Radiant Star – Ann Leckie

“Radiant Star” has no villains and no heroes. Disaster comes in the wake of banal behavior, and is worsened by more banal behavior. Often, perhaps mostly, people behave more poorly than they ought, and convince themselves that they are behaving appropriately.

The setting is a sunless planet - one which has escaped its original star but is slightly habitable with technological help. The radiant star of the title is the object of the population’s hopes and worship. This is fleshed out well: The faith has competing sects. It has a clergy that is genuinely devout, but is competing for the wealth that pilgrims and donors bring.

The setting is only marginally important to the story. The story could have been tweaked to take place in a domed city on the floor of a vast ocean, or in an enormous cavern far beneath the surface of an inhospitable planet, without taking much harm. The broader setting is the empire of the Radchaai, whose collapse we see in the author’s excellent Ancillary trilogy. The Radchaai have occupied the sunless world, and carelessly triggered the disaster - and the collapse isolates them just when help is needed. But Radiant Star is on the fringes of their civil war, and it is only important to the story because shipping is stopped at the worst time.

The story is clever, more than entertaining. The characters have real flaws and real virtues, but are not likable.