Empire of Silence Audiobook By Christopher Ruocchio cover art

Empire of Silence

Sun Eater, Book 1

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Empire of Silence

By: Christopher Ruocchio
Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
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Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.

It was not his war. On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire.

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. Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world.

Forced to fight as a gladiator and into the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fighting a war he did not start, for an empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

©2018 Christopher Ruocchio (P)2018 Recorded Books Adventure Epic Fantasy Fiction First Contact Hard Science Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera Fantasy War Suspenseful Interstellar
Immersive Worldbuilding • Complex Characters • Beautiful Prose • Epic Scope • Philosophical Depth • Emotional Delivery
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Ruocchio's impressive debut novel is richly rendered, sociopolitically complex, and immersive. An intelligent work of science fiction, Empire of Silence will also appeal to fantasy fans and some history fans thanks to its inclusion of fantasy conventions and historical technology and references, such as castles, swordplay, and Greco-Roman cultural influences. In Empire of Silence, Ruocchio built a psychologically layered hero (anti-hero?) by means of a skillfully woven plot that drew me into the colorful worlds of Hadrian's far-future Milky Way galaxy and left me desperate for the next book in the series.

Intelligent Sci-fi

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1/4: Felt the book started very strong. I love ancient culture in the modern world.
2/4: Still entertaining, loved seeing the MC handle the hardships he was dealt.
3/4: I felt that it began to get bogged down a bit and I began to worry.
4/4: The final quarter really the final 3/8 of the book finished strong and convinced me that the writer had the story well in hand.

Great Narrator - Good Story

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A rich story full of well developed and solid characters. the ruminations of the narrating protagonist are both thought provoking and artfully delivered.

fantastic! all around

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This is sci-fantasy space opera at its finest. Ruocchio is a master of his craft.

Buckle up.

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It was complex but it could still follow the plot and characters. The narrator was terrific. There were some pacing issues but not unexpected in a book of this length. I will venture on to the next in the series and see how it goes!

I enjoyed this book!

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A very solid start to what I trust will be a great series. The author sets up a good foundation for more to come. I encourage people to try it.

Solid start, looking forward to more.

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Angsty and detailed-- but, like superheroes, it's a genre that can feel silly to older readers ((the hero commands men in life & death situations but is virginal and awkward around women). Ordinarily not an issue (Luke Skywalker is virginal in early Star Wars) but it's something that needed to change in Empire of Silence as the hero, Hadrian Marlowe, changes.
The paperback cover blurb (shame on you David Drake) claims it's as complex as Dune. It isn't.
There are more than a few fantasy clichés.
STILL, it is fun, even for adults, and I would've loved this at age 15 or 16.

A fun Sword & Planet adventure

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Is this part of the War Hammer 40k universe? I'm only vaguely familiar with WH 40k. But it seems to have things in common,

Empire of Silence (War Hammer)?

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Good character development and the reader’s accent adds exotic flair bringing the story to life.

Excellent

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I am blown away that this deep, lyrical, polished work of modern sci-fi could be Ruocchio's debut novel at such a young age -- I think what we are lucky to have here as the reading public is a true writing prodigy of our time. And matching the writing genius is utterly pitch perfect narration by Samuel Roukin. He delivers on the intelligence and nuance of the writing and is just the best possible voice for the first person narrator I could've imagined.

I have a soft spot for sensitive and reflective protagonists, so I was quickly drawn into Hadrian's retelling of his life story. We got just enough of his time around the family to get the full picture of his childhood and family dynamics before being whisked away to a new planet where he has to start anew from the gutter. I found this part of the story to be extremely emotional, as was the next phase with Hadrian becoming a gladiator.

Things were relatively slow-paced in terms of events happening infrequently and there being not too much action, but that never bothered me and in fact I enjoyed settling into the more deliberate pacing of this book compared to a lot of the faster paced fantasy I read these days. A lot of that I think has to do with the always-compelling reflections by Hadrian, which made this experience not too dissimilar from the Karl Ove Knausgaard autobiography volumes that are some of my favorite books in existence.

Even though this was told in first-person retrospective with plenty of comments hinting at how things turned out, it felt unpredictable and compelling at every turn. I cannot wait to explore more of this tale soon and have a feeling like the best is yet to come. 5 stars for an incredible and thought-provoking debut!

Incredible book 1 with fantastic narration!

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