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Books by Christopher Ruocchio
Empire of Silence
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.
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.
On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe starts down a path that can only end in fire. He flees his father and a future as a torturer only to be left stranded on a strange, backwater world.
Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, Hadrian must fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.
Publisher: DAW Books | Released: July 3, 2018
Howling Dark
The second novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire.
Hadrian Marlowe is lost.
For half a century, he has searched the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping to discover a way to contact the elusive alien Cielcin. He has pursued false leads for years among the barbarian Normans as captain of a band of mercenaries, but Hadrian remains determined to make peace and bring an end to nearly four hundred years of war.
Desperate to find answers, Hadrian must venture beyond the security of the Sollan Empire and among the Extrasolarians who dwell between the stars. There, he will face not only the aliens he has come to offer peace, but contend with creatures that once were human, with traitors in his midst, and with a meeting that will bring him face to face with no less than the oldest enemy of mankind.
If he succeeds, he will usher in a peace unlike any in recorded history. If he fails, the galaxy will burn.
Publisher: DAW Books | Released: July 16, 2019
Demon in White
Hadrian Marlowe returns in book three of the Sun Eater series!
For almost a hundred years, Hadrian Marlowe has served the Empire in its war against the Cielcin, a vicious alien race bent on humanity’s destruction. Rumors of a new king amongst the Cielcin have reached the Imperial throne. This one is not like the others. It does not raid borderworld territories, preferring precise, strategic attacks on the humans’ Empire.
To make matters worse, a cult of personality has formed around Hadrian, spurred on by legends of his having defied death itself. Men call him Halfmortal. Hadrian’s rise to prominence proves dangerous to himself and his team, as pressures within the Imperial government distrust or resent his new influence.
Caught in the middle, Hadrian must contend with enemies before him—and behind.
And above it all, there is the mystery of the Quiet. Hadrian did defy death. He did return. But the keys to the only place in the universe where Hadrian might find the answers he seeks lie in the hands of the Emperor himself....
Publisher: DAW Books | Released: July 28, 2020
Kingdoms of Death
The fourth novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire.
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.
Publisher: DAW Books | Released: March 22, 2022
Ashes of Man
The fifth novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire.
The galaxy is burning.
With the Cielcin united under one banner, the Sollan Empire stands alone after the betrayal of the Commonwealth. The Prophet-King of the Cielcin has sent its armies to burn the worlds of men, and worse, there are rumors...whispers that Hadrian Marlowe is dead, killed in the fighting.
But it is not so. Hadrian survived with the help of the witch, Valka, and together they escaped the net of the enemy having learned a terrible truth: the gods that the Cielcin worship are real and will not rest until the universe is dark and cold.
What is more, the Emperor himself is in danger. The Prophet-King has learned to track his movements as he travels along the borders of Imperial space. Now the Cielcin legions are closing in, their swords poised to strike off the head of all mankind.
Publisher: DAW Books | Released: December 6, 2022
Disquiet Gods
The sixth novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire.
The end is nigh.
It has been nearly two hundred years since Hadrian Marlowe assaulted the person of the Emperor and walked away from war. From his Empire. His duty. From the will and service of the eldritch being known only as the Quiet. The galaxy lies in the grip of a terrible plague, and worse, the Cielcin have overrun the realms of men.
A messenger has come to Jadd, bearing a summons from the Sollan Emperor for the one-time hero. A summons, a pardon, and a plea. HAPSIS, the Emperor’s secret first-contact intelligence organization, has located one of the dreadful Watchers, the immense, powerful beings worshipped by the Pale Cielcin.
Called out of retirement and exile, the old hero—accompanied by his daughter, Cassandra—must race across the galaxy and against time to accomplish one last, impossible task:
To kill a god.
Publisher: Baen Books | Released: April 2, 2024
Shadows Upon Time
The seventh and final novel of the galaxy-spanning series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe at last lights the greatest fire humanity has ever seen.
Ambitious universe-building combines with intimate character portraits for storytelling on a truly epic scale—for fans of Orson Scott Card, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Patrick Rothfuss, and Jack Campbell.
The trumpet sounds.
The end has come at last. After his victory at Vorgossos, Hadrian Marlowe finds himself a fugitive, on the run not only from the Extrasolarians, but from his own people, the Sollan Empire he betrayed—and who betrayed him. Hidden safely beyond the borders of human space, Hadrian awaits the arrival of the one ally he has left: the Jaddian Prince Kaim-Olorin du Otranto.
What's more, the inhuman Cielcin have vanished, unseen for more than one hundred years. The armies of men have grown complacent, but Hadrian knows the truth: the Cielcin are gathering their strength, preparing for their final assault against the heart of all mankind.
Only Hadrian possesses the power to stem the tide: an ancient war machine, forged by the daimon machines at the dawn of time. The mighty Demiurge. With it, Hadrian must face not just the Cielcin horde, but their Prophet-King, and the dark gods it serves—the very gods who shaped the universe itself.
This must be.
Publisher: DAW Books | Released: November 18, 2025
Novellas by Christopher Ruocchio
The Lesser Devil
Can the youngest son of a noble house save his family from a plot generations in the making?
Crispin Marlowe grew up in his brother’s shadow, but Hadrian is gone, and his grandmother—the duchess of Delos—is dying.
Answering her summons, Crispin takes off on what should be a routine flight to the ducal palace from the castle at Devil’s Rest. But he is flying into a trap. There are whispers of treachery among the duchess’s many daughters, rumors of hidden knives in the planet’s court . . . if he can even make it there.
With no one coming to save him and only his sister, Sabine, and a few injured guardsmen to protect him, House Marlowe’s least famous son must make his heroic stand, and contend not only the foes arrayed against his house, but with the cultists who dwell in the mountains above his family’s ancestral home . . .
Publisher: Highmatter Books | Released: April 14, 2020
Queen Amid Ashes
Though the battle to save her planet is over, the war never ends.
Hadrian Marlowe is newly a knight of the galaxy-spanning Sollan Empire: a hero who they say slew the alien Prince Aranata Otiolo in single combat; a man they say no man or xenobite can kill.
Acting on the Emperor’s orders, Hadrian has come to the desert planet Thagura and driven off the Cielcin invaders, rescuing in the process the Lady Gadar Malyan, Baroness of that entire world.
But not all the fighting is ended. Pockets of inhuman resistance remain on the desert world, and Hadrian the Halfmortal must soon do battle with not only the man-eating alien barbarians, but with something just as terrible: man’s own inhumanity to man.
Publisher: Highmatter Books | Released: April 14, 2020
The Dregs of Empire
Return to the world of the Sun Eater in this spin-off adventure set after the events of Book Five!
For thousands of years, the icy planet of Belusha has served the galactic Sollan Empire as its most notorious prison planet. It is here the very worst men in the Empire are locked away: murderers, traitors, deserters—each condemned to toil on the oil rigs and scrapyards of the planet in bitter cold, preyed upon both by the men of the Martian Guard set to watch over them, and by the Outborn reavers whose fathers escaped the work camps to scratch a living from the icy wilderness.
It is a hard world. A desperate world.
And it is here that Lorian Aristedes finds himself: alone; friendless; betrayed even by his own failing, mutant flesh. Is it here that Lorian Aristedes has been sentenced to work himself to death for the crime of abetting his master’s escape from Imperial justice.
For any other man, it would be the end of his story…but for Lorian Aristedes—once the left hand of the Halfmortal, Hadrian Marlowe himself—it is only the beginning.
Publisher: Highmatter Books | Released: November 14, 2023
Collections by Christopher Ruocchio
Tales of the Sun Eater, Vol. 1
Seven stories from the universe of the Sun Eater written by award-winning author Christopher Ruocchio and collected here for the very first time.
A new horror comes to a centuries-old war... A machine witch on trial for crimes against her own humanity... Pirates in the black of space… Here are tales of the far future, of a time where mankind reigns across the galaxy: a time of war, of great evil, and of greater heroes. Here are tales of the Sollan Empire, and of the barbarians who dwell in the cracks between its stars. Here are tales of strange, far worlds. Tales of battle, of desperation, and holy law. And here, too, are tales of a man who will change the fate and future of the galaxy as a whole. Tales of the Sun Eater, of Hadrian Marlowe himself.
Publisher: Highmatter Books | Released: April 16, 2021
Tales of the Sun Eater, Vol. 2
Six stories from the universe of the Sun Eater written by internationally award-winning author Christopher Ruocchio and collected here for the very first time.
On a distant world, an assassin must kill a half-machine king. On another, a team of soldiers must save a princess from behind alien lines. Elsewhere in the galaxy, a young girl defies inhuman invaders to save her little brother... Here are more tales of our far future, of an age when man's empire is crumbling across the stars: a time of war, of great good, and greater evils.
Here are further tales of the Sollan Empire and of the barbarians who dwell between its stars. Here are tales of strange, far worlds. Tales of battle, of desperation, and holy law. And here, too, are tales of a man who will change the fate and future of the galaxy as a whole. Tales of the Sun Eater, of Hadrian Marlowe himself.
Publisher: Highmatter Books | Released: June 1, 2022
Tales of the Sun Eater, Vol. 3
Seven more stories from the universe of the Sun Eater written by internationally award-winning author Christopher Ruocchio and collected here for the very first time.
At the Battle of Akterumu, a captain makes her valiant last stand against a vicious inhuman horde. On the pirate planet of Vorgossos, a machine rebels against her creator. On the alien battleship Echidna, an ordinary man comes face to face with a demon in all but name. And on idyllic Jadd, an apprentice to the Swordmasters of the Fire School takes her first steps out from beneath her father's legendary shadow.
Here are further tales of the Sollan Empire and of the barbarians who dwell between its stars. Here are tales of strange, far worlds. Tales of battle, of desperation, and holy law. And here, too, are tales of a man who will change the fate and future of the galaxy as a whole. Tales of the Sun Eater, of Hadrian Marlowe himself.
Publisher: Highmatter Books | Released: September 15, 2023
Tales of the Sun Eater, Vol. 4
Five stories from the universe of the Sun Eater written by internationally award-winning author Christopher Ruocchio, collected here for the very first time.
A legendary hero. An old soldier. A monster from beyond the stars. In the far future, an old man must kill to save his unborn daughter, must fight to prevent an assassination--the start of a war that would shatter many worlds. Now bear witness go the noon of mankind, of an age when humanity's empire stretches far across the stars: a time of war, of great evils, and of still greater good.
Here are further tales of strange, far worlds. Tales of battle, of desperation, and holy law. And here, too, are tales of a man who will change the fate and future of the galaxy as a whole. Tales of the Sun Eater, of Hadrian Marlowe himself.
Publisher: Highmatter Books | Released: July 15, 2025
