Title: Battleship Chronicles - Quod Olim Erat
Author: Lise Eclaire
Rating: Not rated, but I'd say maybe PG-13 for language and violence (war.)
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Science-fiction, Military, Thriller
Status: Complete
Library Category: Original Fiction
Pairings: None
Summary:

Kindle Blurb:

It's time to return to the Fleet to fight for humanity once more, this time in a human body.

Ever since her creation, Light Seeker fought for humanity as a battleship, facing enemy forces that sought to carve out as much human space as they could get away with. She had taken part in hundreds of battles, seen millions die, served under four captains until she lost it all.

Stripped of weapons and with most of her memories restricted, Light Seeker retired into a human body, keeping her promise to a captain she almost lost.

Decades later, she’s back in the Fleet as a cadet and ready to join the fight.
Only this time, she has more than her crew to protect.

Don't miss the start of this unique take on Military Sci-Fi in the vein of Ancillary Justice, The Murderbot Chronicles, and Battleship Leviathan! A ship turned human? What could go wrong.

Links:

RR: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/15449/quod-olim-erat
Amazon: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0CQDQSBLT

----------------------------------

First off, I'll shamelessly copy FourSixtyFour's (author of Re: Trailer Trash) review to the first book in the series, who puts it infinitely more eloquently that I could ever do:

This series was completed recently and consists of four books:

Quod Olim Erat
The Scuu Paradox
The Cassandrian Theory
Fractal Contact

Upon publication of the series on Kindle Unlimited, the first three have been stubbed, so you can only read the first few chapters of each, and only the fourth one can be read in full for free.

In Amazon these first three books seem to have been split in four, or perhaps there's some bonus content, I don't know. I bought them to support the author and re-read the series, but haven't got yet to compare them with the originals.

This is military sci-fi as good as it gets, I've read worse Hugos and Nebulas, easy 5/5 for me

Writing is definitely pro-level, with the odd typo and misspelling here and there, nothing some thorough rounds of proof-reading won't fix.

I've read some not totally positive reviews complaining about pacing, confusing situations and excessive use of flashbacks. That's fair, it's a matter of taste, but didn't bother me: I find all of those features, not bugs. To me they are completely justified by the kind of story being told, where there's a ton of memory manipulation, intelligence agencies, war secrets, alien races too alien for communication with humankind... If you're looking for a die-hard action-oriented space opera, maybe this is not the book for you, and that's completely fine.

There's plenty of action, don't get me wrong, but also lots of intrigue and mystery solving. I'm not straight up comparing them, but as an orientation for prospective readers, in tone and pace (note the qualifiers) it's somehow similar to series like Dune or Foundation, or some Clarke's stuff. If you enjoyed those, then you might like to give this series a whirl. It hit all the right spots for myself.

This story is about Elcy, a conscience core (sort of AI on steroids) who serves humanity, first as a battleship, then as a space cadet in a human-like body, with a brief stint retired from the Fleet as a caretaker for the son of her last captain. Elcy is a memorable protagonist, quirky, alien and, oh, so easy to root for, mercilessly shackled and used as she is by the very same humanity who she longs to protect and serve. Follow her as she tries to work around her restraints and use her best judgement to carry out her ultimate mission.

Fractal Contact closes out the series in a very satisfying, elcy-esque way and leaves me with a pleasant afterglow.