Empire of Silence (Sun Eater)

This is a book that isn't ashamed to show its influences - Interstellar space empire where magic shield belt technology has obsoleted guns in favor of knives and swords - "Highmatter swords" whose blades cut effortlessly through anything except each other, and whose blades can be summoned and dismissed from the hilt - Interstellar space empire that has regressed to feudalism, with the state religion taking a dominant role

There's some interesting stuff here, but there are also a lot of tired tropes. Every woman's appearance is described exhaustively. Every woman is either a love interest or an unfeminine drudge. The hereditary ruler scorns his intelligent, educated, hardworking son in favor of his other son who's a loutish brute.

It also has start-of-a-series syndrome - there's a lot of exposition and things started up, but hardly anything is concluded or resolved.

I don't know, I'm reading the next one, but

A solid "I grew up at my father's estate surrounded by tutors and yet, chose to ditch the privilege and mingle with commoners in pursuit of galactic scale something while being a good person" kind of book.