Scornful Stars — Richard Baker

Richard Baker continues his new military science fiction series, Breaker of Empires, with vivid space battles and elements of politics and cultural heritage, picking up where Valiant Dust and Restless Lightning have led.

Now a captain, Sikander Singh North commands the destroyer Decisive, assigned to Zerzura, a haven for piracy and the next playing-board in the Great Game. The Aquilan Commonwealth and the Empire of Dremark vie for the allegiance of local ruler Marid Pasha, a competition with stakes that reach far beyond the sector's pirate-infested limits.

Sikander must stop the pirate attacks while charting his course between the ambitions of Marid Pasha, a dubious alliance with a shipping magnate, and the inexperience of Decisive's crew...a situation that only grows more complicated when an old enemy returns.