The Sun Eater Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of The Sun Eater Books
Empire of Silence | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Howling Dark | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Lesser Devil | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Demon in White | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales of the Sun Eater, Volume 1 | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Kingdoms of Death | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales of the Sun Eater, Volume 2 | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Queen Amid Ashes | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Ashes of Man | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales of the Sun Eater, Vol. 3 | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Dregs of Empire | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Disquiet Gods | (2024) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio
Author Christopher Ruocchio writes the “Sun Eater” series of science fiction novels. This series follows Hadrian Marlowe, who is an antihero, while he recounts the history of his controversial life in this galaxy spanning story which combines the best of epic fantasy and space opera.
Hadrian is Lord Alistair’s first son, and was destined to succeed him as the head of the House Marlowe and Archon of Meidua Prefecture on Delos, and to live this relatively easy life with a life span stretching out several centuries. That’s what he thought would happen, anyway.
“Empire of Silence” is the first novel in the “Sun Eater” series and was released in 2018. Hadrian Marlowe, who is a man that is revered as a hero and is despised as a murderer, chronicles his own story in this galaxy spanning debut of the “Star Eater” series.
It wasn’t his war. Hadrian, on the wrong planet, at the right time, and for the best of reasons, has started going down a path which could only end with fire. The galaxy recalls this man as a hero: the guy that burned every last alien Cielcin out of the sky. They recall him also as a monster: the devil that destroyed one sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives, even the Emperor himself, going against Imperial orders to do so.
However he wasn’t some hero, he wasn’t some monster, either. He wasn’t even a soldier. Fleeing from his dad and a future as a torturer, he finds himself being stranded on this odd, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and into the intrigues of some foreign planetary court, he’s going to find himself fighting in a war that he didn’t even start, for this Empire he doesn’t love, facing an enemy he’ll never understand.
“Howling Dark” is the second novel in the “Sun Eater” series and was released in 2019. Hadrian continues down this path which can only end in fire. He’s currently lost. For the past fifty years, he’s been searching the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping he can find a way to get in contact with Cielcin, the elusive alien. He’s not succeeded yet, and for years has wandered among the barbarian Normans as captain of this group of mercenaries.
Determined to make peace and bring an end to almost four hundred years of war, Hadrian has to venture out beyond the security of the Sollan Empire and among the Extrasolarians that dwell between the stars. It’s here that he’ll face not just the aliens that he has come to offer up peace to, yet also contend with creatures which were once human, with traitors in his midst, and with this meeting that is going to bring him facing off with no less than mankind’s oldest enemy.
Should he succeed, he’ll usher in this peace unlike any other in recorded history. Should he fail, well, the galaxy will burn.
“Demon in White” is the third novel in the “Sun Eater” series and was released in 2020. Hadrian has been serving the Empire in military engagements against the Cielcin, the vicious alien civilization that’s bent on humanity’s destruction. After Hadrian and his Red Company achieve this great victory, this cult like fervor begins building around him. But pressures inside of the Imperial government afraid of him rising to prominence result in an assassination attempt, one which is luckily thwarted.
With the Empire much too dangerous to remain, he and his crew depart for this massive library located on some distant world. There, he discovers the next key to unlocking the secrets of the Quiet, this set of coordinates for their origin planet, lifeless and unarmed now. His true purpose in serving in the military was to help his search for a rumored link between the Quiet and the First Emperor. The Quiet is the seemingly long dead race that is connected to so many of Hadrian’s extraordinary experiences. Is this mysterious lost planet going to have the answers?
“Kingdoms of Death” is the fourth novel in the “Sun Eater” series and was released in 2021. Hadrian is trapped. For almost a century, at this point, he’s been the Emperor’s guest, forced into an advisor role, being a prisoner of his own legend. However the war’s changing, and mankind is losing.
The Cielcin are spilling out into human space from the fringes, picking their targets with a cunning precision. The Great Prince Syriani Dorayaica is uniting all of their clans, and forging them into this army and a threat the likes of which man has never seen before. And the Empire is standing all alone.
Now the Emperor has got no choice but to give Hadrian Marlowe, who was once his favorite knight, one more impossible task to do: journey clear across the galaxy to the Lothrian Commonwealth and convince them to join in this war. However not all is as it appears, and Hadrian’s journey is going to take him way beyond the Empire, beyond the Commonwealth, and impossibly deep behind enemy lines.
“Ashes of Man” is the fifth novel in the “Sun Eater” series and was released in 2022. The galaxy’s burning. With the Cielcin having been united under a single banner, the Sollan Empire stands alone after the Commonwealth’s betrayal. The Prophet King of the Cielcin has sent its armies out to burn the worlds of men, and even worse, there are some rumors circulating, whispers that Hadrian is dead, killed during the fighting.
However it’s not so. Hadrian was able to survive with Valka the witch’s help, and together they were able to escape from the enemy’s net. And they learned quite the terrible truth: the gods which the Cielcin worship are actually real and won’t rest until the universe is cold and dark.
What’s more, the Emperor is in danger. The Prophet King has learned how to track his movements while he travels along the borders of Imperial space. Now the Cielcin legions have been closing in, with their swords poised to strike the head off all of mankind.
Book Series In Order » Characters »