*Spoilers* In a galaxy 20,000 years in the future the Catholic Church (aka the Chantry) rules everything and everyone. Roman culture prevails on the TWO planets we visit in this book. Future Hardian is telling us how he destroyed a sun and is awaiting his execution but the only thing we get to see is him putzing around being a Myrmidon for half the book. Besides that he's either a spoiled, ignorant rich kid, or a beggar in the streets. And even though he's on two distinctly different planets the culture is still the same, just Rome with some scifi tech. Diversity in the main cast is also severely lacking. And the MMC mentions his height, A LOT. I think I heard "I'm short for a Palentine (because he's a genetic marvel engineered by scientists of the upper class) but I'm much taller than any Pleeb (because normal humans are called Pleebians in this book)" more than five times. *eyeroll*
Pretty disappointed with this one because the praise for this book was high. It's not an awful book, but it's not great, in my opinion. Very average, and I can tell he used Dune as heavy inspiration. It might get better in the other books but I'm not going to read them. Rome imagery is a pretty hard pass for me and I've heard it only gets more prevalent.