In Scales of Empire, humanity has pretty much destroyed the Earths ecosystem and in a last ditch effort to save ourselves we are heading for the stars. A massive undertaking with each nation sending their own people up, and each planet needing to be made hospitable. It's risky, it will take many years and humanity doesn't have a lot of time left.
Corporal Jian Choumaliis has secured herself a position as security officer on one of Earths generation ships. She is a dedicated soldier, ready to leave her mother, lovers and the child they are expecting to help save humanity. But before they can even get off the ground they make first contact with a being from another planet. A dragon princess no less, who after becoming smitten with Jian decides to help humans reach out into the stars.

' "I hope I didn't leave it too long with your poor colonists. It's very bad manners for the more advanced civilisations to contact the less advanced first, but they were going to die, and I had no choice."
"Bad manners?" Commander Alto said, amused.
"It hurts your self-esteem as a species. You've struggled for so many years to attain many of your society's achievements, and then we show up and can do them fifty times better with no effort at all. Makes everything you've been working for seem a waste of time." '

Scales of Empire has a few things going for it. It's diverse and inclusive. That's probably the part I enjoyed most. The king is transitioning, our mc is ethnically diverse as well as bi, the dragons are pansexual and gender fluid, and Richard's body was heavily damaged saving the kings life so he has prosthetic limbs and more.

Unfortunately for me the story lacked what I would call heart. It felt shallow and while I finished the book I wouldn't be picking up the next one. I didn't think the synopsis was a true representation of the actual plot. I expected some excitement, but whenever the opportunity arose the story kept moving slowly and fell flat. The humour throughout the story wasn't what I would expect from soldiers or an advanced species. I didn't find most of the attempts funny, they seemed tacky. It took away from the story. I felt like it cheapened it. I spent a large portion of the book wondering if it was a satire.

So while there were aspects of the characters traits I enjoyed, overall everything else fell short.