When I took a look at Empire of Silence I
discussed many of the influences in terms of science fiction and media in
general which I don’t think would be nearly as effective when looking at Howling
Dark, the sequel. Empire of
Silence was a sprawling epic looking over a large section of Hadrian
Marlowe’s life while Howling Dark sees author Christopher Ruocchio
honing in on looking at who Hadrian is as a person exploring the universe
largely as a mercenary. Much of the
novel is spent worldbuilding the universe, the Cielcin especially get an exploration
with Hadrian and a Cielcin high priest/scholar Tanaran having this fascinating
arc. The novel excels at this centering
of Hadrian as a character and by writing a novel where less time passes for
Hadrian so instead of covering several decades, we are only looking at a particularly
short period of time. To accomplish this
Ruocchio has to accomplish a writing trick to avoid taking the pace down to a
near standstill and making Howling Dark feel sluggish. It does take Ruocchio a while to make the
pace work as well as Empire of Silence did, the opening chapters do
become dangerously close to become a slog, partially because of how much of the
early portions feel as if they are in Hadrian’s head in terms of following exactly
what he is doing. This perhaps indicates
that in early stages of writing Ruocchio was intending to follow the pacing of Empire
of Silence with Howling Dark.
There are also sequences in the novel where some of the flow of the
narrative is interrupted so Ruocchio can get Hadrian to a place where he needs
to be for where the plot is going. Now The
Sun Eater as a series has the framing of Hadrian writing his own memoirs,
largely as the final moments of each installment so far and some at the
beginning, so these issues with the flow could be a deliberate choice on the
part of Ruocchio as presenting Hadrian as at least partially unreliable as a
narrator of his own story.
This idea of Hadrian being unreliable is something
that becomes apparent with the back half of the novel, this being where Ruocchio
really kicks his writing into high gear and surpassing even the first
installment of the novel. The idea here is
Hadrian Marlowe on the precipice of a fall in terms of what he is becoming. The idea of the Ship of Theseus is present
throughout the novel, much of the metaphor being applied to the universe as a
whole (mainly the Cielcin and humanity) and to Hadrian as a person. Ruocchio connects Hadrian as a character to
Theseus, one of the Ancient Greek heroes who while not one to die a tragic
death, has several stories to highlight the worse aspects as a character. Hadrian compares himself to Theseus,
specifically through the ship metaphor and Theseus’ most popular myth of
slaying the Minotaur and navigating the Labyrinth. This is an apt metaphor for Hadrian’s
character arc, ending with Hadrian essentially at his most powerful but at some
very interesting costs. This is a book
that sees Hadrian push away those he thought (and those who were) friends
because those friends made one bad choice under pressure. Hadrian as a character is leaning heavily
into the prideful mindset, something worthy of a Greek hero and a Greek
tragedy. Hadrian’s romance with Valka in
the novel is also in line with this thinking, Valka being a clear match for
Hadrian and one to make him move past Cat’s death in Empire of Silence. Ruocchio is also excellent at realizing the characters
other than Hadrian despite being in the first person perspective, largely because
the worldbuilding is intent on showing how much of the universe is harsh.
The Cielcin in Empire of Silence are largely
off-screen as it were, but in Howling Dark much of the novel is spent
among them and Hadrian’s attempts at a treaty where it is revealed that while
humanity is an imperialist empire throughout the universe, this does not mean the
Cielcin are innocent. They are equally
as harsh in terms of society, much of the translation of their language being
inadequate, the novel building to a more accurate translation leading to a
final reveal about exactly what they want with humanity. Ruocchio is clear in making this a morally
gray conflict where there are no heroes but there certainly are villains. This makes Hadrian being on the precipice of
falling such a compelling character despite the obvious villainy in his
future. There is much talk of identity
and existence in three dimensions as Ruocchio also adds other forms of life in
a fascinating sequence in the middle of the novel where Hadrian like a Greek
hero essentially seeks an oracle.
Overall, Howling Dark is certainly a worthy if
very different follow-up to Empire of Silence. Like with Empire of Silence this
review can hardly cover the depth of what is a very large novel, but what
Ruocchio has done is further his science fiction epic by bringing in specific
ideas from fantasy, Clarke’s law being invoked at several points. It ends as if everything is about to fall
apart in the best way possible as Hadrian has risen high and has left those
behind him with some of his own humanity, both literally and figuratively. 9/10.
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