Finished
The Chronicles of Tiris 1 by V Mahanenko, and it was really fun - there is some similarity in thematic with the Hadrian Marlowe series - not in tone as this one is gung-ho and with Eastern European sensibilities, not dark and melancholic, but in the universe setup, the hero's origin and trajectory (eg disowned by his noble father and founding by deeds of valor his own house, gets a special "magical" sword, has his close companions most of common origins, has to deal with the intrigues of the aristocracy who doesn't particularly like him as an upstart etc).
My Goodreads review:
Fast and fun start to a mil-space opera series (with a bit of a fantasy feel) set in an aristocratic universe where humanity (using both its technology and the technology of a vastly advanced "precursor" species) fights the Xorkhian, a species with tech based on biological manipulation, where even their spaceships are behemoth organisms, and nobody quite knows their hierarchy (there are various Xorkhian organisms like "brains", "devourers" etc but a lot about them is only conjecture).
The human space is led by the Empire of Tiris and its aristocratic families, with the Solarions, the ruling family whose blood allows their clan members to interact directly with precursor tech, though quite a few other such families are very powerful. Somewhere on the frontier, in Duke Elias Solarion's bailwick, the Ardan clan owns a huge chunk of the farmland of Agris, a self-governing frontier planet. One of the young Ardan heirs, Kael, dreams of space from a young age, so he refuses to take his role and manage a large chunk of the family holdings, but goes to work for rival families and makes enough money to buy a small ship and start mining in the star system, hoping to get enough money to be able to attend one of the (regional) Imperial space academies.
Unfortunately, things go awry when the supposedly derelict Xorkhian behemoth in the system, starts stirring and the Empire sends a cruiser that unwittingly wreaks havoc on the miners' operations when it jumps in the system - staring ruin in the face, Kael takes a gamble and boards the behemoth, where he mysteriously acquires "Echo", an entity that helps him get a "heart" - an extremely valuable Xorkhian artifact/species; of course the Empire wants it too, but Kael holds his ground and manages to get in system Aris Solarion, son of Elias, and famed Xorkhian expert/researcher, and makes a bargain - Aris sponsors him for "The" Imperial Academy in the capital, but Kael first goes to boot camp at a regional combat academy and then to Hyperion - a contested planet - to acquire a quantity of a crucial Xorkhian substance to pay his way to the main academy where the required first year cadet equipment costs more than a spaceship.
Aris actually offers Kael the choice of paying for the equipment in return for lifelong service, but Kael rejects that and takes the Hyperion option which of course was what Aris wanted all along as it turns out that unknown to Kael, the Ardan family is a collateral branch of the Solarions, so Kael has the bloodline to interact with precursor tech and Aris (rightly of course) suspects that Kael acquired powerful such tech in secret to have been able to survive on the Xorkhian ship and recover the "heart".
And so the adventure finally starts - the usual boot camp, comrades in the Phoenix squad, enemies, trials, and so on, with Kael nicknamed "Golden Boy" by his Phoenix squadmates, hence known as Kael Golden from now on, having to play a tricky role - hide Echo's presence and use its powers carefully and sparsely, as the entity inside him is his only chance to survival...
A great ending at a good tbc point and the start of what hopefully will be a great series as it has the potential (universe, characters, tech, secrets etc).
Highly recommended and looking forward to the audio as I expect that to add a lot to the enjoyment.
