<h3>Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.</h3>

It was not his war.

On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives--even the Emperor himself--against Imperial orders.

But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.

Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fighting a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

Read what everyone is saying about Empire of Silence:

'A good read . . . a space opera with a feudal, in many ways medieval society where religion holds sway and heretics are extravagantly tortured . . . most of the technology is like magic . . . I've not read sci-fi of this type for some time' Mark Lawrence, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Prince of Thorns

'The Name of the Wind but in space . . . an excellent SF story' Goodreads reviewer, &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088;

'Everything from the dialogue, the action, to the worldbuilding is simply excellent and I loved damn near every page of this book' Goodreads reviewer, &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088;

'A fantastic interstellar fantasy tale . . . Just terrific and leaves you waiting desperately for the next instalment in this new series' Goodreads reviewer, &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088;

'Great protagonist, great supporting cast, incredibly creative worldbuilding, in a world that feels truly huge' Goodreads reviewer, &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088;

'Superb. It really is a mix of Dune & Name of the Wind. Brilliant insightful writing too. One of the most refreshing space operas to come along in years. Loved. It' Goodreads reviewer, &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088;

'This book took me for one hell of a ride, that's for sure . . . It kept me reading for hours and hours at a time' Goodreads reviewer, &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11088; &#11
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

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

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

Fun in lots of ways, packed with technology which works like magic - Mark Lawrence
Christopher Ruocchio is a debut novelist writing in the tradition of Dune and The Book of the New Sun. He is an editorial assistant working for a US publishing house, and lives in North Carolina, USA.

You can learn more at cruoochio.wordpress.com or by following @CPRuocchio on twitter.