It's always a surprise to me when I burn through an 800 page book, but after the third in The Sun Eater series you would have thought I'd have learnt by now - these books are great!

Demon in White follows on from Howling Dark, and sees Hadrian Marlowe travel across the stars as he tries to find answers and locate the mysterious beings known only as the quiet.

Demon in White is so very well paced. Like, tremendously well paced. In addition to this the imagery evoked, especially in the final act of the book, is sublime. Well done Mr Ruocchio, I eagerly await Sun Eater 4!

Creo sinceramente que la saga Sun Eater, de la que este Demon in White es la última entrega por el momento, está pasando injustamente desapercibida entre los amantes de la space opera y la fantasía épica y no sé la razón. Entiendo que son unos libros de un volumen realmente considerable, pero si estás muy entretenido mientras los lees, ¿qué más da?


En esta tercera entrega, Christopher Ruocchio es capaz de establecer cuatro partes bastante bien diferencias en el libro de las que seguramente otro autor habría sacado otras tantas novelas, pero él las condensa en una sola. Y aún así, es capaz también de llevar a cabo una de las elipsis más traicioneras que recuerdo haber leído, robándonos una operación de infiltración increíblemente arriesgada y atractiva con un comentario tipo: «Si todo ha salido bien, ¿para qué quieres que te cuente cómo lo he hecho?» Si lo hubiera tenido a mano en ese momento, no puedo asegurar que hubiera salido bien librado.

Hadrian Marlowe, el protagonista supremo de toda la saga y narrador de sus hazañas, sigue acrecentando su leyenda venciendo en una batalla tras otra a los Cielcin (también nos las escamotea Ruocchio, pero esto se lo perdono porque en este libro hay batallas y enfrentamientos para dar y repartir). Se va creando a su alrededor un culto casi mesiánico, algo que se veía venir desde el principio, pero que puede suponer una amenaza contra el Emperador de la Humanidad. Aplicando la máxima de tener a tus amigos cerca y a tus enemigos aún más cerca, Hadrian es llamado a la corte, donde tendrá que navegar entre un mar de intrigas y adulaciones que puede poner en peligro su verdadera misión, su búsqueda de los secretos de los Quiet.

No es fácil comentar el libro sin hacer ninguna revelación sobre su contenido y tampoco sobre las dos anteriores entregas, pero sí que puedo decir que una buena parte de la novela transcurre en unos archivos, en un biblioteca tan magna que guarda secretos en sí misma y que habrá revelaciones que nos harán dudar de lo que sabíamos hasta el momento. Me gusta mucho como el autor enhebra referencias a la cultura «antigua» de la humanidad con la situación en la que se encuentra Hadrian, como una historia continuada.

En esta ocasión también tiene gran importancia el aspecto de ciencia ficción más especulativa con la relación con otras razas alienígenas y la comprensión de que el tiempo no transcurre de igual forma para todos. Esta parte resulta especialmente atractiva enlazándola con uno de los momentos cumbre de la segunda novela, explicando de forma muy reveladora el cambio al que se vio sometido su cuerpo a manos de la avanzadísima tecnología extraterrestre.

He comentado anteriormente que las batallas y los enfrentamientos también tienen una gran relevancia en esta tercera entrega, ya que podemos disfrutar de batallas espaciales, de luchas muy desiguales contra enemigos gargantuescos y tecnologías prohibidas. Estas escenas son muy atractivas e incluso cinematográficas, pero siguen siendo mis preferidas las revelaciones sobre la historia que se desconocía hasta ahora, la rebelión de las máquinas y su influencia en el devenir del Imperio. Todas estas referencias puede que os suenen a Dune ya que realmente no se puede negar que la influencia de esta obra se pude percibir en muchos de los pasajes del libro.

Si con estas alabanzas no os he convencido, ya no se me ocurre qué más hacer para que le deis una oportunidad a esta saga. Supongo que ayudaría que alguna editorial española se interesara por la obra, así que lo mismo hay que empezar una campaña de marketing…

Demon in White has firmly cemented the Sun Eater series into place as on of the best series I've read in ages. It's epic and on such a grand scale (and over such a large time span) that it cannot help but to be memorable. Hundreds of years have passed since the events of the first book and much has changed.
Hadrian is older, wiser, and a much vaunted Knight Victorian. Some would say that he is perhaps too successful and others think he vies for the Solar Throne. This is further compounded when the Emperor sends one of his many sons with Hadrian as a squire. To be charged with the protection and training of the emperor's own blood? A high honor indeed. And when Hadrian and his now massive Red Company return successful from a mission that was intended to be a failure, he garners the eye of even more enemies.
Hadrian grows tremendously in this installment, and the reader can see how he may become a man that burns worlds. His deeds have made him an icon of the enlisted men and the moniker "Half Mortal" is known across the systems. He's no longer the young idealist that sought peace with the Cielcin - the Half Mortal is a soldier in truth now.
While Hadrian is obviously the focal point, as he is telling his life story, the care shown in developing the entire cast of characters is quite special. Valka Onderra is brilliant and I can't help but to adore her. She's tough as nails, witty, and independent. Her relationship with Hadrian doesn't diminish her character to merely a love interest, but rather makes her even more central to the story. Hadrian's other companions, Polino, Ellara, Captain Corvo, and the many others I'm forgetting to name are all integral to the legendary deeds that take place within these pages.
I won't go into further detail of the plot, as I think I've given enough away already. Demon in White builds beautifully on the previous two installments and I've been assured that the next installment will destroy me. If you haven't picked this series up yet, let me assure you this- YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON SOMETHING SPECIAL. I can wax poetic for paragraphs more, detailing how much I love the care put into the world building, the rich history that could almost match that of Malazan, the epic battles that remind me of what I loved from Red Rising, and the epic recounting of a life reminiscent of Kvothe's tale from The Name of the Wind. It is like those, but this story doesn't mimic them- it just happens to remind me of some of my favorite stories.

Speaking of monster books, this one comes in at 784 pages. But it is SO good. After I finished, I did a little digging and realized there will be 2 more books in the series! Here, I was thinking this one was the end. I’m not mad about it. I love how this story is told – we know the ending, but we get to ride along with Marlowe as he tells his story. Obviously, this is book 3, so you HAVE to read the first 2 books in the series. This is a series that is just big. Humans have expanded throughout the stars, have encountered other species (some friend, some foe) and the series stretches over hundreds of years. Read this if you enjoy slow-burn space operas with fantastic characters and great action sequences.

Back when I first read Empire of Silence, I commented that I found Hadrian's lack of immediate victories in that book somewhat disappointing. We love adventure stories because we love living vicariously through their heroes, you see, and it was hard to do that with someone whose great victories were all being saved for future books.

In Demon in White, the Sollan Empire holds a Triumph to honor its newest savior---for what great deed, I won't spoil here---and during it, I thought a lot about my earlier commentary. No slave whispers in Hadrian's ear "remember, thou art mortal" as he parades through the streets of Forum, that impossible city in the clouds. . . but Future Hadrian serves a similar purpose for us readers, I think. This is the book where Hadrian's star well and truly begins to rise; this is the book where honors and glories fall upon him like rain. And always, always, as we watch Hadrian emerge victorious---as we readers experience his victories firsthand---his future self whispers in our ear of the degradations to come. No statue can rise to him, but that we are told of how it will topple. No status is conferred upon him but he reminds us of Gododdin. "Remember, I am mortal" Future Hadrian seems to whisper, as Present Hadrian barrels onwards and upwards . . . though after the events of this book, and from comments made in earlier books, it's not entirely clear that that's the case.

Hadrian Marlowe becomes many things in Demon in White. A teacher, to a spoiled young prince with a heady destiny ahead. The focal point of a mystery cult that sends the Chantry into a rage. A soldier, a politician, a hero of the realm. And . . . something else entirely. That, I won't spoil, except to say that the events at the end of Howling Dark are no longer the undisputed strangest in Hadrian's life.

This was no longer than the earlier books, but I found it a much quicker read. I'm not sure why; perhaps because a good chunk takes place on Forum, where we get the sort of political drama that I as a reader adore. Perhaps because we lean even further into the eldritch horror aspects of the series, which I also adore. Perhaps because we seem to be moving toward endgame, rather than merely setting up the pieces, and the pace picks up accordingly. Or perhaps it's simply because this is the first book where Hadrian has his feet firmly planted in a cultural milieu he understands, where much of the earlier two books were explicitly about throwing Hadrian as far off his own map as possible.

Overall, this is a rich, deep installment of a spectacular new series, epic and heartbreaking and breathtaking in its scope.

Read on, readers; you're in for a treat.

A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Demon In White is the third in Christopher Ruocchio’s Sun Eater series, a sprawling space opera with galactic scope, and one I’ve spoken about very positively in the past. This instalment takes a lot of the stuff I loved about the first two books - galactic conflict, knives-out politics, rich world-building and strong characterisation - and turned them up to eleven. People scheme. Things go boom. Secrets are revealed. A galactic war soars to new heights. It’s thoughtful science fiction, asking interesting questions about the human condition, but it’s also extremely fun to read, and that alone, apart from all its other virtues, would be enough to recommend it.

We’re back in the universe of Hadrian Marlowe. It’s a universe where humanity has escaped the surly bonds of Earth, and spread throughout the galaxy. Where a time before galactic colonisation is less history than myth. Where a war between rebellious humans and AI left humanity scarred, averse to technology, and with a technophobic priesthood on hand to make sure that the mistakes of the past are not made again. Where humanity is ruled by an aristocracy whose genetic modifications render them near immortal, inhumanly fast and strong, but also sterile. This is the universe of the Sun Eater.

The largest part of the human galactic polity is the Empire into which Hadrian Marlowe fits. Its institutions are modelled on ancient Rome, and the ersatz romanitas blended with remnants of high technology makes for a compelling setting. The mix of late antiquity and far future is a potent one. But the Empire is surrounded by enemies and uncertain allies - from the edges of humanity come the Solarians, who augment their bodies with technology in ways the Empire forbids, to the ravening, cannibalistic hordes of the alien Cielcin. And the Empire is losing. The floating cities of the hartworld of Forum still fly, and the court of the emperor is as lavish as ever, but each battle in this war is costing humanity dearly, even as that cost pays for their continued survival. It’s a cold universe, where the Empire, brutal and feudal as it can be, is still a bright centre of learning, truth and a future for humanity. But the tension of that society is being ranked higher every day, as the Cielcin devour world after world, or are driven away under mountains of bone.

This universe is vivid and real, the splash of blood on a nano-molecular blade being as starkly visible as the towering hulks of Cielcin siege engines, or the quiet, dusty, weighted reality of hidden datavaults clutching forbidden secrets from a lost past. There’s so, so much here it’s hard to talk about it all. It’s enough to say that this universe feels real, feels live din. It shows off the panoply and glory of its institutions in a way that makes you gasp and turn the page, while not shying away from showing the price of that empire, the mud, the blood, the sheer hard graft and sacrifice that keeps the wheels turning. And that too, the essential humanity of glorious institutions built on the back of blood and bone and sacrifice, will keep you turning pages.

Which brings us back to Marlowe. A man who is turning slowly to dreadful things. We’ve seen him in his youth, fiery for change to a system which is, to be fair, systemically unfair. Desperate to form a dialogue with the monsters that threaten humanity, to show that thinking species can reach across the gulf of understanding. This is another Marlowe. One tired of politics and conflict. One with dead friends. With centuries of life under his belt, a lot of it on ships of war. This Marlowe still has that vitality, and it shows: in his love for his partner, and in his affection for his friends and the troops under his command. But there’s harder edges to him now, a willingness to demand sacrifice, even as he’s willing to make them himself. Hadrian Marlowe may now have something of a longer fuse, and more self awareness, but he’s still trying to make the Empire fit his ideals of what it could be, rather than what it actually is. Again, to be fair, he’s not alone in this. All sorts of people in the Imperial court are trying to do their best inside a system which shapes how they can respond to it. But Marlowe’s our protagonist - an unwilling politician, a reluctant hero. The old dream, of living a quiet, scholarly life among the remnants of the past has been swept aside by the reality of military actions and holding things together. I’m not sure Hadrian is a good man, and neither we nor the text can afford ot lionise his choices, even as they get more difficult - but he does make for an interesting, conflicted protagonist, doing “heroic” things, but always on the edge, always not seeing himself outside of others eyes, or out from under the shadow of his past.I’m not sure I always like Marlowe, but I can understand him - his loves, his flashes of temper, his principles, and the hard decisions he makes which have the potential to break with those principles. Hadrian is a whole person, as real as you or I, striding off the page with a blade on his hip, a clever plan on his tongue, and a lot of potential. In any event, he owns every part of the page he appears on, and that’s a joy to read.

In this he’s ably supported by a wonderful cast of comrades on arms, including a few whose appearance brought a genuine smile to my face. Their affection for their commander and esprit de corps are one thing, but the informal banter, the joshing and general signs of long acquaintance and friendship are all there, all showing us another way into this world. The lower decks aren’t faceless automatons, but soldiers with lives and loves and fates and names, and the story doesn’t forget that, and so neither do we. And then there’s Hadrian’s romance, which is (to repeat myself) so much fun. It’s understated, thoughtful and also obviously incredibly heartfelt, an underground torrent racing beneath the surface - and the subsurface - of a man we’re watching hold back the alien hordes. The pure strength of this affection on the page is awe inspiring, and its gentle heart keeps it human. It helps that his lady love is smart, effective, utterly unwilling to take any of Marlowe’s crap, and a force of nature in her own right, of course. It’s not ornate or explicit, but it is a very human kind of love, theirs, and very affecting.

So anyway. The story. In short: Good. Slightly longer? OK. There’s a lot going on here from Hadrian’s search for answers in forbidden vaults of unquiet knowledge, to some downright epic warfare involving humanity and the Cielcin. There’s some court politics mixed in there too, including opportunities for lost love and the slow building of simmering resentments over perceived slights. There’s gladiator combat that has the kinetic energy of a boot to the gut, and space battles that feel at one distant and clinical and immediate and bloody. Tension so thick you could only cut it with highmatter permeates the air, and old secrets are unearthed in a search for truth and victory. The story demands your attention, and it deserves it. This is another fine instalment in the Sun Eater series, and one I strongly encourage you to go and read immediately.