The Dregs of Empire: A Tale of the Sun Eater
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Average rating4.8
For thousands of years, the icy planet of Belusha has served the galactic Sollan Empire as its most notorious prison planet. It is here the very worst men in the Empire are locked murderers, traitors, deserters—each condemned to toil on the oil rigs and scrapyards of the planet in bitter cold, preyed upon both by the men of the Martian Guard set to watch over them, and by the Outborn reavers whose fathers escaped the work camps to scratch a living from the icy wilderness.It is a hard world. A desperate world.And it is here that Lorian Aristedes finds alone; friendless; betrayed even by his own failing, mutant flesh. Is it here that Lorian Aristedes has been sentenced to work himself to death for the crime of abetting his master’s escape from Imperial justice.For any other man, it would be the end of his story…but for Lorian Aristedes—once the left hand of the Halfmortal, Hadrian Marlowe himself—it is only the beginning.
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6 primary books14 released books#5.5 in The Sun Eater
The Sun Eater is a 14-book series with 7 primary works first released in 1950 with contributions by Christopher Ruocchio, L.J. Hachmeister, and R.R. Virdi.
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Yet again a great addition to the Sun Eater saga! This shouldn't be considered as a short story or novella, because it really is just a full blown novel.
I think this is a must read, since it adds so much more to Lorian's character. Ruocchio also proves that he can write just as great from a total different pov.
There is also another great addition to the worldbuilding with the ice planet Belusha.
A longer novella, this gives us an inside glance as to the consequences of the end of Ashes of Man.
Not going to dive in too deep due to spoilers, but this was a satisfying novella (300 page on my kindle, so a good length!)
Five stars....Sun Eater rocks and everyone should read as much of it as you can.
This novella follows on from Ashes of Man and is the best of the novellas in the series. It tells the story of Lorien Aristedes after he engineered the rescue of Hadrian.
It begins with Lorien already having been tried and entered into his sentence. The book starts out dark and gets progressively darker as Ruocchio strips Lorien of his dignity and ultimately his humanity. As Lorien is ground into the dust by his circumstances and the people around him the inner surety that has carried him in previous episodes also retreats from him. He is thrown into suffering and forced into performing actions that he would never have countenanced in his former life.
Next to Kingdoms of Darkness, this is the darkest story of the series so far and totally compelling. It was a two session read for me, and had I started it early in the day it would have been a single session to complete. It confirms to me that Ruocchio is at his best in longer form stories rather than shorts.
