These Burning Stars

This has all the elements that make good space opera: extensively detailed world, with a variety of places and a variety of cultures; an overbearing, dystopian empire, with complex internal politics; characters who are unreasonably competent in their villainy; space pirates; space hackers; space sapphic romance.

Some of the plot twists feel a bit too twisty, but are more palpable given the context of the general vibe the setting has (which is established in a satisfactory manner). At times, the main characters feel a bit too constantly competent, often relegating other characters to the roles of bumbling fools, or passing redshirts. The book works as the kind where that happens, but given the quality of worldbuilding otherwise, it would have been nice to have more nuance in this area.

Starts off in a stock fantasy of clerics and assassins, and clearly riffing on some familiar themes of space classics, but as this thriller's clever use of flashback and recall keeps weaving a strong set of character relationships and loyalties in unflinching intrigue, the wide-ranging story pulls off a lot of sharp turns without losing the individual threads. I'll likely read the next one, and thankful it's not just left as a part two.

Not a perfect debut novel, but a solid and intriguing space opera, full of cruel, coward and calculating characters, even though one important part felt deja vu (a powerful family controls the production of the substance that enables space travel...). All in all, it was an enjoyable read.