Empire of Silence

One thing this book certainly isn't is silent! The first book in what looks to be an epic sci-fi space opera. I have been seeing this book likened to Patrick Rothfuss ‘The Name of The Wind' and I can definitely see that vibe here, in both the story telling style and structure, and it is hard not to make comparisons between the two. It uses the ‘older main character as narrator' style, chronicling his life to date. The ‘Sun Eater' part of the chronicle is definitely not dealt with in this first book (much like there has yet to be any king killing in Rothfuss' books).

For such a sprawling scope, the novel stays relatively small scale and personal. The action is confined to just 2 planets in a vast galaxy. You get introduced to a myriad of different cultures and plenty of other worlds are referenced, so there is a lot of world building involved here.This is not a short book, and some of the world building is a bit slow at times, but the pay off is worth while with a vast and extremely detailed universe. The quasi-religious anti-technology Luddites that seem to control the empire in which the book is set have a faint echoes of some of the more extreme religious sects of today, but it seems an agenda strangely at odds with the star-faring society. It creates an almost medieval/ancient culture with gladiatorial combat to the death and near serfdom for most of the population. The distinct class stratification is brutal and a strong focus in the story.

Ultimately this is an engaging story, both broad and narrow in its viewpoint. A sprawling space opera that focuses in on the intimate details. A study in contrasts and a very promising start to a book series

The Sun Eater (what an awesome name for a series) is about Hadrian Marlowe. The savior, the devil. Man who is solely responsible for genocide of alien race with which humankind wages intergalactic war. This is his story.

I don't think I can make this book justice by writing a review. It's far from the best thing I've ever read but the potential that this book represents for the whole series is enormous. It's amazing first book. Not only in the series but as debut novel of the author, too. And at such young age it makes me feel ashamed of my non-existing writing career. :D

These books are written in memoir style with Hadrian retelling his story as it allegedly really happened, without the government and chantry propaganda. I say allegedly because I know Ruocchio is Gene Wolfe fan and this series was inspired among others (Dune, LOTR) by Book of the New Sun. And anyone who read BotNS knows that you can't trust the narrator no matter what he tells you. I don't think this series will reach such deception but who am I to tell? I'm just at the beginning.

There is very little criticism I can aim at Empire of Silence. It's weakest link is definitely the lack of focus. There is no big villain, no big goal Hadrian needs to reach in this book. It's memoirs of his early years and while intriguing, it lacked the typical novel narrative of big bad or big goal that needed to be overcome by the end. Don't misunderstand, there is something towards the end, but it's not entirely expected. And most of the book is just Hadrian wondering through life, running away from his family and awful responsibility that was put on him against his will by his father.

EoS is also a slow burner. First 200 pages were a struggle even if I was interested in the world and Hadrian as a character. I wished for some action and I don't mean Colosso fights. Then Valka entered the scene and everything's got better. Approximately in the middle of the book I got absorbed in the story.

It is rare that I have interest in romance. Well... “romance” at least for now. Since the first moment we know Valka is someone very dear to Hadrian. He likes to spoil the story by giving hints about characters that enter it for the first time, especially if they are important enough. Even though she started to annoy me with her “I'm better than you” attitude I can't deny that her pixie femme fatale presence intrigued me the whole time. Just like it did Hadrian.

Ruocchio sets up a very dystopic oppressive universe in this book where no one (within Sollan Empire) is free. Especially not the nobility. Cameras are everywhere and the Big Brother is the Church. I listened to an interview with Christopher where he said he wanted the Empire to be a counter pole of Banks's The Culture series. Where that one is anarchistic this one is totalitarian even despite its size. Going to space isn't cheap nor simple which makes the means easy to control by central authority. There are other cultures in this universe where men are more free but we don't get to see those in this book.

The world building is stellar, to be honest. I got exactly what I was hoping for from this book. Most of the time when you see there's 30+ pages of footnotes and explanations of how the world works you know you're in for a treat.

Hadrian himself is as flawed as any real human. Sometimes he does more-than-stupid things to move the plot forward but I have a suspicion there is a reason for that. And it was hinted at towards the end of the book when he received a prophetic vision. Still, it would be a bummer if it all got blamed on “fate”.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone. It's great for fantasy fans who want to dip their feet in some sci-fi because the story structure is more fantasy even if the setting is sci-fi. It doesn't experiment with narrative tools like so many great sci-fi novels do. Instead it's very similar to epic fantasy narrative. But most of all I recommend this to fans of Dune. While you can't really point at many things that are “stolen” from Dune, its essence is very much present here. Just like in Star Wars, for example.

Genuinely just do not care about this book. The first 20% is pretty much a filthy copy of dune, and a less intelligent one at that. Instead of subtle philosophy. It was just blatant in your face verbatim quotes from philosophers that felt more like the author trying to show of his knowledge more than anything else.

This feels like a prelude to the big story that's about to unfold in the rest of the saga.

The plot is simple with focus on themes, ideas and most of all I feel like it has two objectives:

First in getting us to know the main character seeing him struggle and be the hero, and we understand his noble intentions and where he comes from, while in contrast knowing that he will do these terrible things that we are told by him that he will do, since the story is being told in the future by him. It's very much like seeing Anakin in the prequels knowing what he will become, but here the author actually says that the right choice for Anakin would've been to become Darth Vader, so that's a hook for ya.


And second in introducing us to a lot of characters that are clearly gonna have more to do in the bigger story later, which I feel like it's a cool idea but maybe there were too many so a lot you are gonna get more out of in a reread than in actually remembering that they had a role in the first book later on, since they have very small roles and we are told by the MC that they where important in his life later basically, it was a problem for me since I learn the names by repetition, not by being told that they are important one time in an 800 page book.

Overall the beginning was the highlight for me, and then I felt like the middle part dragged a little longer than it needed and then it picked back up in the ending.

Very good read and it sets the saga nicely.

Empire of Silence takes place in a far future of our civilization, where biotechnology and space travel have enabled the human race to establish a galactic empire. For centuries this empire has been under attack from another civilization that also discovered space travel, and Hadrian Marlowe has grown up as the elder (genetically-engineered) son of a minor lord on a minor world. He's rich, but not that politically powerful. Hadrian is, despite his militaristic upbringing, passionate about intellectual pursuits. He's an artist, an avid learner of languages, and quite clumsy with the ladies. Constantly in conflict with his younger brother, Hadrian assumes he will inherit his father's duchy, but things go astray when he is instead assigned to join the ruling guild of torturers and propaganda artists. Hadrian and his scheming mother find a way out, however, which results in Hadrian's first trip off-world. He escapes his father's plans only to find himself waking up from interstellar hibernation nowhere near where he expected, penniless, and unable to reveal his noble status.The story is told in retrospect as the narrator awaits his fate. Although this is not part of the story, at least not yet, the narrator (Hadrian) has done something horrible, and is rather notorious. This doesn't get in the way, but instead provides a great device by which the narrator introduces doubt and comments on events with information he learned later in the story. It's a really well-devised world, built in believable steps with believable technologies, that doesn't rely on stupid-sounding technobabble. It's not grimdark, but it's mature and intense, with no cutesy stuff, and well-formed relationships, romantic and otherwise. And underneath it all, there's some spooky stuff going on. I love that element of it.I would give this book four-and-a-half stars if I could. This is a well-written book, and Christopher Ruocchio is a knowledgeable, well-rounded and intellectual writer who knows what he is doing. Most importantly he doesn't shy away from real intellectual engagement in philosophical terms. I only give five stars to my absolute favorite books or established classics, so this one gets four, but this book is one of the best of the year, and surely one of the best contemporary series I've read. It's one that I'll keep up with, along with The Black Witch Chronicles and the Song of Shattered Sands. I don't mind making a few enemies saying this: a few people have called this “The Name of the Wind in space,” but I'd have to say the crucial difference here is that this book is actually interesting. It's better than that, though, mainly because it's written by someone with real taste, an author who isn't just pointing to cliches in order to establish rapport with the reader (note: I'm not saying that's what Patrick Rothfuss did, but many others do). Instead, Christopher Ruocchio has created a culture and world out of believable and sophisticated use of language. He's not just a Tolkien nerd who read a few books on how to create a language (although he's certainly fooled me if he hasn't), but rather someone who understands the interplay between language, culture, and biology to create a convincing future history. For example in the foundational mythology of the interstellar human culture of the empire, the story of King Arthur has been mixed with the story of The Buddha. I got a kick out of that. He also doesn't shy away from using technical grammatical jargon as exposition, or even as a plot point.He is also adept at creating romantic and plot tension. For the first time in a long time I was on the verge of shouting “Kiss her, damn it!” at a book. Yes, shouting at a book. There really is an excellent understanding of human relationships here, and the constant interplay between the main character's social standing and his naivete works up to produce plenty of interesting situations. It was fun to read a space opera where things on so many worlds have reverted to more medieval situations, and hence it reads a lot like a fantasy book.It is a long book, however, and I had to pick up something shorter afterward. I didn't find it exactly un-putdownable, but when I did get into reading it, I read it at long stretches, wanting to know what would happen next. This is the kind of book that traces a character's life across a long arc of his lifetime, and since his lifetime is over 900 years, there is a nice tension of whether the narrator is being honest. It reminds me more of Severian than Kvothe.I loved it, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, [b:Howling Dark 41564599 Howling Dark (Sun Eater, #2) Christopher Ruocchio https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554659319l/41564599.SY75.jpg 64859822].

I loved this book. Space opera where you know the end from the begining but that is not an issues because this story is not about how it ends, but how we got there.

This book is really more about Hardrian and his desperate effort to escape his family and bring peace and understanding to a galaxy at war with a alien race no one understands and its just getting started, as this is book 1 in the suneater series.

I loved this book, and so far am loving Hadrian as a character. Just a good read all around

The very good: the most depth in characters I have seen in a long time. Everybody has reasons for their actions, and those reasons also have reasons. I rarely find that in sff and highly appreciated it.
The good: the author can write a lot of information without info-dumping and creates a complex,extensive world.
The bad: in places, the writing is too overburdened, and often the level of details is overblown. Most characters act exactly as expected.
The very, very bad: it's highly unoriginal. In short,it's Dune fan-fiction written in wanna-be Rothfuss style. And not just inspired, it's actually filled with elements taken directly from Dune,not even properly disguised.
The conclusion: Ruocchio has good potential, but it is not fulfilled in this copy-cat series. I will try him again, when he writes in a different fictional universe, one of his own.

This book was a hair away from being a 3/5 for me. My big feeling on this book as I read it was “so this whole book is just gonna be here?”

The book was definitely good, and I enjoyed reading it the whole time and would recommend to most people who like the genre.

Extremely mild spoilers

I went in expecting something more epic and galaxy-spanning, where most of this takes place in 4 locations on 2 planets. It felt less like Dune or Star Wars or other epic space operas and more like Name of the Wind, or much more personal stories. For example the stakes were always personal, never wider and more epic.

This isn't a bad thing, and the book is definitely good, but I was just expecting it. Probably because the word epic is in reviews on the front and back cover.

This novel definitely has shades of other books: the feudal politics of Dune, the unearthly narrative of Book of the New Sun, and the combat stylings of something like Red Rising. Not much happens until the last 10% of the book, and even then, this is clearly a precursor to a much larger story in the rest of the series. I’m interested enough to continue (and hoping that this book 1, while not my favorite, was a worthwhile investment).

Meh, just not excited to pick this up and keep reading. The MC talks big but rarely delivers. So he really did not endear himself to me. Which means I could care less about what he goes through. Its a shame because i do love the sci-fi elements, world building and lore. So setting this one aside for now. Might come around to it another time. Since I do own the next book in the series. 

The writing is top-notch and I'm amazed by the scope of the story. A lot happened with Hadrian considering it's the first book and some big moments made me root for him as the main character. It didn't give me enough punch emotionally especially at the end to give it a 5 stars. Once I know the background story of the Cielcins maybe it will make more sense.

I'm sure on rereading it I will like it more once I connect the dots and I'm more invested in the background characters and their agendas.

Leans a bit more fantasy than I usually read, but I found the characters more enjoyable than Dune or Red Rising since he actually makes mistakes, has regrets, learns lessons and shows growth. While a bit too long, I felt it gradually cranked up the excitement and increasingly showed signs of a larger universe before really finishing off well. From what I've heard, I'll unquestionably be sticking it through at least book 2 before making final judgements, but overall very good.

I received a copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I decided to read this book because I haven't read very much sci-fi and I wanted to change that. I'm glad I did, this is a good book.

Hadrian Marlowe is next in line to be the head of House Marlowe. He is the older brother after all. Hadrian trains in all areas so that he will be prepared to lead when it is his time. When he finds out that his father has other plans for him, Hadrian flees.
Hadrian had high hopes for his new life. He had everything planned out. One betrayal changed it all. He will see what it's like to fight for survival with no money, no job, and no title.
All he wanted was to explore space and visit other worlds.

This is the story of Hadrian Marlowe and how he became known as the Sun Eater.

This book started out really great, but got pretty boring in the middle. I felt like it was longer than it needed to be. The ending left me wanting more. Even though it lagged in parts, I will probably read the next one just to see what happens.

I first heard of this book off of Reddit in an off thread on R/Fantasy. It claimed it was remnant of Dune, I'm here to rebuke that cause the dad in Dune is WAY better than the dad here and Hadrian is a much more realized protagonist especially with how he changes over the extent of the novel. I was expecting the gladiator part to go for more time but it ended at a good spot.

The only weakness I can name is the excavation parts but it doesn't last for long and it speeds up at a break neck pace almost Sanderson like. Great novel, especially since the author Mr. Ruocchio was only 21 when he wrote it. I'm not even into science fiction as much as fantasy but it's encouraged me to give all the sci fi on my to read shelf another try.

Hadrian Marlowe recounts the beginning of his personal saga into a vast, dangerous, deep universe where he must overcome his own expectations, desires, failures and naïvety. A space opera that emites a bleak tone with a silver lining of intrigue and desire to unravel the world building in this beautifully written narrative.

Good space opera. The world building is extraordinary, with echoes from a number of historical and fictional sources.
My reaction to the story and the writing was a bit unusual for me. Every time I started reading it, it pulled me in and held my attention – I didn't want to put it down. But, when I wasn't reading it, I didn't have a strong desire to get back to it as soon as possible. Strange, no?
This book is apparently the beginning of a series. I look forward to reading more in this world.
Solid 4 stars.

Dang, this book was really, really good. It reminded me of Farseer meets Dune meets Gladiator (I see the Name of the Wind comparison thrown around too, I get what people mean, but the prose reminds me more of Hobb than Rothfuss) but is also it's own thing. I love when a book is able to wear its influences on its sleeves but manage to be unique.

“Romans in space” is pretty much all the sell I needed here, but the gist of Sun Eater is that Hadrian Marlowe is writing a chronicle of his life and the decisions he made. Hadrian is notorious around the galaxy for blowing up a sun to end a war with another species. How did it happen? Why did it happen? Is Hadrian a monster? That's the setup that Hadrian wants to explore as he tells you his tale, although this book doesn't get to any sun eating and instead a story about a young noble who flees his home planet and is forced to use subterfuge, fighting skills, and political acumen to survive.

There were no parts of this book that I wasn't captivated by, and that was mainly due to Ruocchio's prose. It's hard to describe. It is certainly dramatic (as Hadrian is, by admission, over-dramatic) but it is also poetic and philosophical. It reads incredibly smoothly. The way Ruocchio ends chapters is always fantastic, with Hadrian reflecting on the events in the chapter or teasing events to come. The prose in this book was a joy. But the plot and the characters were also well done, and some of the supporting cast were really interesting, something hard to pull off sometimes in first person retrospective.

The only reason this doesn't get full marks from me is because this felt a lot like a book one, and there is a lot of, not necessarily meandering, but “sections” of the story that don't feel like one complete whole. My feelings on this remind me of Assassin's Apprentice where I really liked everything about it but it doesn't quite feel like a five star read. Can't wait to continue!!

8.5/10

This book was a delight and such an incredible set up. I will be posting a more detailed review on my YouTube channel in a couple of weeks.

Hadrian starts the story in the present by telling you that he ate a sun, destroying an entire alien race as well as billions of humans. He then proceeds to tell his story. With this set up, the reader is immediately aware of the tone of the story. With the first person perspective, you also are never sure whether to trust Hadrian. At times, it felt like he may be embellishing his story.

The plot was slower paced, but didn't detract. This book felt like a massive set up for an epic story. We learned a lot about the politics, Hadrian himself, and the lore of this world. It was all very interesting, and I am very excited for the next book because I've heard it goes off the rails.