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

Intelligent Sci-fi

Ruocchio's impressive debut novel is richly rendered, sociopolitically complex, and immersive. An intelligent work of science fiction, Empire of Silence will also appeal to fantasy fans and some history fans thanks to its inclusion of fantasy conventions and historical technology and references, such as castles, swordplay, and Greco-Roman cultural influences. In Empire of Silence, Ruocchio built a psychologically layered hero (anti-hero?) by means of a skillfully woven plot that drew me into the colorful worlds of Hadrian's far-future Milky Way galaxy and left me desperate for the next book in the series.

Great Narrator - Good Story

1/4: Felt the book started very strong. I love ancient culture in the modern world.
2/4: Still entertaining, loved seeing the MC handle the hardships he was dealt.
3/4: I felt that it began to get bogged down a bit and I began to worry.
4/4: The final quarter really the final 3/8 of the book finished strong and convinced me that the writer had the story well in hand.

fantastic! all around

A rich story full of well developed and solid characters. the ruminations of the narrating protagonist are both thought provoking and artfully delivered.

A fun Sword & Planet adventure

Angsty and detailed-- but, like superheroes, it's a genre that can feel silly to older readers ((the hero commands men in life & death situations but is virginal and awkward around women). Ordinarily not an issue (Luke Skywalker is virginal in early Star Wars) but it's something that needed to change in Empire of Silence as the hero, Hadrian Marlowe, changes.
The paperback cover blurb (shame on you David Drake) claims it's as complex as Dune. It isn't.
There are more than a few fantasy clichés.
STILL, it is fun, even for adults, and I would've loved this at age 15 or 16.

Buckle up.

This is sci-fantasy space opera at its finest. Ruocchio is a master of his craft.