Blurb: (From Book 1) 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.
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 into the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.
Review: This is a solid space opera. The setting is pretty interesting, with the concept of having a genetically superior upper class and literal homoculi elite even among them. Humanity is shown to be at war with another race (the Cielcin), and you follow Hadrian (dope main character) as he attempts to understand them and end the war. The set-up from the get-go is that Had will somehow, in the future, bring the inevitable destruction of the Cielcin. I like this angle, and it plays really well into some of the creatures that will be met in Book 2. I honestly just enjoy seeing the situations Had is thrown into / chucks others into. I've only finished the 2nd book so far, but at this point it's a definite recommend.
Update: Just finished the 3rd installment. Great follow-up, and the story's really grown on me. I like how technology is handled, I really appreciate the cast of characters around Had. The Quiet and the Walkers are also dope, and the development of the war in this book was engagingggggg.
Update: Just finished the 4th installment. Holy moly did this book hit hard. The graphicness was dialed up to 11 and the large minority of sad bits that were peppered throughout the story became the majority. It was still an interesting read though, and I was once again engrossed with how morbidly interesting the Cielcin are. This series continues to manage space exploration, the impacts of time on passengers, and the general largeness of the universe sooooooo well. Given the ending I have high expectations for the 5th book as well.
Update: Just finished the 5th installment. I adore this series, but damn does it hit you in the emotional gut.
Update: The 6th installment is the first dip in quality of the series, albeit a very minor drop. Something in the writing or the arc of the book itself was just lacking compared to its predecessors. The larger storyline is still amazing however, and I did still love reading the book. I will devour the next and final installment.