5* space opera, maybe a little less if that's not your bag. But it is mine!
I am towards the beginning of my exploration of sci-fi, having recently embarked on The Expanse, Hyperion, and Children of Time novels. This is firmly in their quadrant and just as good.
Set in the early stages of a large space war, we have excellent world building, in some ways more complex than the novels listed above as we have alien species with ideological/religious imperatives. From this the book becomes rich in philosophical musings, from the perspectives of a ultra advanced cosmopolitan human society enhanced by AI, an arogrant yet honor bound giant reptile species on jihad, and from those in between.
Good writing, especially the exciting end game, the mostly nuanced characters lead to genuinely tragic moments and unexpected endings. Also some really funny and gross sections. A quite brilliant and brutal card game is brought vividly to life. Some really inventive and cool future tech too.
Though it is not perfect, we of course stumble into some expected tropes, a crew of disparate pirates, some of whom are two dimensional, moments of is he really dead? Who's side is she on?
Minor spoilers follow - after the end of the story there is a short yet sweeping postscript. Sweeping as after a Tolstoyan reasoning and explanation of the origins of the war, we then have a total history of it, from thousands of years in the future. The stories of all remaining characters and tied up (eliminating them from follow up books?). Entire species and civilizations are wiped out in single sentances. Bold and surprising to say the least! I figured the series would follow the war but that seems done. Yet this struck me as hard as any part of the work, it felt like the famous Carl Sagan lines the Pale Blue Dot. Everything we think is important, vital, defining, is but a mote when compared to galactic size and time scales. Humbling.
Back for more of the Culture series for sure!