Got this for free in exchange for a review, so thanks to the people at Saga Press.
So this was excellent.
Science fiction has always been, at its heart, about the proverbial Big Questions. Who we are, where we're going, what it means to be human. Ancestral Night is an excellent work in that tradition.
Haimey Dz makes her living salvaging derelict ships along with her partner/copilot, the shipboard AI, and two cats. They're citizens of what is basically the Federation. Part of what makes this super interesting is that all people (human or otherwise) in this totally-not-the-Federation have a computer in their head (or other anatomical equivalent) that not only enables easy trans-species communication, it also lets people regulate their brain chemistry to a very precise degree. Feeling angry? That's not productive, I think I'll switch that off. Need to do something daring and dangerous? Switching off fear of consequences might help with that. Bad breakup? I think I'll just switch off my hormones and be asexual for a while.
It's an interesting concept to start a book around, made even more so when she gets tangled up with an anarchist pirate. The debates between them over free will are super interesting, and possibly my second-favorite part of the book. And those are made even MORE interesting given the fact that Haimey finds the pirate's beliefs abhorrent, but can't stop noticing the fact that she is extremely attractive. (I didn't pull the "bad breakup" example above out of nowhere.)
Plotwise, the bulk of the book is centered on Haimey and her pals finding an ancient derelict of a super advanced extinct precursor civilization, and the struggle between Haimey the above mentioned pirate trying to keep hold of it. Throw in a bunch of other really cool science fiction concepts, up to and including the ability to sense and manipulate gravity and sentient Dyson spheres, plus some excellent writing and a few emotional sucker punches, and I am a very happy reader.
Oh, and did I mention the cats? ZERO-G cats? It's as awesome and adorable as one can imagine. My favorite is when the cats are introduced to an environment with gravity - which they are NOT happy about - they quickly figure out that sleeping humans are both squishy and warm.
I want more zero g cats in my life. So I suppose I'll just have to read the sequel.