Lord of the Empty Isles is a highly emotional science fantasy novel written by Jules Arbeux, and published by Hodderscape. An excellent debut which shines especially in how touches difficult themes such as dealing with grief and the control of narratives by the power, while throwing a delicious amount of space pirates, banter and criminal found family.

Five years ago, Remy's brother died as a result of a withering (a death curse) cast due to an order from interstellar fugitive Idrian Delacial; from that moment, Remy has been grieving and thinking about vengeance. Now, he has the materials for paying back to Idrian; however, the withering goes wrong, bounding his fate to Idrian's. He will have to join forces with the assassin of his brother if he wants to find a cure; when he gets there, Remy finds that many more lives are at stake, as the Idrian's crew is also fatebound to him, and is responsible for providing life-saving supplies to thousand of lives in the empty isles.
After force of circumstance makes Remy a part of Idrian's crew, he finally finds a life that helps him to alleviate his grief; but time is against him, and the only apparent solution is ending his life before the curse ends with all his new mates.

With this premise, Arbeux has woven a novel that works in two senses: a more intimate one, that explores how Remy almost destroys himself as a consequence of grief, while taking more people on his demise; and a bigger one, about how the empty isles are being oppressed by the main planet, and how Idrian is fighting against that narrative that is asphyxiating them, not only giving them supplies, but also directly confronting the power.
The relationship that gets established between Remy and Idrian is quite an excellent example; both are similar in some aspects, but they are enemies due to circumstances. However, the more time they spend, Remy finally manages to overcome that animosity caused by grief, and starts to understand the reason behind Idrian's actions. They pass from enemies to platonic lovers; an almost poetic ending.
The rest of the crew has some peculiarities, but they are almost the family Remy was missing; some rough moments happen, but all are working for a common goal.

The world-building is quite interesting, painting a portrait of a main planet that oppresses those empty isles, a strong political power that keeps them under the threat of not getting enough resources (effectively killing them); in those circumstances, we can understand the apparition of Idrian's crew. Interestingly, Arbeux manages to point how important is controlling the narrative, and how the powerful use the mass media to create enemies to blame, even if those are the same experiencing the consequences of that genocide.

Honestly, Jules Arbeux has proven herself as a talented written with this kind of powerful debut; it's not only touching on an emotional level, but also invites you to think about many topics that are quite accurate nowadays. SFF fans, you need to read Lord of the Empty Isles, and prepare to get emotionally destroyed.