Review: Disquiet Gods (The Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio

Rating: 9.5/10

Synopsis

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.

Review

[This is a script for my YouTube video review of this book, which can be found here.]

Okay, so here we are, the sixth book in The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio. Are we still riding a golden wave of Hadrian Marlowe’s greatness?

Yes, for sure yes.

Disquiet Gods is sci-fi fantasy at its best.

The Sun Eater series is currently my favorite ongoing series, so I am thrilled to report that Ruocchio is not steering us wrong in this latest entry. I was extremely excited to get my hands on this book. And guess what? I didn’t read the physical version….

This was my first Sun Eater listen with Samuel Roukin as the narrator. You’re in good hands with Mr.Roukin if you are an audio-exclusive listener.

Disquiet Gods is the penultimate book in this series and I think it did a fantastic job setting up the final dominoes for the big conclusion. This book, to me, was strange but also enlightening. Not only did we have some long-lasting questions answered, but we also got more questions. I mean, what’s a story without questions, right?

Right off the bat, we’re told we have another time jump when starting this book. 200 years have passed since the events in Ashes of Man. This time jump is actually pretty common in the series besides the gap between book 4, Kingdoms of Death, and book 5, Ashes of Man. Suffice to say, I’m pretty used to time jumps but I know it’s sometimes a little jarring for some readers.

In my opinion, these time jumps allow a sense of ambiguity in the story. For one, you’re thinking, ok, what the heck have you been doing the past 200 years, Marlowe? Slowly, some details are interspersed with you as the reader about what’s been going on. For Disquiet Gods and most of the predecessors in this series, the first 50ish pages or so gives you some breathing room to become reacquainted with the characters. It’s in this first chunk of text, I was like, “Oh yeah, we’re back baby. More Sun Eater goodness.”

The previous two books were pretty dark and uhh, a bit sad, to be honest. So I was pretty happy to be somewhat out of that melancholy feeling that we’ve had for about 1000 pages of text in the previous two books. Okay, for real, though, the 1000+ pages were all sad but still, a pretty good amount.

Characters

I am a huge fan of Hadrian Marlowe, the main character in the Sun Eater series. I love how each book is almost like a new arc of his life. From the very beginning in book number one, Empire of Silence, he was just a kid—a baby with dreams of interstellar peace and learning. Now, with six books, we have a new Hadrian. A new mentality. A new purpose. A new responsibility.
This book features a mix of new and returning characters. By far, one of the most important new additions is Cassandra. This character changes Hadrian’s dynamic in a positive light. We get to see Hadrian from a new perspective we haven’t seen before in this series. Coming from the pits of solitude in the previous books, I was all for Hadrian moving into a new mindset.
Hadrian is older, and you tell from his actions, his dialogue, and
One of my FAVORITE characters from previous books made their reappearance and I was so happy to see it. Actually, there were a couple, but I wont spoil it here.
One thing that I would have liked to see more of in this book was the Ceilcin (the looming threat to the universe). We really didn’t get to see much of them in this entry.

Atmosphere

In the Sun Eater universe, we have seen a plethora of different environments and settings. This is still the case with Diquet Gods, and I love every moment. We saw the infamous planet of Jadd (for a little bit). We saw a giant planet of sand, which was a little reminiscent of Dune. We saw glamorous and opulent palaces. We saw dark and gritty dungeons in the future… Plus, giant spaceships that are the size of planets.
I love the Sollan Empire, and it’s crazy to think that we’ve only seen a fraction of it, but Ruocchio has done a beautiful job in painting a vivid landscape across this universe.
In this book, we get to learn a LOT about the universe and it’s origins.

Prose/Writing

If you read anything by Christopher Ruocchio, you know his writing style almost has a poetic touch to it. Words flow off the page and make you think, “Damn, that sentence was written beautifully.” That continues to be the case in Disquiet Gods. Beautiful writing that really pulls you into wanting to read more.
With that in mind, there are some scenes in the middle of this story that do go into a meandering type of territory where I can see a lot of people becoming less engaged. This is similar to Empire of Silence in a sense where Hadrian was just present and walking the streets of Emesh. There are a couple of chapters that are just walking to the next area with a boatload of exposition.
So, I would say, if you want constant, fast-paced action, this is not that book. You probably already know this since you’re six books into this series already. Your patience will be rewarded.

Plot

After the events in book 5, Ashes of Man, we know Hadrian is not in the best light with the Sollan Empire. He basically pulled a Will Smith slap on the Emporer, so he had to high-tail it out of there. Now, 200 years of passed since then. We are still in a losing battle against the Cielcin, and our boy Hadrian Marlowe is called is to rise again and fight. He is sought to fight a god.
On this journey, we follow Hadrian and a diverse cast of characters as they seek to find the god and destroy it.
There are many BIG MOMENTS in this book that will leave you dumbstruck, in awe, or even confused. Literally, there were a couple of scenes where I was like, “Wait… did that really just happen?”
In addition to these BIG cinematic moments, we have a fair share of strange, almost psychedelic scenes—cosmic horror in a sense.
Don’t get me started on the ending of this book either… okay fine, it was simply fantastic! Twists and turns in a setting I was so happy to be back in again. This was over 100 pages of just pure adrenaline-spiking, eye-widening, heart-thumping fun!

Final Thoughts

Coming close to 700 pages, this is, without a doubt, a big book. There is much to absorb, think about, visualize, and theorize about what’s coming next. This is book that has exactly what I want from a sci-fi story—action, technology, emotion, big ideas, and a plot that grips you. I will say, though, that some bizarre moments in this book make you stop and reread a couple of times over. There are several revelations that we learn in this entry, and the way they are presented is a bit strange in some instances.

If you’re a fan of any of the previous entries, you will most likely enjoy Disquet Gods.

This is not my favorite Sun Eater story, but it’s up there. I think I’ll always be leaning toward Howling Dark as my favorite, but I can totally see this new entry becoming the King of Hill for many readers that are caught up with the series.

From a non-story perspective, talking about the cover. The U.S. edition of Disquiet Gods is my least favorite cover. I totally understand the significance of the character on the cover, and of course, two high-matter bladers are cool, but… there’s so much brown. Does it stand out from the other covers in the series? Yeah, but all brown? I don’t know; it just doesn’t speak to me like Howling Dark or Ashes of Man does. That’s just my opinion, though but I am looking forward to seeing what the Broken Binding team chooses for this cover.

Also, I have no idea what is going on with the audiobook covers. They’re just not hitting for me.

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