Kingdoms of Death
Ratings48
Average rating4.6
Kingdoms of Death continues Sun Eater's streak of being absolutely bananas. This whole book is pretty depressing and is not going to be a happy read. There is also a shorter section and a longer section in the middle I found pretty boring at the time but the things they lead to are very important, so I forgave that. The stuff that everyone talks about in this book is so emotional and well written; Sun Eater has not made me emotional before this, but I was fighting tears for the entire last chunk of this book. It's not so much what is happening, but how it is being written about. I was put through the ringer and exhausted after marathoning the second half of this book in a night.
I will say a legitimate criticism I have of this book is just the overwhelming amount of fake language stuff in it. The previous books all had some of this and it never bothered me. But large portions of dialogue in this book are written in a made up language and then immediately translated to the reader. Just...say Hadrian translated it, and leave me out of this.
9/10
Rating a middle book of a series is always hard. The Sun Eater/Sollan Empire series is a 5 star series, with great characters, incredible worldbuilding, and just all around coolness. A less than perfect book 4 from a really good writer is no reason not to pick up the series. Furthermore, this is not the book that Mr. Ruocchio actually wrote: it's the first half of a far more epic work that was split at the last minute due to paper shortages.
This probably accounts for the problems in pacing that somewhat bog this book down. A bogged down Sun Eater book is still pretty damned exciting, but the middle of this one was tough to get through. I found myself not really wanting to pick it up, which wasn't entirely the book's fault. I was just finding reading in general pretty difficult.
I may reread it some time, to see if it comes off differently. Perhaps some day this and Ashes of Man will be released in a single volume as intended. Still not bad, just not as exciting as the others. I repeat, not a reason to quit reading Sun Eater; not a reason to not get started.
Would have been 4 stars, but it earned an additional for the relationship between Hadrian and Dorayaica, the contempt, the understanding, the mutual respect that could have resulted in such a different outcome if the story had played out between them ever so slightly differently.
This entry hurts in all the right ways. I don't think I've ever read a book darker and more depressing as this. Kingdoms of death truly puts Hadrian through the mental and physical ringer and by the time the ending comes I can almost feel the mental, emotional and physical toll this character carries.
Christopher ruocchio is a genius
This book will haunt you. Simply amazing, yet dark, and violent.
A brillant masterpiece of science fiction Fantastic prose, dialogue....an amazing plot with some dark twists. Characters that you know and love, and a surprise or three thrown in.
While I would rate Demon in White my favorite of the series so far, this part of the story is a close second, The quality of this series is amazing and it is vastly, vastly underated.
5 STARS
This volume 4 of Sun Eater is such a heavy hitter. Ruocchio has a great talent as a story teller but this book takes that talent further than the first three in the series. Hadrian has been through some 'stuff' in those books, but this time Ruocchio throws him to the wall. At the 40% point Ruocchio stomps on Hadrian, and then does it again and again and again. This is not merely a crisis moment, for hundreds of pages Hadrian is pounded deeper and deeper into suffering. I found it a painful thing to keep reading, but the writing is so good and the story is so imaginative that it kept me glued to the page.
We know that Hadrian is writing this way into the future so he has to survive, but I could not fathom how Ruocchio was going to get him out of the fire this time.
There is a long denouement in this story and it's the first time for as long as I can remember that a book has brought me to tears.
Dark, guttural, brutal and haunting. This is Ruocchios darkest entry I’ve read but it doesn’t go without a silver lining of intrigue and hope.
This is probably my least favorite of the bunch and it's still a masterpiece which should tell you just how good this series is. This was meant to be a large volume that got split in two and I was not expecting it to be as action packed as it was. Hadrian has been imprisoned by the Cielcin for many years and because of this we see more into the world of the Cielcin as well as their beliefs and politics. They believe they must wipe out all humans for their god to save their world. Hadrian gets reunited with old friends but also loses friends. This book can be as gut wrenching as a Robin Hobb book and Christopher could write anything and I'll read it. Idc if it's a Biology book. I'll know it'll be good.
