Sun Chaser

The Tarazet Galactic Star Empire should be a realm without hunger, disease, violence or suffering, with plenty for all, but the greed of those at the top, terraforming entire planets just so they can hunt the best game with their cronies is sucking the vitality out of the economy. In the future, as now, and also as in the past, uncaring nobles laughing in the faces of their starving subjects is a recipe for... rebellion.
Over the course of three books, the most prominent young scientist in the empire, a young soldier and a humble logistics robot are sucked into this rebellion, then rise to become its leaders, and this sci-fi series is primarily the story of their adventures.
There are plenty of space battles, unknowable aliens, and galactic power struggles in the series and this third book is no exception. This is not a dry old book full of visionary concepts but dull on action, plot, and characters. It is a series that combines the action of militaristic science fiction with the heart of good space opera.
The only reason the heroes - Altia, Knave and Jay - have any chance of surviving in the face of the repression of the Tarazet Star Empire is the alien starship they discover in the first book. Just what this spaceship is capable of becomes apparent through the second book, and in this third installment the entire star empire and at least one neighboring alien culture is being slowly destabilized by this new force in the galaxy. It seems, at last, as though the empire might topple, bringing a new utopia, or possibly just political chaos in its wake.
The ancient aliens, the source of the destabilizing technology, remain enigmatic throughout, even as more is discovered about them, with just the right amount of mystery and suspense to keep you captivated the whole way through. Sun Chaser is book 3 in the Dark Galaxy series and is about 115,000 words long.