Radiant

Radiant closes out the League of Peoples series in classic style. Youn Suu is an explorer disfigured by a weeping sore on her cheek and a narcissistic mother. When a diplomatic mission goes awry, she is infested with the hyper-intelligent Balrog spores, teamed up with Admiral Festina Ramos, and sent to rescue a survey team from the post-human Unity clade.

What we have is a mystery of a deadly alien world and a transcendence program gone horribly awry, as framed through Youn Suu’s Buddhism, and her fear of being overtaken by the Balrog and its purpose. The story closes by suggesting that the Explorer Corps embodies certain archetypal heroes, agents for the higher races of the League of Peoples, solving problems that are not yet clear. The xenological mystery is both spooky and a hell of a lot of fun. Even if the essential questions of the setting never quite come together, I enjoyed the League of Peoples series as a fun space opera jaunt.