Book Review: Empire of Silence (Sun Eater, #1) by Christopher Ruocchio
This review is a copy of the transcript of my video review on Empire of Silence.
Cover art illustrated by Sam Weber
Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Series: The Sun Eater (Book #1 of 7)
Genre: Sci-fi, Space Opera, Science Fantasy
Pages: 612 pages (Hardcover edition)
Published: 3rd July 2018 by DAW Books
This was an absolutely stunning, ambitious, and well-written debut novel. From the first page to the last, Empire of Silence is an unputdownable new addition to my list of favorite books.
“It is a mistake to believe we must know a thing to be influenced by it. It is a mistake to believe the thing must even be real.”
History.
My history with Empire of Silence did not start recently. In reality, it goes back to early 2018. So back then, I got an offer to read and review an advance reading copy of Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio. Ruocchio’s debut novel was pitched to readers as Dune meets The Name of the Wind by Gollancz, the UK publisher of the first three books in The Sun Eater. Long story short, due to my increasing day-by-day review request, I couldn’t accept and get around to reading Empire of Silence. Since then, despite the series being on my radar, it was not until the past two and a half years, practically after I recently started my Booktube channel, that I had the urge to dive into the series. And this is because, in my seven years of reading and reviewing SFF books, no series has ever been recommended to me as much as The Sun Eater series. Seriously. My friends, viewers, and followers across my social media have all the confidence that I would love the series. Today, five years after the ARC of Empire of Silence landed in my sight, I have finally begun my journey with the series. And they were right. I completely loved Empire of Silence.
“Dangerous things, names. A kind of curse, defining us that we might live up to them, or giving us something to run away from. I have lived a long life, longer than the genetic therapies the great houses of the peerage can contrive, and I have had many names.”
If you have heard about Empire of Silence or The Sun Eater, you might have heard it often recommended to readers who love Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown or The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I am one of those readers. And I believe this is, among many other reasons, why several people have recommended this series to me repeatedly. I have frequently mentioned this, but a framing device or an SFF series with a main character chronicling their tale operates like a black hole for me. After reading The Kingkiller Chronicle and Blood Song six years ago, I have realized I have a soft spot for this manner of storytelling. And this narrative style is magnificently executed, without it ever being a clone of The Name of the Wind, by Ruocchio in Empire of Silence. I’ve read and reviewed roughly 700 books in my life. When I read a book, the clarification of certainty in knowing a book or a writing style is suitable for me will differ. Sometimes, half a novel is required. Sometimes, a few chapters. Maybe a few pages. In the case of Empire of Silence, the first two pages were enough to convince me that it is my duty to read the tale of Hadrian Marlowe to the end. Empire of Silence is the first book in the Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio, and it chronicled the beginning of the tales of Hadrian Marlowe, a soldier, servant, captain, captive, sorcerer, and scholar with many names. One among many of his name: The Sun Eater.
“Strange, isn’t it, how the greatest disasters in history often feel hollow and abstract, like distant thunder? A single death, wrote one ancient king, is a tragedy, but a genocide can only be understood through statistics.”
Empire of Silence, and I can safely assume the entire series, is a personification of journey before destination. From the first chapter, we immediately know the galaxy revered Hadrian as a hero who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. And they remember him as a monster, a devil who destroyed a sun and annihilated four billion human lives against Imperial orders. But these are the destinations. Hadrian was not a hero, was not a monster, he was not even a soldier. He was someone on the wrong planet for the best reasons, and he starts down a crimson path that can only end in fire. And we are witnessing all the full details of his account of the war between mankind and the Cielcin, translated into classical English by Tor Paulos of Nov Belgaer on Colchis. Essentially, it’s akin to finding out how Kvothe or Vaelin al Sorna attained their names and titles. However, although the comparison to The Name of the Wind is fair, it is worth noting that it is not precise to say a similar framing device is implemented throughout the novel.
“Civilization is a kind of prayer: that by right action we might bring to pass the peace and quiet that is the ardent desire of every decent heart. But nature resists, for even in the heart of so great a city as Meidua, on so civilized a world as Delos, a young man might simply take a wrong turn and be set upon by brigands. No prayer is perfect, nor any city.”
This is not Kvothe sitting in a tavern telling his story to Chronicler and Bast. The narrative did not shift back and forth between the past and the present timeframe like The Kingkiller Chronicle did. Hadrian’s chronicle is told chronologically, but Hadrian did occasionally give teasers, sometimes even what we readers call spoilers, on what would happen in the future of the characters he encountered. Yes, this is an example of a storytelling choice that could be deemed an annoyance for readers; it usually does for me. But in Empire of Silence, it totally worked. The scope of this series is massive. You can tell from Empire of Silence that this is an epic-scale space opera with a LOT of names—characters, languages, unique terms, and settings—to remember. Having these teasers assisted me in making sure which character I should pay attention to. One example is Bassander Lin. Bassander Lin did not have a lot of spotlight in Empire of Silence. But in his first appearance, Hadrian straightaway mentioned Bassander would become his rival, last friend, enemy, a veteran of a hundred battles, and a traitor with the title of Phoenix. Having this information registered in my mind allowed me to cement Bassander Lin as a crucial character to remember, even though he did not have many appearances in Empire of Silence.
“The artist sees things not in terms of what is or might be, but in terms of what must be. Of what our world must become. This is why a portrait will—to the human observer—always defeat the photograph.”
In order to enjoy Empire of Silence to the fullest, I consider it imperative to succeed at loving Hadrian as a character or at least feel invested in his narration. Hadrian is the singular POV character, after all. From my perspective, Hadrian is an incredibly well-written and flawed character. He is utterly melodramatic, like Darrow or Kvothe, and hey, I am a fan of reading this type of character. Through Hadrian’s organic character development and intimate narration, Ruocchio has deftly handled resonating themes of freedom, artistry, power, knowledge, fear, poverty, suffering, understanding, rage, death, and many more. I did not expect languages, artistry, and translations to be such dominant themes of Empire of Silence. This bodes well for me. As a reader with English as his third language, linguistics is always a fascinating topic for me. It is necessary for the development of civilizations. English and translations are how we understand and communicate with each other in this review right now. In a world of highly ruthless expectations, I loved reading about Hadrian’s passion and determination to become a scholiast and to learn languages, such as Cielcin’s, and his deep affection for Tor Gibson, his mentor and pretty much the ideal father figure to him, unlike his jerk of a biological father: Alastair Marlowe. I felt Ruocchio truly understood his characters. Hadrian’s mentorship under Gibson, how he absorbed his philosophical and life lessons, then Hadrian’s conflicting rivalry with his brother, Crispin, to how he strived for recognition from Alastair never felt out of place. To make things better, these are merely a relatively small fraction of the novel as these are characters in Planet Delos. The quality of the narrative improved further after Hadrian landed on Planet Emesh. Most of Empire of Silence takes place in the city of Borosevo on Emesh, and there, Hadrian meets new characters along with several new trials and tribulations.
“The world’s soft the way the ocean is. Ask any sailor what I mean. But even when it is at its most violent, Hadrian . . . focus on the beauty of it. The ugliness of the world will come at you from all sides. There’s no avoiding it. All the schooling in the universe won’t stop that… But in most places in the galaxy, nothing is happening. The nature of things is peaceful, and that is a mighty thing.”
The events in Delos can be surmised as a brilliant prelude to the main story. I did mention Red Rising earlier but do not misconstrue this statement as saying this would be a fast-paced and action-packed novel. Empire of Silence employed a slow-burn chronicle with well-placed action scenes to savor. It is thought-provoking, imbued with melodrama and melancholy. Just like The Name of the Wind, it is not a battle-oriented science fiction novel, even though it does feature more battle scenes than The Name of the Wind. And I loved it. The main plotlines in Empire of Silence start after Hadrian arrives in Borosevo. It can take some time to get used to the pacing as the story and pacing essentially restarts. However, the slow burn made the hardships Hadrian faced more emotional. And the friendships he formed with Cat, the myrmidon companions, Olorin Milta, and Valka more impactful and everlasting. There is a difference between hearing the news of a distant planet’s destruction and seeing the bloody death of a person in front of you. The latter often is more traumatizing. And it is on Planet Emesh that Hadrian will learn that good intention doesn’t always bring positive results. The ugliness of the world is experienced extensively when he truly walks and lives among the poor and the suffering. But as Gibson said, joy is a wind. I believe the same notion is applicable to sorrow as well. Like mortality, joy and sorrow are ephemeral. They come and go, time and time again, only to end when the burning flame of our soul is snuffed out. On the killing floor of the Colosso, a brotherhood was formed among gladiators. In the city and bastille of Borosevo, affection for a xenologist with the same desire toward understanding the Cielcin, Valka Onderra, emerged.
“I do not consider myself a great artist, though she made me wish I was. I could not have known at this first meeting how many times I would fail to capture her, in charcoal and in life. The brazen declaration of her: the pride in that upturned chin, the pointed nose, and the tidy carelessness that put her above the opinions of lesser men. There’s little sign of her wit—so close to cruelty—in any of the drawings I made of her, and this poor prose cannot contain her beauty, body or soul. They are only echoes, as is this.”
I am ashamed to admit the few claims stating Empire of Silence plagiarize The Name of the Wind and Dune did distract my interest to start reading Empire of Silence five years ago. The reality is simply not true. Now that I have read Empire of Silence, I do not think the accusations hold any water. This is why I always say, now, once your interest in reading a series has sparked, ignore the reviews. Read and find out for yourself. Even though I disagree, I can understand some readers alluding Empire of Silence to The Name of the Wind story structure due to the way Hadrian is telling his account in the first few chapters, and maybe comparing Hadrian’s time in Borosevo to Kvothe’s time in Tarbean, or Hadrian’s infatuation with Valka to Kvothe’s obsession with Denna. I disagree; they were more like inspirations, and Rothfuss is not the pioneer of framing devices in SFF. But I can understand. Every reader has their own subjective reading experience. But Dune? I did not see it. If no one told me Dune was an inspiration for this, I would not know from reading this. Or maybe I am just dumb or not fanatical enough about Dune to see it. And I cannot believe I almost missed out on starting The Sun Eater because of some reviews. I owe this superb reading experience to all of you who continuously recommended this to me.
“The poets speak of rage as a fiery thing, consuming, destroying, twisting a soul to mistaken action. They sing songs of revenge, of lovers killed in the night, of passions inflamed, of houses torn asunder. But there is little heat in rage. The scholiasts have it right. Rage is blindness. A red color blurring out the world. It is light, not fire. And light, when finely tuned, can cut as surely as steel.”
In hindsight, maybe this is all for the better that I read Empire of Silence now instead of back then. Ruocchio has one of the finest styles of writing I love to read. I cannot get enough of reading his prose. The entire novel was beautifully written and superbly polished. Hadrian’s narration was utterly compelling and embedded with scores of remarkable passages to ponder. The dialogues were engaging, and the world-building is galactic-sized and epic in scope. Reading this has made me fully realize how few sci-fi novels manage to capture the political galactic complexity of immense space opera from their first volume. The worlds are immersive, intricately designed, and bloody ambitious. All the hints and details on the planets, cultures, technologies, clothing, weaponry like highmatters (think of this as the lightsaber of this world), Cielcin, and more were nothing short of outstanding. If all of these end up overwhelming, remember that at the back of the book, there are lists of characters and a glossary of terminologies and settings to act as a guide.
“We live in stories, and in stories, we are subject to phenomena beyond the mechanisms of space and time. Fear and love, death and wrath and wisdom—these are as much parts of our universe as light and gravity.”
Finally, although not a battle-oriented novel, the battle scenes were placed effectively and efficiently. For instance, seeing Olorin Milta—one of the greatest swordmasters in the human universe, a maeskolos with three highmatters and the capability to engage a hundred legionnaires and survive—in action was astonishing. It was a minimal appearance with a prominent impact. I feel blessed to initiate my journey in this immersive universe now because, at the moment, I still have four published novels, two novellas, and three collections of short stories in The Sun Eater to read. You can tell how vast the series would be just from reading Empire of Silence, and I wish many modern sci-fi manage to achieve this sense of expansiveness with their world-building. After a breathtaking climax sequence, Empire of Silence ended with a rewarding and satisfying final few chapters while leaving many mysteries of the galaxy and Cielcin to discover in the sequels. And I assure you, I will pursue the delicious breadcrumbs left in the blazing trails.
“The Cielcin fought for themselves, for their right to exist. We were no different. So long as their existence threatened our colonies, so long as our soldiers destroyed their worldship fleets, there would be no peace. So long as atrocity was met with atrocity, murder with murder, fire with fire, it mattered not at all whose sword was bloodier.”
Underrated.
Empire of Silence is a criminally underrated sci-fi novel. Maybe not on the Booktube sphere, but in other circles. It is puzzling how a sci-fi debut of this caliber remains relatively under the radar. Plus, this was written and published when the author was still in his early 20s! I will end this review with this. If Empire of Silence is the weakest of the series, then you are, right now, in the presence of a new Scholiast devoted to unraveling all the tales of Hadrian Marlowe, The Sun Eater. Empire of Silence is the best sci-fi debut I have ever read. As far as the first book of a series goes, this topped Red Rising by Pierce Brown, the first book in Red Rising Saga, for me. And remember, I think of Red Rising Saga as my current favorite number 1 sci-fi series. I was confident this crowned position would remain unchallenged, but there’s a new powerful challenger now. The Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio has the potential to become my favorite sci-fi series of all time. And I am seriously excited to discover how stronger the potential is after I read the sequel to Empire of Silence, Howling Dark, very soon.
“The fool believes the iniquities of the world are the fault of other men. Gibson’s voice, dry as old manuscript pages, had never been more clear. The truly wise try to change themselves, which is the more difficult and less grand task.”
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