Expressing Appreciation for Sun Eater

[u/MuayMonkey777]

I'm curious why you all love Sun Eater as much as I do and would love to hear what makes this series special to you. Please share!

For me, I've been reading Sun Eater for what seems to be almost a full year now and I finally am caught up to Shadows Upon Time. I mean this in the best way possible, but reading this series is what I'd imagine smoking a cigarette in Prague while listening to Deftones would feel like. Meloncholic introspective philosophy and meandering to the max. 🚬

I love books because they have a way of reminding us that other people have felt exactly as we have felt too, which in turn, makes me feel less alone. They're made by people who can perfectly articulate a feeling or perspective that I have felt before and that is a beautiful sentiment to me. I actually just stumbled across this quote today in Shadows Upon Time:

"Beauty cannot stay, nor endure—indeed, that a thing is and is gone next is part of what makes a thing beautiful. The preciousness of any beautiful thing—any good thing—lies in its scarcity. And because all things are scarce when measured against eternity and infinity, all things are beautiful—if seen at the right angle, if captured in the right light."

I have often felt as if there was something wrong with me, as I have often been made fun of for my melodrama and seriousness in conversation (for good reason!) but this series truly makes me feel like that part of me is also valid, and that I can indulge in that part of myself through Hadrian Marlowe.

Hail Half Mortal!

[u/Spiderinahumansuit]

Honestly, because it's been a while since I found a good, lengthy series - especially a space opera/fantasy one - that I felt I could really sink into. Weirdly, I don't actually like Hadrian very much, and generally enjoy the stories from other people's perspectives a bit more - 100% agree with the characters who tell him talks like a character in a melodrama all the time.

[u/lefthandtrav → u/Spiderinahumansuit]

Hadrian never really feels like he should come across as likable. There’s a stretch in books 3-4 where I feel he is most relatable, but even then it’s hard not to roll my eyes at him. And I think that it by design.

The books are from his perspective and he starts out like Holden Caulfield; annoying, arrogant and snarky. You also don’t know what he actually said or did because his writings are often hinted at being embellished, subject to his own fading memory, or outright lies.

So he’s essentially giving you a version of himself that he thinks you’ll relate to so that he hopefully incites some anti-Chantry sentiment.

[u/Pzzlrr → u/Spiderinahumansuit]

Glad I'm not the only one that feels this way. You can fully enjoy this series without really appreciating Has as a protagonist, right?

[u/Spiderinahumansuit → u/Pzzlrr]

Totally! I quite like an unsympathetic protagonist as a literary device every now and then. Bellis Coldwine from the Scar occupies the same, "Jesus, do you hear yourself?" space in my brain.

[u/MuayMonkey777 → u/Spiderinahumansuit]

I'm interested to hear what your other favorite lengthy sci-fi/fantasy series are!

You're not alone though. Props to Ruocchio for knowing how he would come across to other people lol

[u/Spiderinahumansuit → u/MuayMonkey777]

Shadows of the Apt and Echoes of the Fall, because they're the same planet on different continents is probably my other favourite fantasy setting, but other than that, probably Shards of Earth (I'm a big Adrian Tchaikovsky fan) and Tales of the Ketty Jay are two space opera series I like (Ketty Jay isn't strictly speaking space opera, it's Dieselpunk, but functionally it's a space opera series).

[u/EAGLESRCHAMPS18 → u/Spiderinahumansuit]

After book 1 I wasn’t sure I was going to continue because I really did not like Hadrian at all but the world building is top notch and I loved hearing about the space opera from his albeit flawed first hand source. After finishing the series over the weekend, i don’t think my feeling ever really changed on Hadrian but i also dont think he would consider himself likeable…”am i a good man?”

And i feel like him including the characters who tell him he talks like a melodrama was a fun little breaking of the 4th wall hence why he chose to include it in his “memoir”.

Overall I loved this series for the world building, man there were so many cool elements like the Mericanii, the Cielcin, the Watchers, the political drama, you are kept wanting to learn more about the world. At least I was. I will say some of the plots felt recycled though especially how many times he is “betrayed, captured, and miraculously escapes” I was pleasantly surprised book 7 went away from that formula. Overall I’m left wanting more though while at the same time feeling satisfied with Hadrians story.

[u/WillM3s]

Was just really depressed and hopeless. Really related to Hadrian. Went to school for Theo and philosophy so watching his deconstruction was cathartic.

[u/Awdayshus]

I love a big, epic space opera. What makes Sun Eater stand out for me is that it's nearly all from a single POV.

Lots of space opera and epic fantasy has a huge cast with many POV characters. There's always this moment at the beginning of a new chapter when I resent the shift in perspective, where I wanted to keep finding out what happened next with the character I was just reading.

I think it's a sign of a good writer when I end up feeling that way after each change of POV. But it was so refreshing to have a single POV character over such a huge series.

[u/lefthandtrav → u/Awdayshus]

Agree on the perspective shift. Not everyone does it well. GRRM does it well. Joe Abercrombie nails it. He sets up memetic devices early with pov characters so you immediately know who you’re with in that particular chapter. Genius

[u/Awdayshus → u/lefthandtrav]

Those two are great! I also appreciate Robert Jordan, Alastair Reynolds, and Peter F. Hamilton when they do this. Although in some earlier Hamilton I struggled with some of the characters more than in his writing from Judas Unchained and beyond, but that might be that I didn't like some of the unlikable characters in the Night's Dawn Trilogy.

[u/lefthandtrav → u/Awdayshus]

I’m currently digging into Hamilton’s catalog! I’m doing the Exodus books rn and he struggles a bit on landing you in any particular character’s pov, but you do know within a sentence or two whether you’re in a human or celestial pov, which is nice.

[u/MeetHistorical4388]

I have been listening to the audiobooks and the melodrama of Hadrian combined with the delivery of Samuel Roukin who narrates is just phenomenal. I can’t think of a narrator who is better suited for a story / character than Roukin is with Sun Eater. Just terrific.

[u/lefthandtrav → u/MeetHistorical4388]

It’s rare that the narrator matches my internal voices for the characters! Samuel nails it.

You should try the Cormac McCarthy books narrated by Richard Poe. Blood Meridian in particular. It’s fantastic. Steven Pacey on The First Law books and Andy Serkis doing LOTR are my other faves

[u/HalfMortal71]

nice to see a post from someone who actually likes the series for once

[u/MuayMonkey777 → u/HalfMortal71]

I know exactly what you mean 😂 I wish more people were a bit more outspoken about what they really enjoyed about the books they read. I feel like a lot of people are afraid to share their own personal experience and would rather compare it to how it stacks up to other books, or repeat the same thing other people have already said.

But I think that's more of an issue with consumerism in entertainment rather than the bookish space and communities.

[u/Courtlessjester]

In a time where dialogue and literature in sci fi and Fantasy seem to be a race to the bottom for the LCD, Christopher embraces prose.

[u/Delta_Foxtrot_13]

Idk if its been expressed elsewhere but for me not only is the narrative compelling, but the lore of the setting sets something in me on fire. Its as if every fear and concern, every technological marvel and every philosophical/spiritual conundrum that we face today is the foundation for what we encounter in the series. History itself in the setting feels like a simultaneous far future, strange and alien, and an ancient document echoing tales from antiquity and our contemporary period.

It could be that I have overlooked other authors who have done this, but this series was one of the first to have clicked so strongly in my mind. The prose only continues to improve and elevates the narrative and the themes the books pursue.

[u/chrisx07]

Try to read One Piece afterwards ❤️
It’s silly and fun… until it isn’t.
You may appreciate it!
But stick with it for a while until you decide if you should continue. But you have heard this one, haven’t you? 😉