Empire of Silence

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.