Kingdoms of Death by Christopher Ruocchio

Title: Kingdoms of Death

Author: Christopher Ruocchio

Genre: Sci-Fi Fantasy

Series: The Sun Eater #4

Hardcover, 544 pages

Publication: March 8, 2022 by DAW

Source: I received a review copy in exchange for honest review.
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Hadrian Marlowe is trapped.

For nearly a century, he has been a guest of the Emperor, forced into the role of advisor, a prisoner of his own legend. But the war is changing. Mankind is losing.

The Cielcin are spilling into human space from the fringes, picking their targets with cunning precision. The Great Prince Syriani Dorayaica is uniting their clans, forging them into an army and threat the likes of which mankind has never seen.

And the Empire stands alone.

Now the Emperor has no choice but to give Hadrian Marlowe--once his favorite knight--one more impossible task: journey across the galaxy to the Lothrian Commonwealth and convince them to join the war. But not all is as it seems, and Hadrian's journey will take him far beyond the Empire, beyond the Commonwealth, impossibly deep behind enemy lines.

 MY THOUGHTS

Kingdoms of Death is perfectly named in the fourth installment of the Sun Eater series. The book starts exactly where Demon in White ended, with Hadrian captured by the Cielcin. The title foreshadows what readers can expect, and its as morbid and dark as the title implies. The Sun Eater series is one of my all-time favorite Science Fiction Fantasy ever and each book gets outdoing its predecessor. And while I enjoyed Kingdoms of Death I found the pacing a lot slower than all the previous books, with little to no action till three-quarters of the way through.

For majority of the book, Hadrian is held prisoner as the Cielcins try to extract information about the Empire and the Emperor’s whereabouts. At this time readers are giving an in depth look behind enemy lines and learn about the Cielcin Hierarchy. And to no one’s surprise like all empire or military structure, there are always cracks and unrest amongst the people.

I normally never have an issue with length. Kingdoms of Death clocks out with over 500 pages, but of those 500+ pages, 350 pages felt very stagnant and too long of a build-up. It wasn’t until we were closer towards the end did the story pick up. As I mentioned before, the title of the book was quite fitting as we saw MASS casualty. I was in complete shock at the turn of events and the destruction of the Red Company and many other soldiers. With how it all ended, I’m not sure what to expect next. The Sun Eater Series writing, and storytelling is the crème de la crème when it comes to this genre but what made this series extra special to me are the characters. With most of the characters gone, I’m not sure I want to continue. Although, I know I shouldn’t be surprised since from the very first book, from the very beginning Hadrian did say this wasn’t a story with a happy-ending.

Kingdoms of Death was a solid installment to the series. I will probably take a break to see if I’ll continue. In my opinion this wasn’t the strongest book, but the series as a whole is without a doubt a five+ star series. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend the first book in the series, Empire of Silence.