Really remarkable. Of course, I read translation state to prepare to read this, and they're very different. Both are very sharply funny - Radiant Star had me regularly laughing loudly and reading out paragraphs for my partners. It is also a very sad and deeply tragic book, far harsher and more painful than any of the other raadch books. There's a real trick here in doing a joking, playful narrator who reminds me almost of either jane austen or somehow, douglas adams, conveying a story of almost unbroken sadness throughout with real empathy. (some degree of spoilers to follow) I was waiting throughout for the characters to come together, for the threads to be woven into a solution which uses every part of every character to produce a tightly woven resolution in the manner of a lot of literary science fiction and Translation State particularly, and I was absolutely thrilled to see that that's not the nature of this story. It's about the place, of religious dedication, of shared endurance, rather than building to a percussive climax. Really good book