Empire of Silence

"I read a lot more Fantasy than sci-fi but am glad that I started the Sun Eater series. It's about Hadrion, the son of a powerful lord who wants to be a space explorer but his Dad wants him to be a priest. He starts out on his space exploration at the end of the 1st book. Think this series will be more like Star Trek than Red Rising, my current favorite series as there is more exploration of alien cultures in this series. Please comment if you read this series. "

"Definitely started off with an aura of Red Rising and The Name of the Wind. Two of my favorite books. So I was in it to win it. I guess you probably know where this is going. That is extremely high stakes to claim. The narration was well done. Samuel Roukin had a great voice. This whole book started on the right foot but it could not seem to break the surface. Hour after hour of listening was a plot build-up that never went anywhere. I was not more knowledgeable at the end than I was near the beginning. Sad really. It had a lot of potential. Rich vast history. Sci-fi with a Roman atmosphere. The world-building was a bit lacking but the protagonist had gumption. Still, there was a slow built up to absolutely nothing. I can't stress that enough. Twenty-six hours to what is seemingly going to be a cliffhanger and even that was a letdown. Instead, it was Twenty-six hours of Hadrian getting a beatdown. This was somewhat well written just not from the perspective of the reader. We were promised a Sun Eater what we got was a contradictory doormat. For someone so interested in alien life he isn't very nice to them. You watch Hadrian sympathize with the aliens and feel deep down that he is their salvation yet he does nothing. I could identify with him and the secondary characters were mostly one-dimensional. This read too much like other famous books but without the payoff. Still, in retrospect the build-up was so great I feel like the rest of the series could be spectacular although I'm too upset with the time I lost to care to read book 2. So I will be cutting the journey short here. X"

"I recently read A River Enchanted and A Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross, and they are definitely in my top ten for the year. How about you?"

"This might be my new favorite series... WOW!!!"

"Empire of Silence takes all the best aspects of Dune and The Name of the Wind and smashes them together. This is one of those few books where no matter what is going on in the story, you get lost in the world by how beautifully it's written. This was the Sci-Fi masterpiece I hoped Red Rising to be, and I expect it only to pick up from here. If the subsequent books continue at the same level as the first book, Sun Eater will quickly become one of my favorite book series."

"Actual rating is 4.5. It was a steady five out of five until about halfway through. Just felt like the story started losing steam but it picked up at the end."