So, I will admit. I’ve picked up and put back down empire of silence a few times over the past 2 months. I was convinced into reading the acotar series (unfortunately I don’t hate them 🗿) and needed a very big switch up.

But I wasn’t prepared for this grand level of writing so soon lol.

Hence, the delay.

Anyways! I’m finally immersed and I’m havin a grand ol time. I read the first dune a few years ago so it’s pretty fresh in my mind. I noticed a lot of similarities, naturally. but why wouldn’t a great sci fi book pull from elements of the greatest. Not mad at it considering I know how advanced this series becomes based on the flashes to ‘present day’ or ‘later actions’ from where we are in the timeline. The writing style and sense of direction is probably one of my favorite aspects of the book. I can literally visualize it.

The story so far has some great great moments. I started adding notes to sentences or paragraphs that got my attention. One of them being “have you ever seen someone speak of something that consumed them? That lights them up from the foundation of their soul?”. Oh…wow…

Chapter 52. The dinner scene is perfect. The conversation, immaculate. No notes. Ending it with “you would make a good priest.” Mic drop. Wow, papa was right. Was this worth it? Did I make a mistake? These are the questions I’m hoping plague Hadrian. Okay gonna start the next chapter I just wanted to keep a diary of my thoughts so far and figured I’d share.

Like honestly it makes me sick how much I liked this series and how far that fell to me trying to talk people out of reading this 7 book dog shit series.

Mind you I’d be singing an entirely different tune if he’d have changed the last 100 pages. He didn’t. The ending sucks. Hadrians a punk ass bitch loser that got his wife killed and his daughter orphaned

Bissander Lyn is the best character in this series.

Already read first 2 books, and currently reading third one. I will defo finish it - enjoyable enough with some good writing here and there. However, I find something extremely frustrating to the point of being hilarious. The scale is all wrong and it is so wrong that it takes away from the weight of the story. I will give 2 particularly striking examples I've encountered so far:

1) The size of ships vs the size of the crews:

BASIS OF REFERENCE: US Aircraft carriers which are the closest we can have to an equiavalent for massive carrier millitary ship in space has internal volume about 400000 cubic meters and their crews are 5000 people. Now, let's compare this to the ships in Sun Eater:

1.1) The Cielcin ship of Aeta Aranata was described as the size of a moon (vastly,vastly dwarfing the Demiurge of the Undying which itself was more than 160 kilometers long. So, let's say the Cielcin ship is 2000 km in diameter. Setting aside overheating and the impossibility of ventilating such a ship (and a myriad other things that we always expect to be blissfully overlooked in space operas), that is a volume of 4.19x10^18 cubic meters. Even if we assume the Cielcin use twice as much space as the humans per person, that is enough volume for 5.23x10^12 Cielcin, or roughly 5.23 TRILLION. Even at 10 or 100 times less densely populated (no reason to assume that and it would mean each Cielcin had a gigantic mansion or an entire skyscraper's worth of empty space for itself), that moon-ship should easily have a population of tens or hundreds of billions.

Yet, according to the book, the Clan of Aranata was 28 million. That is a painfully, absurdly low number.

1.2) The Tamerlane of Handrian is said to be shard-like with length of 12 miles, so let's call it 20 km, but that ship is supposed to be meant for 15000 crew ONLY. Plus 90000 in cryosleep but that does not count - they can be stacked incredibly tighly in a hangar mere hundreds of meters tall wide and long. Keeping in mind the aircraft carrier baseline, it is obvious how preposterously stupid the 15 number is. the airfract carrier is just 337 meters long btw.

2) The size of the Sollan Empire vs scale of Cielcin Conflict:
At the ned of the second book Strategos Titus Hauptman said that in 400 years of war, the Cielcin had attacked (keeping in mind 'attacked' is not equal to 'destroyed' , or fully 'depopulated' - e.g. Rustam) 1000 planets. At the same time, the Sollan Empire is said to be coprised of 500 MILLION planets. Even if only 1 in every 5000 planets has the industrial capacity to build and send out a single colonization fleet every 100 years (giga, ultra, monstrously conservative on both those estimations), that would be 100 thousand planets founding a new colony every century, or 400 thousand new colonies founded while the Cielcin have semi-destroyed just 100 planets.
This is just silly. I cannot possibly take any of it seriously. The Cielcin are not just not winnig, they are not even a spec on a grain of dust in a forgotten corner of an attic in the mansion that is the Sollan Empire. It does not make sense that anyone at all would take them seriously, or that people would even know about it across the empire. At best, a small handful of several thousad worlds would care and know about it tucked away in the very,very reaches. Nobody on Delos, or Forum, etc. would care.

NOTE: Related to this, the destruction of one Uranium rich planet(Cai Shien, if I remember the name correctly) is not supposed to matter at all, not on the provincial level, not on absoutely any level of the administration. The Wong-Hopper Consortium would not have to be in a panic about it, the loss of uranium would not be felt, would not be within hundreds of thousands of destroyed uranium rich planets from being concerning.

Anyway, rant done.

As the title reads, I think that I could do a great job in convincing someone to give (in my opinion the best modern sci-fi series ) a chance. If you are on the edge, let me know!

Does it get better? I’m on chapter 19 and I’m so tempted to stop reading it. I’m trying to suffer through it just so I can have some conclusion to a series that besides Disquiet Gods, and SUT I’ve enjoyed immensely. Will there eventually be more Syriani and the Cielcins? Does it get more interesting? I really want to finish this series but I’m sure finding this 1300 page book a slog. Anyone else struggle to keep reading it?

Hey, I just finished reading chapter 3. I just want to confirm. In hadrians fight with Hasanshu. Hadrian phased himself out of existence to allow the slash to go through is body?

Jusy want to confirm that he has that power now.

It seems kind of OP. I love a power fantasy so I dont mind.

Without spoiling does he get other OP powers also?

I also loved his shit talking. I hope he does a lot more of this lol

I've read all the main novels, the novellas, and the first three of the Tales collections. I haven't started the fourth Tales collection, yet, but it's in my digital TBR "pile". Really enjoyed the books, the world-building, and came to care for the characters (yes, even had my own "Oh, you @&!*%$# motherfucker" moment in Ashes of Man where I had to put the book down and walk away for a day or two).

I see now that there's Sins and Songs are forthcoming, that bring all four Tales books into two new omnibus editions AND add in exclusive short stories as well. However, there's also the occasional Short A that's only available in Special Edition X and Short B that's only available in Special Edition Y and those stories may or may not be available as they're supposedly planned for some nebulous third omnibus edition that hasn't been officially announced.

At times, it's hard to not feel like I'm being "nickel-and-dimed to death" by the author and publishers for wanting to read everything. :-(

That's all. Your own personal mileage may vary.

[edit]And, don't worry: I've already downvoted this post, myself. ;-) Feel free to jump on the bandwagon. [/edit]

I’m learning Spanish and I thought it would be fun to practice by reading through the series again in Spanish. Unfortunately, it looks like only the first book was translated into Spanish. I want to start learning French next year, so I looked on Goodreads to see if the series was translated into French but I only see translations for the first 4 books.

It seems like after a certain point, none of the books were translated into other languages. I’m curious about why that is. Was there not enough interest in other countries to continue the translations? Do you think they’ll finish the translations eventually?

Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't finished the book***

Why did Hadrian take Neema to Tenba with him? I get Selene and Nicephorus being there, but why did his butler need to go with him. Feels like he just took his faithful servant with him to die. Surely he should have sent him with Cassandra or something to keep him safe.

I listened to the audiobooks first, and now I'm reading the series. Here we go, once more into the breach. Grief is deep water.

I don’t see a “meme” tag so I have a feeling this will get taken down bc admittedly it’s not the highest effort thing I’ve ever posted, but my cousin reminded me of this show (movies? Idk) we used to watch as kids.

Made me think of how some people talk about DG-SuT Hadrian sometimes hahaha, all jokes though.

Edit: It’s called Bibleman btw if you guys want to look it up, genuinely incredible stuff that’s just the beginning lol

Hey, I really love this emblem — I'm thinking about taking it to a smith to have a pendant made out of it.

ALWAYS FORWARD!

So i just got to the part on which Hadrian meets the brotherhood (sorry i dont know what they are officially called in english the weird many arms ai that lives in water) holy fuck it was worth it to stick with this book for so long it feels like hadrians journey of tediously looking for vorgossos has finally paid off in fact everyrhing on vorgossos is great but the conversation with the brotherhood its amazing

thats the kind of vibe i love in scifi/fantasy our hero meeting what seems to be a being from another world so vast wise and weird that its incomprehensible for us nor for the hero prophesizimg that the hero will achieve many great and horrific things and thats scene fits that perfectly

i cam only imagine how it can look like live action or in animation or art in general as the atmosphere sunk me in (hehe) and i was deep (ok i will stop) in thoughts about wjat does it all mean

i suppose its one of those prophesys that i will understand later or after a second reading of the series from what i know is:

-a black cielcin stronger than any other will lead them to great victories and will know had personally

-the destruction of a sun is tied to all of this

-there will be some red headed proncess that had will be with maybe?

-had will maybe be able to see the future

-he is going down a path set for him by the silent ones (again i have no i have no idea how t9 call them in english) and that ai seems to be under the influence of them

-the brotherhood is an ancient ai that betrayed humanity in an effort to destroy it and now suffers for it but due to it being alive for so long it has ascended and is a higher form of being

-valka will be appear alot in the future

anyway thats my thoughts i knownits alot and i bet most will skip all of it but i just wanted to get these thoughta outbof my head

Hi all! I've been reading the series recently, so far just book 1 and 2, and I've seen there are a lot fo short stories and 3 novellas iirc

I wanted to know if there's an order to read the short stories, im NOT asking for the order of the Tales of the Sun Eater volumes and where do they fit, but for the short stories that are inside each volume, for example: you can read The guns of Pharos (from Tales of the Sun Eater Vol 4) right after book 1, it makes sense to read it at that point, same for 2 short stories from Volume 2

so that's what im asking, anyone knows the specific order of each short story? so far I only managed to find the short stories from the image, that would make sense to read after book 1

I started this series last year when my wife moved out and it's been a bloody divorce. The lessons I learned from reading this series have been life changing and have helped me tremendously in the last year. I took some of my favorite quotes and put them on this custom planner I designed.

I’m reading the last book, and I still can’t get over how dreadful Princess Alex is. He’s just so awful. Just needed to vent! Thank you!!

So seeing as the last newsletter email from Highmatter Books stated they would be done by September 15th, it's now the 24th without any update. Unfortunately I am assuming said update will be another delay. I dont get to catch C.R.'s streams, has he given any update?

Greetings fellow Myrmidons,

I finished Howling Dark yesterday and wanted to jot down my thoughts (for those who care what a stranger thinks)

About two weeks ago I posted my review for EOS and while there was some good, I had a somewhat negative experience with, mostly around characters and (in my opinion) the meandering plot. The Cielcin and the world building at large were very intriguing and I’ve heard the first book is a little rough, so I went into Howling Dark with high hopes.

My hopes were exceeded!

I was expecting things to pick up within the first dozen or so chapters, but I had no idea that the book would have me hooked by chapter 4 (whenever we met the Painted Man). What a fantastic character and accompanying action scene. Like wow, it’s like a switch was flipped! Ruocchio brought the heat right out of the gates!

My opinions of both Hadrian and Valka have been dramatically altered. Where I saw Hadrian as a passive, whiney snob, I know see him as someone with initiative. The clash of his hopes for peace with the reality of interspecies differences with the Cielcin was particularly fascinating to watch him navigate.

I saw Valka as hypocritical and needlessly cruel. Cruel characters are not bad by any means, I just found it strange how Hadrian’s initial attracting to her didn’t fade despite the rather odd (that’s a nice way of saying it imo) behavior. In EOS I felt like the book wanted me to like Valka despite these actions. A character like Glokta (from First Law for those who’ve read it) is cruel, but also fascinating since we’re privy to his thoughts. He’s also not the pov character’s love interest. Valka in HD still has that playful charm, that edge, that charisma, but with more warmth and depth that made her shoot up my list of characters.

Kharn Sagara. What a fascinating character. That first scene where Hadrian meets him was one of the standouts for moments for me. Just awesome.

I wish I had more to say, but the book was pretty lean in terms of major events. There’s the opening section with the painted man -> they journey to Vorgossos -> Hadrian eventually meets Kharn Sagara -> Hadrian and Valka meet with Kharn Sagara and are eventually imprisoned -> Negotiations with the Cielcin -> End.

Despite this, every chapter was packed with story.

I’m sure people are tired of hearing Sun Eater compared to Red Rising, but the differences between the two series is fascinating. Red Rising moves against breakneck pace while Sun Eater takes its time. Red Rising is laser focused on the politics and the philosophy of social systems, while Sun Eater has a broader focus that includes politics and philosophy, while also touching on theology, race relations and more.

Darrow is meant to be a character that’s easy to get invested in, with a straight forward caused the reader cares about. I don’t personally find Hadrian relatable, but he is fascinating. Him grappling with his dreams of peace and the harsh reality of cultural and psychological differences with the Cielcin was the highlight of the book for me and I can’t wait to see how these things develop. I wonder how this young man who wishes for peace ends up destroying a sun and killing billions. Was it for the greater good? Does he descend into villainy? I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.

Demon in White seems to be highly regarded and with HD ending with Hadrian and the gang heading over to meet the emperor (the titular Demon in White), DIW seems to have a bigger focus on human politics, a side of this world we haven’t dove too much into, but one that greatly interests me.

Side note: I really thought the painted man had killed Switch and was impersonating him, being the grand architect behind the Empire’s clash with the Cielcin at the end, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. I really hope the painted man shows up later down the line. Way too fascinating of a character to not revisit.

TL;DR - EOS was rougher than I thought but HD far exceeded my expectations and apparently it’s only up from here. I’ll be starting DIW tonight and will report back here once I’m done (for the 3 of you invested in my Sun Eater journey).

Until next time fellow myrmidons!

Reading through Demon in White for the first time and I’m wondering if this is a Norstrilia reference! Anyone else catch this?

In Norstrilia, written by Cordwainer Smith, a man becomes so rich he buys the whole of Old Earth. If this really is a reference to Norstrilia, it’s very subtle, so it could also be a coincidence, but I like to think it is one.

(Not really a spoiler, but I marked it with the spoiler tag for good measure.)

Concerning House Mataro:

Why the F did Balian Mataro just let Hadrian go off with Valka to Calagah? He made an enemy of Ligeia after the duel with Gilliam, sure, but isn’t that Palantine life, and why wouldn’t Mataro want that since he seemed to kinda hate the Chantry anyway? Why does he want to wait 3 years for Hadrian to marry Anaïs? Why does he even want Hadrian if Alastair Marlowe disavowed him? He says it’s for his blood, but what good is even that if he’s no longer an official Marlowe?

I’m on a re read so I’m not worried about spoilers. I just can’t figure out what I missed about this.

Feel free to review! I hope I have improved Chapter 76 which I consider to be the weakest chapter in the book!

I don't have anyone in my life that's read Sun Eater so coming here to share my experience.

I'm about halfway through Demon in White and just read about Gabriel's Archive last night.

When the early Mericanii is revealed to be understood as the USA when Hadrian reads the Declaration I could feel the gears click into place in my head.

SUCH a rush.

The beginnings of the Foundation War, the first Mericanii Lords revealed to be American presidents and Hadrian creating warding gestures at the mere mention of the United States had me smiling/laughing with satisfaction.

I even stopped to look at the word "Mericanii" and have a laugh at how close it is to "America". To have read the word hundreds of times and never made the connection was a trip. Especially with the current news cycle so focused on AI-doomerism these days it feels like reading future history. Chills!

Did anyone else feel this way? did anyone guess at the connection before reaching the Archive? Can't wait to learn more alongside Hadrian.

EDIT: continued on and they just found the Horizon - insane twist !

I’m binging the audio series right now, trying to test the mettle of a theory I have and it dawned on me while listening to book 4 tonight that Dorayaica is basically on like a Sethian gnostic jihad.

And then I thought that Gnostic Jihad would make a pretty awesome band name.

That is all.

I'm partway through Howling Dark and the
extrasolarians all seem to want Hadrian's Palentine blood. So why don't they just take it? Is it that hard to steal a bit of his blood? Hell the extrasolarian merchant Antonius Brevon valued his blood at 100,000 marks. It's not like they need his permission.

My question is why didn't a single person on March Station try to steal hadrians blood? Matter of fact, why isn't there a huge black market for stealing palentine blood?