This is a good old fashioned space opera. The technology is well thought out and reasoned to (mostly) logical conclusions, but this is not hard sci fi. This is blasters and space empires.

And pretty good ones. It’s exciting and fast paced, breezing you past some iffy world building to keep you in the action (which is the point; space operas don’t make complete sense, so it’s the author’s job to make sure it’s thrilling and interesting enough to keep your disbelief suspended).

A matriarchal space empire, founded, apparently, by folks from India, with a plots to steal the throne, poison the empress and inspire a rival space kingdom to invade. And the protagonist is a princess who fled to find her father’s killer and became a smuggler and gunrunner before circumstances force her to return and (eventually, I don’t think it’s giving much away) become Empress of the Indaran Empire.

I look forward to reading the next volume.