Kingdoms of Death

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.