[Review] Radiant Star by Ann Leckie - an novel set in the Imperial Radch Universe
I recently finished Radian Star, a new novel in the Radch universe setting. Like Provenance it is set entirely on an alien world inhabited by humans and features a new set of characters and focuses on their lives. Like her other novels it is well written and features a lot of political intrigue, which I do like, but no aliens, unfortunately. There is one ship, and it acts to move the plot along, but we don't really get much of it.
The story itself is about a crisis in Ooioiaa, an isolated underground city on an icy wandering planet that was taken over by the Radch empire for unspecified strategic reasons.
There are a wide cast of characters, one young boy accidentally put in stasis at the start of the invasion only to be released years later, a Radch governor, a rich family of industry, and several member of the church of the Radiant Star. The narrative voice is... odd. It's third person and sometimes comments on the story as if it was being told as a history, but the story is told from the point of view of the characters. It will also comment on the characters, saying how deluded they are, etc.
Which was kind of my issue with the book. The author seemed to focus a lot on representations of people she holds in contempt, or so it seemed reading the book. Selfish rich people, social climbers, the clergy... especially the clergy. I found it odd that so much of the book was focused on worshipers of the radiant star when she made it very clear they believed a bunch of nonsense and all twisted it to self-serving goals anyways. But perhaps that was the point? At any rate the author spent a lot of time exploring the selfish motivations she attributes to caricatures of people she clearly doesn't like, which isn't all that fun.
If you like Ann Leckie you might pick it up, but I didn't find it to be one of her stronger books.