Ignite the Stars by Maura Milan (review)

Seventeen-year-old outlaw Ia has built a reputation around her intergalactic crimes and generally making fools of the Royal Star Force (RSF), the Commonwealth's imperialist military arm. Now, though, she's been caught, implanted with a device that can stop her heart at the push of a button, and forced to attend a high security RSF military academy. Brinn, on the other hand, inspired by the surge of nationalism after the capture of Ia, volunteers for military school but struggles with keeping her half-Tawny (a blue-haired people nearly made extinct by the Commonwealth's military aggression) heritage a secret in these intolerant times. Ia and Brinn are assigned to be roommates, and focalization shifts between them and the Academy's flight master, Knives, offering three distinct but satisfyingly complementary perspectives on this futuristic story. As the two roommates become friends and Knives literally holds the fate of Ia's heart, the buildup of their relationships takes the front seat. Military tensions brew in the backdrop until it's revealed that Ia's brother, now aligned with a coalition of anti-Commonwealth slavers, has never been the loving sibling and freedom fighter he pretended to be. Although some of the outcomes are predictable, Milan introduces some compelling characters and a rich universe of tech and diverse cultures, and she sets the stage for a potentially large-scale political conflict in future installments. WJ