Review: Loyalty to the Max by Maya Darjani

Blurb:

Max Dupont stars in his own standalone adventure in the second installment of the Broken Union series, taking place one year after Ancient as the Stars.

Captain Maxime Dupont of the Earth Union is a rogue. A maverick. A clear-headed arbitrator of right and wrong– rules be damned.

But even Max stumbles when he encounters his latest challenge. The Union is collaborating with former enemy Mars to fix the collapse of interstellar travel–but at the cost of vulnerable citizens. Max has to figure out where his loyalties lie–and if treason is a price he's willing to pay for doing the right thing.

Meanwhile...

Lieutenant Ren Yilmaz has finally found a crew. A home. A rewarding career, on the ESS Knight.

But Ren gets drawn into a web of espionage. Her captain, Max, has shady dealings with anti-Union rebel groups and assigns her shipmates off-the-books tasks. It's Ren's duty as an officer to investigate. But snooping can be disastrous. Not only would she be betraying her newfound family, but Ren has secrets too–and if she digs too far, her own past as a spy could get spectacularly exposed.

As tensions mount, the choices Max and Ren make will test their loyalty not only to the Union, but to each other--and the crew they call family.

Review:

Disclaimer: All opinions here are my own, but they might also be shared by the story’s artificial intelligence character Peggy – who can say?

When I read Ancient As the Stars last year, I was instantly enamored with its concept, but thought parts of it fell short—namely, the characterization of one of its leads. In the standalone follow-up, however, Loyalty to the Max, Maya Darjani has not only remedied that grievance, but has also thrown in a gripping espionage tale for good measure, helping lift this sequel further to the heights I wanted of the previous book.

A year has passed since the close of Ancient As the Stars, and Ren Yilmaz has found a home aboard the ESS Knight. Her captain, Maxime Dupont, is a hotheaded rogue, but one who has earned the respect and loyalty of his crew. But loyalties are always rife to be tested. When Max learns of the Union’s consorting with former enemy Mars, he must toe the line between compliance and treason if he is to save the lives of those in the balance. But it is not only Max’s loyalty that must be tested. As Ren learns of her captain’s past ties with anti-Union factions, she is called to investigate—but doing so risks betrayal of her newfound family. Close ties threaten to fracture, long-held secrets are soon to be unearthed, and the Union may be broken—if only so it may be saved.

With a mostly fresh cast of characters—with a handful of returnees—Loyalty to the Max is something of a reset, and it benefited greatly for it. In the previous book, one of my complaints centered on the characterization of Ren, who understandably was depicted as immature, but to me, it came across as overly edgy. The year in between journeys has changed Ren for the better, and while there is still “color” to her character, it is not so oppressive or distracting this time around and allowed me to appreciate her depth so much more. The internal conflict she feels toward the external duties that potentially put her at odds with her new crew were a joy to read through, and to throw in the espionage angle to her arc lifted her chapters to the page-turners I was hoping they’d be.

But it’s her captain, Max, who is the star of the show in this one. While he doesn’t serve as a foil to Ren by any means, Max’s maverick approach to matters still inevitably puts him at odds with Ren, and how Darjani navigates this conflict kept me engaged throughout. Max’s past, while a bit tropey, makes for a perfect backdrop to explore, and it’s this exploration of how it impacts his relationships with his crew, his superiors, and perhaps some long-lost figures thought dead, that make up the heart of Loyalty to the Max.

The plot also benefits from having a bit of a tighter focus with an overall theme of the limits of loyalty, and whether that should be maintained when lives are in the balance. Between Max’s wavering faith in the Union and Ren’s apprehensions toward betraying the crew of the Knight, Darjani nails this part of the story, effortlessly flowing from story beat to story beat until I was eager to see how it all wrapped up. There are a couple pacing issues here and there—namely certain spoilery character interactions with Max’s arc that I felt could have used a little more time in the oven—but overall it’s a satisfying plot with well-realized resolutions that make me eager to see more from these characters in this universe.

Loyalty to the Max is a standalone sequel done right. It builds upon the foundations set in the previous book and expands the scope of the universe in fascinating ways, all while letting our returning characters grow along with it. This Union may be Broken, but I’ll be intrigued to see these characters continue to build it back up in the future.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go make sure my ship’s AI isn’t gonna go hold my Internet search history against me.