Empire of Silence

Ok Christopher Ruocchio I see what you’re doing, and I think I understand the hype. So, let’s review Empire of Silence.

Synopsis

It was not his war.

The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives—even the Emperor himself—against Imperial orders.

But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.

On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe starts down a path that can only end in fire. He flees his father and a future as a torturer only to be left stranded on a strange, backwater world.

Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, Hadrian must fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

My Thoughts on Empire of Silence

Sci-fi isn’t normally my thing, but I have heard so many people compare The Suneater Series to some of my favorites, such as A Song of Ice and Fire and The Stormlight Archives. I just had to check it out to see what the hype is about, and honestly, I get it.

I think this book is the perfect setup to make a detailed, overarching storyline. We already know what’s going to happen with Hadrian. We know he eventually becomes this monster/legend, but we don’t know how he got there. And from my first introduction to him, it seems like he’s going to have a long way to go. This reads like a villain evolution story (don’t tell me; I don’t want to know), but there are parts that make it seem like he’s a hero instead, so I’m interested to see how this plays out. I expected the ambiguity; it mentions it in the synopsis, but I was shocked at how well it was done. I don’t know what to feel.

My only teeny tiny complaint is that it drags in spots. I know that it’s part of the worldbuilding and it’s necessary in some spots, but it made the pacing feel a little choppy. The breakneck action would grind to a halt in the matter of a couple of sentences, but I have hope that it will resolve itself in the next book (which I’ve already ordered).

Overall, I had a great time reading Empire of Silence. And I’ve heard Howling Dark is even better, so I’m super excited to get to it.

My Rating: 4/5