Empire of silence

by Christopher Ruocchio · 2018

In *Empire of Silence*, the first volume of the Sun Eater saga, Hadrian Marlowe recounts a life he never chose. Fleeing a destiny as his father's torturer, he is stranded on a remote world where he becomes a gladiator and a pawn in a foreign court’s intrigues. The galaxy later crowns him a hero for annihilating the alien Cielcin, yet condemns him as the monster who shattered a sun and erased four billion lives on imperial orders he never gave. As Hadrian navigates a feudal‑like empire where technology feels like magic and religion fuels ruthless persecution, he is forced to fight a war that isn’t his, for a regime he despises, against an enemy he can’t comprehend. A blend of space opera grandeur and epic fantasy grit, the novel follows one man's reluctant rise from exile to legend.