Howling Dark

Now in paperback, the second 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 Marlowe is lost. For half a century, he has searched the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping to discover a way to contact the elusive alien Cielcin. He has pursued false leads for years among the barbarian Normans as captain of a band of mercenaries, but Hadrian remains determined to make peace and bring an end to nearly four hundred years of war. Desperate to find answers, Hadrian must venture beyond the security of the Sollan Empire and among the Extrasolarians who dwell between the stars. There, he will face not only the aliens he has come to offer peace, but contend with creatures that once were human, with traitors in his midst, and with a meeting that will bring him face to face with no less than the oldest enemy of mankind. If he succeeds, he will usher in a peace unlike any in recorded history. If he fails, the galaxy will burn.

Praise for the Sun Eater series:

"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

"Christopher Ruocchio's Empire of Silence is epic-scale space opera in the tradition of Iain M. Banks and Frank Herbert's Dune**, without being a clone of either of them. His is a welcome new voice in science fiction." —Eric Flint, author of the bestselling 1632 series

"Empire of Silence has the sweep and political complexity of Dune (though no sandworms). It builds to a blazing climax, followed by a satisfying conclusion. I recommend the book." —David Drake, bestselling author of the RCN Series

"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
 
"Empire of Silence packs in action and erudition in equal measure. This is a gripping first installment in a space opera that delivers both high-adrenaline thrills and hard-earned wisdom about the human spirit." —D.J. Butler, author of Witchy Eye

"A richly imagined epic, briskly and vividly told." —R.M. Meluch, author of the Tour of the Merrimack series
 
"A craftsman of rare ability, Christopher Ruocchio lures you into a future filled with danger, action, irony, vaulting prose, and a few, precious dollops of hope." —David Brin, author of Earth and The Postman 
 
"With the scope of Dune and a confessional, first-person voice that puts us into the mind of a possible madman, this is space opera at its most riveting and grandiose." —B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Review

"Space opera fans will savor the rich details of Ruocchio’s far-future debut, which sets the scene for a complicated series.... Readers who like a slow-building story with a strong character focus will find everything they’re looking for in this series opener." —*Publishers Weekly

*"Although stretched across a vast array of planets, the story line is often more focused on the intimate than on the expanse, giving it a wonderful emotional punch. This wow book is a must for fans of Pierce Brown and Patrick Rothfuss." —Library Journal (starred review)

Autorentext

Christopher Ruocchio is the internationally award-winning author of The Sun Eater, a space opera fantasy series, and the former Junior Editor at Baen Books, where he edited several anthologies. His work has also appeared in Marvel comics. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where he studied English Rhetoric and the Classics. Christopher has been writing since he was eight and sold his first novel, Empire of Silence, at twenty-two. His books have appeared in five languages. Christopher lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, Jenna.

Klappentext

Now available in a new hardcover printing, the second 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 Marlowe is lost.
 
For half a century, he has searched the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping to discover a way to contact the elusive alien Cielcin. He has pursued false leads for years among the barbarian Normans as captain of a band of mercenaries, but Hadrian remains determined to make peace and bring an end to nearly four hundred years of war.
 
Desperate to find answers, Hadrian must venture beyond the security of the Sollan Empire and among the Extrasolarians who dwell between the stars. There, he will face not only the aliens he has come to offer peace, but contend with creatures that once were human, with traitors in his midst, and with a meeting that will bring him face to face with no less than the oldest enemy of mankind.
 
If he succeeds, he will usher in a peace unlike any in recorded history. If he fails, the galaxy will burn.

Leseprobe

Darkness.

Green eyes watched from the darkness like statues in a fog. I felt them like fishhooks in me, dragging me upward. I felt wrong. Cold. The image of Bordelon's face on the holograph-moments before I wiped it from existence-seemed to float on the air. His was not alone. Gilliam's was there, lips twisted as he was, a sneer made flesh. And Uvanari. A confusion of sound filled my universe: the screams of dying men, the cheering of the Colosso crowd, my own blood pounding in my ear.

I knew then, knew that I had been dead, and that all this sensory weight was the cost and burden of consciousness returning. Of being alive. I was alive. Again.

"Lord Commandant?" A familiar voice, strangely accented, hinting at a language I could not remember-if indeed I knew it at all. "Lord Commandant?"

I was hiding in a basement on Pharos, that was it. There was a woman with me, a woman I loved, her hair blacker than the shadows. We were hiding from Bordelon and the Normans after they sold us to Admiral Whent. No. No, that was a long time ago, and a long time since Emesh, but my confused brain drank the scent of her and of burning wood, recalling the warmth of her and the taste of the ration bars we had shared alone in the darkness.

"Lord Commandant?"

The fog was clearing, retreating into the depths of history and of time as yet uncounted. I could still hear shouts, sobs, and I knew they were my own, conducted through bone and time to make me feel and see the horrors of my past because to know them was to be alive. Hard fingers tore my clothes that night in Borosevo, Cat's body sank into the canals . . . At once sharp as new experience, my memories retreated from me like votive lanterns to the skies. I grasped at them, and found my arms like trunks of lead, unmoving. Warmth was rising in me, chasing out that pelagic cold, bleeding in from both my arms.

Bleeding.

I was in a bed. Or else in something very like a bed, and someone was standing over me. I beheld old Tor Gibson, his gray eyes green in my delirium-green as his robes-his leonine mane and whiskers bristling in the wind off Meidua's waters.

"Dead?" I croaked, unsure if I meant himself or me.

The old scholiast smiled. "Not yet. We might avoid that yet."

"Lord Commandant, lie still please." That strange voice. Familiar. It came from Gibson's mouth, or so I thought. "You're still fugue-blind." …