it feels similar to Victorian literature in this way). The plot is just as complex as the myriad POVs, but it generally follows the way both well-meaning and self-interested (and well-meaning yet also self-interested) people can affect politics; and how politics, in turn, affect real people who were not a part of the decision-making process. That's simplifying the book a bit, but it includes religious communities, a colonizing empire, food scarcity, self-delusion, posthumous legacy, and more.

I loved this book, and I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time. It also has inspired me to do (yet another) reread of Ancillary Justice to remind myself that anytime is the right time to act.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received access to an eARC courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

This is a very biased review. The original Imperial Radch trilogy alone is one of my favorite sci-fi stories of all time, and it and Translation State are a delightful balm for the noisy part of me that demands nonhuman POVs and thoughtful consideration of language as an aspect of storytelling.

This book is set in the city of Ooioiaa, the underground city on the planet of Aaa hurtling through space with no solar heat source, awaiting the return of the Radiant Star in both a physical and religious sense. This city is rife with politics and religion and movement, all of which collide in a massive chain reaction when the Radchaai come in to capitalize on the pilgrimage site.

This story is told through multiple rotating POVs and reads more like a history book or perhaps journalism, which wasn't a bad thing since we weren't in Radchaai space. It was quite interesting learning how this city worked and all the parties at play. And of course it's always fun to see what new thing Leckie does with gender.

This is an incredibly timely book. So many themes are woven throughout the story: human nature, colonization, religious fervor, propaganda, and effect of language on all the aforementioned. Language issues could easily be hand-waved away with technology or magic, but I deeply appreciate how Leckie uses language in her storytelling and presents it almost as its own character, affecting the world around it.

This book is not for everyone. Experienced readers of the Imperial Radch world will be familiar with this type of storytelling, but if you go into this book expecting epic space battles or big weapons, you will be sorely disappointed. This book is slow, but it pays off if you pay attention. It is an easy 5 stars for me.

This review is crossposted on Goodreads, Storygraph, and NetGalley.

[Sophia Katzell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a cool book! I discovered part way through reading it that this is set in a preexisting universe, but I wouldn't let that stop anyone from reading it. The way the narrative is framed as a factual recounting of a major historical event means that any context you need to understand the global sociopolitical dynamics is given, with nods to "previous readers" who may already know this information.

I'd be interested to go back and read the original trilogy and see if it fills in any gaps, as I'm assuming it focusses more on the Radch, since that seemed to be the group of people where our prior understanding was most expected. As is, we were given a high level overview of how Radch starships function, but with the attention to detail Leckie paid to even the smallest nuances of how Ooioiaa operates I imagine there is a lot more nuance there.

Following multiple perspectives can be tough, but I think there was a strong enough balance between all of the stories being told that none seemed to drag. What I found most interesting was that with some characters, we were outright denied information, sometimes as a result of the narrator not knowing, sometimes out of the narrator choosing not to tell us. I think this was the most compelling part of Leckie's storytelling, because revealing that the narrator is specifically self editing to recount this event in the way they deemed best is really evocative of the biased journalism that can be present in any historical recounting.

Thank you to Ann Leckie and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my thoughts.

[sarai · Rating 5 out of 5]

honestly this might be my favourite imperial radch book. where the others were intensely personal and character driven, this is more about telling the story of a major crisis through the eyes of a few key (and not-so-pivotal) players in said crisis. the alien, intensely (yet humanly) religious society of. uh. ooioiaa. feels alive with its politics and power plays and cuisine and religion, and while the radch itself takes a bit of a backseat (as does the associated commentary on imperialism), the events of this book are directly impacted by those of the original trilogy.

even though this book isn't as character driven as the others, i almost found myself connecting with its cast more. jonr is an unwanted (well. it's complicated) child who's never found a place in the world until, through a freak set of circumstances, he becomes the caretaker of the imperial governor's cousin. shtel is an underappreciated consort, while hir useless heir of a partner iono schemes fruitlessly with blinkers on. keemat is a rebellious monk who wants nothing more than the spotlight, as long as it comes by the will of the radiant star. the pov list goes on but they're all so interconnected that none of it is confusing.

the tone of this book is a bit didactic and old-fashioned, with the narrator breaking the fourth wall at times to allude not only to the reader but to the original trilogy. it fits, though, with a ersatz historical narrative. all in all, i really enjoyed this one!

thanks netgalley and orbit for the e-arc!

[RedPlaidGoose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a standalone novel set in the Imperial Radch universe – if you have read the earlier books in the Ancillary series, you’ll feel at home in this small corner of the empire. If this is your first time, you’ll be perfectly fine; you really don’t need a deeper understanding of some of the Radch-related concepts, it’s not entirely central to story.

This book is a character-driven exploration of politics, religious yearnings, and social hierarchies in a small world circumscribed by the conditions of its existence as an icebound sunless planetoid drifting through space, colonized in the far past and now re-conquered by the expansionist Radchaai. Events in the wider empire leave the planetary governor cut off from re-supply and communications, and she is finds herself on her own trying to keep the remote colony alive while the citizens grapple with assimilation into the Empire and the upending of their society.

Leckie builds a web of well-developed characters with their own obsessions and motivations; the conflicts emerge naturally and inevitably. The tightly-written story moves along at a snappy pace that nonetheless leaves room for delving into the humanity of each individual. Leckie displays her greatest strength as a writer when creating people who seem to be very different from us, but in the end turn out to be as glorious and flawed as any other human.

[Laura Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 12th, 2026.

Honestly I was pretty disappointed in this book. I loved Leckie’s Ancillary series and my favorite parts of this book were the (very short) sections that featured Ancillaries. It was a long book with plenty of repetition and very little new in the way of speculative fiction. Primarily a planet struggling with culture and religious political strife. I can just read the news! Additionally, it felt like the whole purpose of the book was simply to serve as a vehicle to introduce far more pronouns than anyone needs to think about! I’m a very fast reader but my reading speed was cut roughly in half because I had to keep parsing the many different pronouns used — all in ways that didn’t easily translate to anything identifiable (to me) as a specific group or type. A real headache to parse. I didn’t really see this point.

[Jennybeast · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's kind of hard to know how to categorize this, given its meditative pace and diverse main characters. I love how Leckie writes culture. We're just deeply embedded in it, with a certain amount of background information so it doesn't get overwhelming, and a few sympathetic characters to keep things moving along. The omniscient narrator really works for me in this context, especially when the story is more about the organism of a city in a time of tumult than any one person. The contemplation of religion and its desperate struggle between faith and greed also seems apropos of the moment. This is a satisfying book, and a bit of a relief. Having recently attended a training on the contemporary development of AI, I was not looking forward to another story that centers one. I still love Ancillary Justice, but I'm not in a place where it comforts me to think of benevolent AI at the moment. I still adore the multiplicity of genders in Leckie's work and queer normative state. Altogether a strong addition to the universe.

Advanced Reader's Copy Provided by Edelweiss.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to Orbit books and Netgalley for his prerelease copy. Leckie returns to her Imperial Radch universe with this stand alone novel about an isolated planet cut off from the larger Radch planets. The story revolves early in the novel about the planet's religion and politics as the interrelate and the characters involved. I've loved all of Leckie's previous books and was very disappointed in this effort. I did not finish this book as I found it tedious with a limited story line and plot. The use of pronouns was tiresome for me and the naming of the characters and locations confusing. I stopped after reading about 25% of the novel. Other reviewers say the book picked up in the second half of the story but I was not interested in plodding through to reach that stage.

[keegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am delighted by Leckie's apparent desire to explore every bizarre literary perspective trick she can get her hands on. This isn't as wild as (the parts I've read of) The Raven Tower being entirely in second person, addressed to the protagonist, but here she uses an unnamed narrator constructing the events of the story as if they were writing a history. It's cool! It's especially nice to see some of the fallout of the events of the Radchaai Civil War detailed in the first three books from the ground, though I still need to read the other two stand-alone Radch novels so there might be more of that that I haven't seen yet.

[Slmstanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Leckie's Radch stories; this one is no different in that regard. Taking place on a tiny planet in the Galactic sticks, this tale is full of complicated politics, colonization, religious strife, devotion, greed, chaos, saints, famine, miracles, visions...and some very, very terrible unintended consequences.

The world-building is so rich and expansive that the cultures and environs come to life in your mind's eye, until you could swear that you could confidently find your way in the city if you were to set foot there.

[MAB LongBeach · Rating 4 out of 5]

High quality humanist science fiction set on an isolated planet at the edge of Radch space. Although the society is very alien, the people are not. Humanity is still humanity, even in the far future. When crisis erupts, they react in familiar ways.

This could be read without any knowledge of other Radch books, but knowing some of the background helps illuminate the action. Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Thanks NetGalley for the advance copy)

Let's call this one a 3.5, subjectively

This one ... wasn't really for me. Could be that my thoroughly atheist/nonspiritual upbringing didn't give me as much to relate to a lot of the characters about, could be something else.

It still had Leckie's usual style of characters but something about the plot just took a while to cohere. Even at its more compelling bits, I just didn't feel drawn in, the way I have for Leckie's other novels.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this more than I did. I love Leckie's writing, but this was slow in a way that felt like a slog. I didn't like the narration, I felt like the story stayed too disconnected for too long, and over all I didn't get the richness from Radiant Star that I have from her other writing.