/lit/ - Literature

>>23561133
I enjoyed the first Red Rising trilogy. I started "Iron Gold" but dropped it about 30% in. I can't stand the multiple points of view and Pierce Brown's moronic writing. For example, in a chapter on Darrow, Brown insists on beating us into submission the fact Mustang/Virginia is Darrow's wife:

"...then I saw my wife."
"He stood between me and my wife..."
"My wife gazed down at me..."
"...and my wife said nothing."
"My wife, the Sovereign..."
"My wife..."
"...my wife..."
"...my wife."

He does this -- over exposition? -- for "my son" and "my friends" repeatedly. I couldn't unsee it and dropped the book. I can't stand YA slop.

I started picrel, which is *allegedly* more mature, darker, and better written.

>>22601218
Empire of Silence, Sun Eater #1 - Christopher Ruocchio (2018)

Empire of Silence is an autobiographical novel told from the perspective of the protagonist at roughly a thousand years old. I assume that's after the entire series has concluded. Each book seems to cover an era of his life, which I take to mean that the series ought to be considered as a single work split into several books.

In 16136 Hadrian Marlowe is the eldest son of the ruler of a planetary prefecture of the planet Delos, which is part of the Sollan Empire. The Empire is the largest polity, composed of roughly 250 million worlds, nearly half of all that have been colonized. Humanity has come across 49 intelligent species and has enslaved 48 of them. Only the Cielcin have been able to resist and so humanity has waged war against them for centuries.

Hadrian has no interest in being the next ruler, or in being anything one has told him to be. He wants to be an adventurer, like those in the stories he's read from ages long ago, finding new species and whatever marvels that still remain unfound throughout the galaxy. That doesn't go quite to plan and he finds himself stranded on some world. The rest of the book is the beginning of his rise from almost nothing except his genetic heritage, which is extremely valuable, and a few symbols of his past.

This novel is a reworking of many novels and other specific creative works. The foremost among them that I was reminded of was Dune, Hyperion, and The Shadow of the Torturer. These are excellent choices, but often I felt that Ruocchio was leaning too heavily on other works. There doubtlessly were several other inspirations that I didn't recognize. I would be highly interested in seeing how much of the content was based on other books and how much was original, insofar as that exists. If I enjoyed this more, then perhaps I wouldn't have minded as much. I wouldn't want that to be true, but cognitive dissonance is a powerful force. If this were an obvious parody or otherwise declared itself to be based on other novels, then I think I wouldn't have minded anywhere as much.

I don't think I would've enjoyed this all that more even if it were wholly without any of its arguable homages. I find that to be peculiar because there's so very much of this that I should like. Yet, somehow I find the whole to be so much less than the sum of its parts. I believe the two main reasons are that I find how it reads to be off-putting and I was uninterested in almost every single character in this character-driven novel.

I don't know if the following books are similar to this one and I'm uninterested in finding out. I doubt that I'll read anything from Ruocchio again. The main reason is because of how openly and intentionally he integrates his influences into what he's written here. It's not fanfiction and it's certainly not what Quentin Rowan did, but it's sufficient to be disqualifying for me.

Rating: 2.5/5

Ratings Contest Book #2

Has anybody read this? Is this OK or stinky feces?