Ancient as the Stars is the first book in the Broken Union series, a space opera proposal written by Maya Darjani (and her debut novel). An adventure with great and lovable characters, a gripping plot which is interwoven with more personal narratives, doses of found family, humour and also the best chapter titles you can ask for.

Ren is a recently demoted officer in the Hawking, stuck in a job she hates, sabotaged by an abusive ex husband, self-destroying herself in pity as she doesn't seem to fit in any place; the last thing she needed is a space-time weirdness that ends with her meeting Captain Karenna Yilmaz, a version of her in the future that is basically immortal, a captain beloved by her crew and married to a lovely husband. But soon, they will find together that inside them there are more problems and traumas that they need to help, while trying to deal with the complicate power structures of this universe.

Interwoven with this character-driven narrative, we have an excellent investigative plot, fast-paced and that introduces us to the rigid structures behind the Earth Union; not only that, but Darjani takes the opportunity to reflect the sad reality of how the field in those jobs tends to be male-dominated, effectively dismissing their female colleagues, who have to work harder than everybody to hopefully reach a similar position. On many occasions, we will see the frustration Ren experiences due to this situation; a system that is breaking and showing some cracks.

But outside of this plot, I think my favourite part of this book are the two female main characters, Ren and Karenna; they might be opposite versions of the same person, but Darjani gives them an incredible amount of deepness. We can see how both are grieving their different traumas, but healing them is not an easy task. It also happens that both are the same kind of snarky and strong person, that won't doubt to confront whoever is needed, leading us to really fun situations.
The supporting cast plays a perfect role, helping the plot to advance, while you end liking some of them, the little family that becomes because of the subsequent accidents.

The pacing is relatively fast, accelerating with the plot, with the book becoming unputdownable as we get closer to the end. Darjani's prose flows, making the reading experience an absolute pleasure, and I can assure you will laugh out loud with her humour.

If at this point is not clear, I absolutely loved Ancient as the Stars: is the kind of sci-fi with thriller touches that works so well with me, and the character focus helped me to connect so well with it. This might be one of the best presentation letters a writer can have, and I can only ask Maya to continue writing and publishing, because I need more space operas like this one.