The blurb
The third novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire.
Hadrian and his Red Company have been serving the Empire in military engagements against the Cielcin, the vicious alien civilisation bent on humanity’s destruction. And they’ve been successful: a cult-like fervour building around following a particularly impressive victory. but popularity comes as a price: an assassination attempt, triggered by those within the Imperial government who are scared of his rise to prominence.
Now the Empire has turned dangerous, Hadrian and his crew leave to pursue his true interest: a search for a long-rumoured connection between the first Emperor and the Quiet, the ancient, seemingly long-dead race. And he will find the next key to unlocking their secrets in a massive library on a distant world.
The coordinates for their origin planet.
The review
This is THE series to be reading.
If you like your sci-fi big and epic, you can’t go wrong with the Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio.
I must, at this stage, give you a warning. Reviewing the latter books in a series is a hard thing to do. You cannot really do so and not give away spoilers. And so, unusually for me, this is a spoilery review, where I discuss what happened in the novel.
For those who want to know if this series is for them, why don’t you read my spoiler-free review of Empire of Silence, which is the first book in the series. Or even my spoiler-free review of Howling Dark.
If you haven’t read either book, please DO NOT GO ON… instead come back once you have caught up with me. And please do catch up. These books are excellent.
Demon in White is the third book in the Sun Eater series. Hadrian Marlowe is older, wiser – and his quest to understand what happened in Howling Dark has begun in earnest. To die and be alive is the rarest of things. Why then did it happen? Why him?
Discovering more about ‘the quiet’ absolutely intrigued me in this novel. I’m literally Valka, wishing to know more about who they are and why they are so interested in Hadrian. The scenes where he climbs the mountain on Annica – having moved backwards in time – were just incredible. The explanation here of what the quiet are, was perfect, and the visions they gave Hadrian gives us hope for the future. Or perhaps it should make us despair.
All along, we have known what is coming. This series is written as a memoir. We know what Hadrian does to defeat the Cielcin. This makes him hero to some, a devil to others. Some of these visions, therefore, come as no surprise to us. However, in Demon in White, we are left with Hadrian to understand how he feels as this revelation comes to him. Either kill the ceilcin and destroy many human lives, or else the alternative vision will become reality. The one where he and his friends are taken as captives by the Cielcin and mankind loses the great war.
This is the shortest way, the quiet tell him. For they are helping Hadrian so that they too can survive. At present, the Cielcin worship them, but they shouldn’t. They are not connected to the gods they truly worship. (Is anyone else terrified by the tentacled monsters the Cielcin worship? I’m wondering if we ever see them at any stage in the series). This truly has become a war of good versus evil and the quiet are using Hadrian, gifting him with immense knowledge, so that they can ultimately triumph.
Of course, this revelation, and Hadrian’s understanding of what powers this affords him, doesn’t bode well for the future. Already the royal family are wary of him. Alexander now especially. The assassination attempt that took place in Demon in White looks set to happen again. Hadrian Marlowe is half-mortal. He has won the Battle of Berenike. And now the people who survived saw that the Cielcin Prince Dorayaica, even from the mighty Dharan-Tun, could not kill him.
The stakes could not be any higher. We readers know there are limits to this power, this ability to weave threads into outcomes that Hadrian wants. He survived the laser because there was a possibility where it wouldn’t work and that is the outcome Hadrian wanted to happen and willed into reality. But survival is not always possible – and this is where his downfall may lie. More to that, we know that he ultimately survives, though now as a prisoner left alive to tell his tale. But what of the others? What of Pallino, Valka and Octavia. What will their fates be?
Talking of Valka, she was badly injured in the battle. Anxiety grips me as I write this review and take my copy of Kingdoms of Death from the bookshelf.
Hadrian will defeat the Cielcin. But at what cost? That is my worry now. Valka was not there in his vision where he was taken captive. If this is the case, where is she?
All in all, this is a first class novel that is part of a first class series. I can’t wait for more people to read it and join in the conversation.
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