mikerickson@bookwyrm.social reviewed Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio (The Sun Eater, #1)
-
2 stars
Now that I'm on the other side of this marathon of a read, only the phrase, "unjustifiably long" comes to mind. I knew to strap in for a long ride going into it, but for me there just was not enough momentum to warrant this wordcount.
I continue to flirt with various established book series, and often get rebuffed after the first entry because it doesn't grab me enough to want to invest the time. That's absolutely the case here, but I also don't know if I was ever going to like this one. The first-person, after-the-fact narration didn't work for me when the protagonist (who I never connected with at all) is planning on recounting literal multiple centuries of his personal life. It also doesn't sit well with me when a character directly says, "pay attention to this, it will come up again later!" to the reader.
…
Now that I'm on the other side of this marathon of a read, only the phrase, "unjustifiably long" comes to mind. I knew to strap in for a long ride going into it, but for me there just was not enough momentum to warrant this wordcount.
I continue to flirt with various established book series, and often get rebuffed after the first entry because it doesn't grab me enough to want to invest the time. That's absolutely the case here, but I also don't know if I was ever going to like this one. The first-person, after-the-fact narration didn't work for me when the protagonist (who I never connected with at all) is planning on recounting literal multiple centuries of his personal life. It also doesn't sit well with me when a character directly says, "pay attention to this, it will come up again later!" to the reader.
It was just a lot of aristocracy and rich people with rich people problems and a long temporary poverty arc in the middle. Whenever we get a glimpse of the cool parts of this setting, we're whisked away and told "it's not time for that yet!" And this main character just bounced right off me; I could not bring myself to care about a rebellious nepo-baby that was literally bred in a vat to be priveldged. This is clearly a minority opinion and thousands of people are having a blast with this series, but I'll be getting off at this stop thank you very much.
