Like the six preceding novels, Radiant is set in the middle of the 25th century; like most of them, it takes place in outer space and on alien planets, and features the continuing character Festina Ramos.

Gardner makes interesting connections between the traditional religion and one of the most basic preoccupations of his series, the idea of the evolution of biological life beyond the physical plane of existence.

The traditional Buddhist concept of individual spiritual development till the attainment of Nirvana dovetails neatly with this fictional idea.

In the Author's Note that prefaces Radiant, Gardner specifies that he is not "preaching" Buddhism, but rather employing the religion to give his character a "multiplicity" of viewpoints on their world and their experience.

If Youn Suu embodies an Eastern take on the story's events, Ramos and Tut can be taken to represent the polar opposites of the Western mind.

The Balrog, far more than a parasite, is a hive mind well above the human level of development, so that killing it would violate the central precept of the League of Peoples.

The three Explorers land on the planet; even with the most elaborate precautions they fall prey to its peculiar circumstances, and find themselves stranded and contaminated with a microbe that threatens to destroy their bodies.

Investigating their predicament, they learn that the entire planet was once a global research station for the Fuentes, a species that discovered a way to transcend the physical body and transform itself into energy-based or consciousness-based entities.