Demon in White cover art

Demon in White

Book Three

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Demon in White

By: Christopher Ruocchio
Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
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About this listen

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.

A planet that no longer holds life, but may still contain answers.

'Empire of Silence is epic science fiction at its most genuinely epic. Ruocchio has made something fascinating here, and I can't wait to see what he does next' James S.A. Corey, New York Times-bestselling author of The Expanse novels

'Empire of Silence is a rich tapestry of future history and worldbuilding, a galactic-sized story of a hero, a tyrant, but portrayed as a man' Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times-bestselling author of The Dark Between the Stars©2020 Christopher Ruocchio (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group
Adventure Military Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Interstellar
All stars
Most relevant
The book is a heartbreaking and breathtaking journey into the tragedy of a hero and his friends, who are confronted with political intrigue, unending space monsters and religious fundamentalism, all of which trying to kill them, and failing. But the price is gigantic.
A masterpiece with a voice actor who just adds to all the shades of emotion the right touch.
Epic.

Magnificent interpretation of a future SciFi classic

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Christopher Ruocchio is a genius! Wow I could not stop listening! The prose, the lore the expanding universe. The complex characters wow just wow! This is becoming my favourite as Sci Fi story of all time. I don’t know why Hadrian always says if you don’t want to go on you can stop here! Boy I’m not stopping I’m going on with this journey!😂

Absolute masterpiece!

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Demon in White is the best entry to the series thus far, the pacing takes a notable improvement, character's become even more fleshed out and the worldbuilding is immaculate.

Demon in White takes place around 50 years after Howling Dark, I believe this may keep up for the rest of the series. In this book, Hadrian has become a true soldier of the Emperor, and tackling impossible missions against the Cielcin on behalf of the crown, with red company of course. We see relationship conflicts and personal growth from the entire cast as they deal with this ongoing war.

The prose in this are as strong as ever, it kept me engaged the entire time and never struggled to understand what was happening, except for one chapter that blew me away. Ruocchio's writing stile is swiftly becoming one of my favourites.

Character's in this book as always take the forefront in this one, with Hadrian, Valka, and Alexander being my personal favourites of this book. It was so interesting watching Hadrian change, and then other character's picking up on it, and how that wasn't just metaphorical, but literal later on.

The worldbuilding was... wow, just wow. Safe to say this was the best part of the book in my opinion . We get some huge revelations that quite literally change the game we're in, and I didn't see any of it coming, I had to reread the chapter it was introduced since I was so bamboozled by it all.

The ship of thesius is something that's been brought up many times in sun eater, and it continues to here, It's fascinating how Ruocchio was able to think of the parallels here, and I cannot wait to see more.

Themes were overall the same as Howling Dark, war, loss, what does it mean to be human, you know what to expect if you've made it this far into sun eater.

Emotional Impact is an interesting one, I didn't have any big outburst I would usually give for my 5 star reads, however this nook gave me so many questions, and I was consistently on the edge of my seat the entire book. There were certain chapter's that definitely effected me more than others, but I do wish I got the hype moments that others did.

Now the main talking points are out of the way I want to go into the main spoiler section and what I thought:
<spoiler>
Hadrian beating the impossible mission set by Caesar after becoming too dangerous in their eyes was amazing, I loved watching him defy the odds and continue to prove everyone wrong. And this battle also introduced us to Alexander, who love him or hate him, took a big portion of this book up, and I personally love the brat. I felt so bad for him in that one scene with Hadrian and Valka, I had my hands on my head going "oh nooo poor Alexander!" for a solid 5 minutes.

Serene was also a nice addition, we heard of her before obviously in Howling Dark, and I am curious to see how she's used later on as a source of conflict for Hadrian and Valka, I don't believe for a second that conflict is over. Her part in this is only just beginning.

Speaking of Valka and Hadrian, I love their relationship so much if Ruocchio ruins it I may just give up on love overall, they work so well with each other, and Hadrian always talking in his inner monologue about how all he wants is Valka, nothing else, was so wholesome and cute, I am dangerously worried about the future.

Gibson returning (the GOAT) was an amazing surprise, I was so happy to see him return, this did also sadly reminding us again how Hadrian isn't the same how he used to be (quite literally). I am now wishing we could get the return of Switch, I don't believe it will happen due to how Hadrian talks about him in his diary, but I was sad when he left in book 2 and it seems Hadrian regrets sending him away as well, even if it was the right thing to do. Watching Hadrian dealing with another one of his crew leave (Siran) was also interesting, seeing how he deals with the further loss of his friends.

Now for the big stuff, chapter 70 was by far the shining beacon of this book, hoooooly. The reveal that the quiet are not a people, but a single godlike entity from the future? and they're fighting with a different being that the Cielcin worship? fantastic. And explaining how Hadrian cannot die, it felt straight out of that one rick and Morty episode and I love it, I am curious if he is going to abuse it later on, it also really made me think about the ship of Theseus. Absolutely crazy.

That final battle was also awesome.
</spoiler>

Overall, this book was one of the best reads this year and I cannot wait to continue, 5 stars.


This is easily one of the best books this year

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I enjoyed the first two books quite a lot but this is one even better

They're just getting better

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this delivered on all levels, the best of series so far. good value for money, lots of action, lots of twists, sets things up for further action

best so far

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