BOOK REVIEW: Disquiet Gods (Sun Eater Book 6) by Christopher Ruocchio

4.5/5 stars. The penultimate book of the Sun Eater series. The story was well-done overall - there were aspects of it that bothered me somewhat, but nothing that was completely off-putting. It was nice to revisit some characters from previous books and return to Vorgossos. Once again, the basic format of the story was the same: Hadrian is recovering from the last book and is called back into service of the Empire. He has to perform some dangerous task to try to save the universe. This assignment goes bad, and he has to rescue everyone that he can. Some characters die or are badly injured. Hadrian reflects on what he must do to save humanity. And we are set up for the next book. I do not say this to be negative because the overall story of the Sun Eater has been very good, and I have given every book at least 3.5 stars. We have spent a good deal of time, however, inside the head of Hadrian Marlowe.

I know that Hadrian’s character has grown quite a bit over these six books, but there are still times when he seems to have never matured at all. I was bothered by how much he treated his 40-year-old daughter like a teenager and how he had apparently not learned many lessons about keeping information from those he loves and trusts. I believe that Hadrian is a good person who always tries to do the right thing – to do what he must do – in his attempts to save humanity from destruction. Yet, he ends every part of his tale with the line about ‘if you think me evil for what I have done.’ The Cielcin certainly have few redeeming qualities, and it is difficult to imagine a world where they are victorious. Why would a universe hold its salvation against Hadrian?

I was intrigued to see how Ruocchio tied the ideas of Christianity and God into the story with The Quiet/The Absolute and how his new companion Edouard Albe brings that full circle as a member of the ‘Cid Arthurian cult.’ For someone who has had such close contact with a God-like being, and has been resurrected by it, I find it hard to believe that Hadrian has not developed some greater form of faith in his 660+ years of life, even as a ‘scientist’ wannabe, to not have tied faith to his science and the obvious presence of advanced alien beings seems a bit inconceivable.

I also listened to part of this on audiobook and the narrator, Samuel Roukin, does a good job with character voices, although his British accent and pronunciations were difficult at times for these American ears of mine! Overall, I did enjoy the audio though and would give it a solid 3.5/5 stars on its own merits.

With all of this being said, I highly recommend that every fan of Space Opera, in particular, and science fiction and fantasy, in general, read the Sun Eater series. Read at least the first couple of books to give it a try. If you make it as far as book 6, you will not be disappointed along the way, AT ALL!

My current ranking of the series, as I anxiously await the final book:

1. Kingdoms of Death (book 4)
2. Howling Dark (book 2)
3. Disquiet Gods (book 6)
4. Demon In White (book 3)
5. Ashes of Man (book 5)
6. Empire of Silence (book 1)

SPOILER RANT: 

For a few books now, I am aggravated by Ruocchio’s use of Cid Arthur and the Arthurians rather than just using Christianity as the religion – it is never mentioned by name, and yet he talks about Ahura Mazda, Greek and Roman philosophers, and even quotes poets of the Middle Ages. I do not doubt that by 17668 some aspects of Christianity might have merged with Buddhism, but why create the (incorrect) legends around Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table while maintaining the integrity of Greek and Roman culture? It makes no historical sense, in my mind. At one point, a character tells Hadrian that humanity has forgotten its own history of a certain time period/series of events that occurred past our current timeframe. If that is so easily forgotten, having post-dated the philosophical underpinnings I am discussing, then why should we believe that these earlier histories have been retained accurately? If humanity has forgotten one religion or philosophy, why maintain others correctly? I know Ruocchio likes to use his classical education, but to me, that is detrimental at times to the story he is trying to tell, especially when much of classical philosophy only predates Christianity by a few centuries (a miniscule amount of time for someone who lives in the 180th Century and is over 600 years old!).

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