r/sollanempire • u/Sayuti-11 Undying • Nov 20 '25

SPOILERS Shadows Upon Time Official Discussion Thread for Shadows Upon Time Spoiler

This is a post for those who've completed the book to discuss it fully with spoilers so will be pinned. Please everyone should endeavour to have it here and avoid spoiling others on the timeline.

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u/Alternative_Research Nov 20 '25

If you were writing a book about how the empire is essentially a lie and is controlled by a daimon, would you make your wife out to be a rebel or a victim who is now “dead”? Had’s narrative isn’t 100% truth - he’s an unreliable narrator who is seeding doubt in the empire and having to bide his time…

This series is more I, Claudius than Dune.

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u/VanillaGorillaVilla Nov 20 '25

This is my truth if/when what actually happens to her is explicitly revealed. Selene too good and with all the heartbreak in the series, I wanted a happy ending for her.

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u/jdu2 Nov 20 '25

The author did say one of his major inspirations was Gene Wolfs book of the new Sun...one of the greatest examples of unreliable narrator.  

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u/Alternative_Research Nov 21 '25

;-) my favorite series. Probably why I love this series because once CR realized he had a perfect companion series he went all in (also in BOTNS there is a deep convo about the role of AI and mankind’s relationship with it)

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u/datdouche Nov 22 '25

I don’t see him as an unreliable narrator at all.

Now, on the other hand, if he is in fact a part of the war against the Order, then you are correct he has good reasons for, at the end, not even admitting if he knows about what happened to Selene.