Empire of Silence

Sun Eater, Book 1

By: Christopher Ruocchio

Narrated by: 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

Heavy investment

I see some reviewers are saying the story is very slow. Yes, it is, and I fully understand why a reader might bail on it. The MC has a lot of introspection, with internal debates on ethics and philosophy. That slows down even scenes which ought to be intense.

But I couldn't look away, just like you can't look away from car crash. The author devotes a lot of effort towards world-building and the world is horrible indeed. The Empire that surrounds our MC is the love child of the Spanish Inquisition, 1984, and pre-Revolution France. Our MC is a soft-hearted young man in a hard universe and he is helpless, lost, confused, and weak. His efforts to control his fate are mostly ineffectual and it's frustrating to watch; but it's also hard to imagine how he could have done better, given the forces stacked against him. Although it takes what seems like forever, he gradually becomes less helpless, but still far from hero material.

A major aspect of the story is that the author instills immense amounts of foreshadowing on almost every page, to the point where it's a bit wearisome. We know that our MC eventually precipitates great events, both good and bad, and it's hard to avoid being curious as to how he becomes that sort of person. That will probably keep me listening.

Red Rising Written by Patrick Rothfuss

Thanks to the publisher and author for a finished copy of Empire of Silence (Sun Eater #1) in exchange for an honest review. Receiving a copy of the book did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel.

Empire of Silence is what Red Rising would have been had it been written by Patrick Rothfuss. A sprawling space opera with poetic prose, galaxy-sized world-building, and a character-driven storyline that is one for the ages. Hadrian Marlowe has easily cemented himself as one of my favorite characters in fiction today among the likes of Darrow of Lykos, Girton Club-Foot, Nona Grey, and Jorg Ancrath.

While this book sits at an intimidating 600+ pages, I can imagine readers out there are a little wary about taking a stab at such a thick book, and a debut to boot. Let me go ahead and set aside those worries and tell you that Ruocchio has written a phenomenal novel that is a perfect mix of space opera and epic fantasy. This is one that can unite lovers of the two (2) genres and quiet the conversations of why one is better than the other. Sprawling cities are built from the underbellies skyward, planets are set like chess pieces across the galaxy, technology rather than magic takes the cake, and the fight scenes, while claustrophobic, add plenty of spice to the dish to keep the story progressing at a decent click.

While the beginning of EoS promises the destruction of suns and the sacking of empires, much of the book focuses on Hadrian’s fall and rise. Much in the same vein as The Name of the Wind, Hadrian’s story is told in a past-tense fashion showing how he became this figure of legend, and choosing not to leave out all of the nitty-gritty on his path to greatness. I liken Hadrian to Darrow of Lykos in his rise, though Darrow came from nothing and Hadrian was more of a Gold to begin with. To see how he had everything, fell into nothing, and rose again like Lazarus is something you truly need to experience for yourself.

I actually ended up reading Empire of Silence about a week ago, and then listened to it via Audible over the past couple of days. I felt that I couldn’t accurately portray how I felt about the novel after the first go-round, and honestly, the words still aren’t there. Ruocchio’s prose mixed with his world-building and creation of Hadrian Marlowe are a simply stunning mix that you don’t see too often. It is a beautiful novel that should be getting the attention of more readers than it has received thus far.

space feudalism

mix of space opera and medieval courtship fun listen will probably continue the series if I'm honest good narrator

Solid 4.5 to 4.75 Stars

Drawing clear inspiration from iconic literary and cinematic sources; this book manages to keep it's own unique identity without traversing into the territory of recycled storytelling. The author manages to make all of the characters seem real and multifaceted. Even the "villains" tend to be at least somewhat relatable or at the very least understandable in their contrasting POVs. The main character is idealistic and naive in a way that all young people are and shares realistic character flaws that humanize him in a way rarely seen in storytelling. We see the little mistakes he makes throughout his journey as only a third person perspective can, where even as the protagonist recounts his life, he fails to see some of the mistakes he had made as is fitting of self introspection. My only issue with this series, is that the author loves his longwinded inner monologuing and Tolkienistic overly detailed discriptions a little too much for my tastes

TLDR

Pros
- Great world development
- Realistically flawed characters with realistic personalities
- Clear iconic inspiration without being cliché

Flaws:

- extremely longwinded and Tolkienistic over explaining (sometimes)
- very slow start, but pacing gets much better after the childhood arc and mandatory world building.

Fun sci-fi political drama, not for everyone

Slow story, weak protagonist, beautiful prose, expert narration, detailed universe. If you liked Dune, try it. The narrator speaks from the future as in a memoir, allowing the author to allude to later events at a scale that this book's grounded, mostly planet-bound story can't live up to. There's a strange theme where everything the protagonist does fails - all plans awry, all actions with unintended consequences. He whines and opines, learns something, and the cycle repeats. If that sounds boring or frustrating, skip this one. If you're a sucker for detailed imagined worlds where characters navigate cultural and political intrigue, this book's a good option.