Empire of Silence

Sun Eater, Book 1

De: Christopher Ruocchio

Narrado por: Samuel Roukin

Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.

It was not his war. On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire.

The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives - even the emperor himself - against Imperial orders.

But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier. Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world.

Forced to fight as a gladiator and into the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fighting a war he did not start, for an empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

©2018 Christopher Ruocchio (P)2018 Recorded Books

Slow start, picks up the pace

Although the book starts slowly it picks up speed by the second half and really draws you into an established world. I'd recommend this to fans of Red Rising, Dune, and Old Man's War.

Flirts with greatness

Empire of Silence was almost great. About 1/3 of the way through I was thinking this was very much like Rothfuss' Name of the Wind and almost as enjoyable. Which is high praise in my opinion. But then it really lags. Its obvious that this story could have used a couple of fine tuning edit drafts.

I very much enjoyed not having the plot in the first part of this story. It was a man trying to find his way in the universe. A survival story. But then the last 1/3 of the story fully set up a plot that felt predictable and tired. I feel that Ruocchio knows where this is going and is telegraphing us the next installments where as an author like Rothfuss keeps the reader completely in the dark as to what will happen next.

I can see where the enthusiastic reviews are coming from. Ruocchio is an author worth paying attention to. I think he has a ton of potential and will look forwards to reading more from him. I just feel that this story left a lot to be desired.

Bland, overhyped on booktube

This was just very bland. Not bad but not good either. Disliked the main character. Also the narrator was not doing anything for me and enhanced all the irritating aspects of Hadrian. Hard to distinguish when he was talking to others or himself. I so wanted this to be awesome after seeing so many on booktube praise it. I will give book 2 a chance though.

Love it, derivative but better than the originals

A bit flowery, but overall the writing is great and the narration is excellent. Nothing shocking, but overall quite enjoyable. Way better than Name of the Wind IMO. Better writing, better narration, no weird sex scenes, no weird fantasy cultural sex discussions, not a harem novel and to top it off, no girls or women beating up all of the men (looking at you 'A Wise Man's Fear'). There is a little sex but it is normal and not verbally molested as in the aforementioned comparison series.

These are not 'action' novels, but do have some action. Not a ton of plot twists, but that is what keeps the listening safe and entertaining. The few twists that do exist are enjoyable and welcome.

If you like these books and would be OK going one level darker, check out the 'Act's of Caine' series. Great writing and narration as well and it is finished so you can listen to them all.

amazing book

great book. narrator did a great job. cant wait for the next one later this year