Lindsay Buroker
The Fallen Empire series includes 8 books
Book 1 - Star Nomad
Book 2 - Honor's Flight
Book 3 - Starseers
Book 4 - Relic of Sorrows
Book 5 - Cleon Moon
Book 6 - Arkadian Skies
Book 7 - Perilous Hunt
Book 8 - End Game
plus a bunch of later published interstitials. These are fast reads and this review is for the entire series (1-8) but not the x.5's.
Sort of a Star Wars-esque space opera, but I appreciate at least a little bit of "scientific reality". The setting is a single solar system (albeit with 3 suns) that was colonized by humans on generational ships long before. The system has 51 planets and moons that are inhabited and communication and travel time between the different planets is realistic. No magic teleporting hyperdrives. In the the world, the Alliance has recently "won" over the Empire - but in effect absolutely controls maybe 3 planets, with most of the system moving toward chaos or local control. In this world, Alliance fighter pilot Alisa Marchenko finds herself stranded on a remote planet and basically forgotten. She and fellow stranded Alliance soldier Mica (primarily a mechanic) go to the junkyard to recover Marchenko's family freighter spaceship, fix it up, and return home to her daughter. At the ship, the two encounter Leonidas, an Imperial cyborg who had the same designs. To get off planet, these "enemies" team up and eventually "team up".
The series uses Marchenko's kidnapped daughter as the main plot driver throughout, and explores post-war politics, religious freedom, the slippery slope of "practical morality", elitist class systems and personal loyalty. Everything I like in a good space opera. Definitely recommend this for diversionary reading.
