Christopher Ruocchio

There aren't enough words to tell you how amazing this series is, and this is the best one since book 3, Demon in White. It might be better. This is a space opera for sure; the scale is absolutely epic. And I mean the scale of everything - space, time, humanity.

In this book, Hadrian has spent 200 years in exile, but duty comes calling again. The Emperor has officially pardoned him because once again they have need of him. They've found one of the Watchers, and due to his special abilities, show more believe he is the only one who can defeat it, defeat the Cielcin, and save humanity.

I don't know if there is another series that has this sort of sweeping character arc/development. I'm sure there are, but I'm having problems coming up with one off the top of my head. When we first meet Hadrian he is a callow, untried, naive, self-righteous (though mostly well intentioned) little prick. He's a good guy, but he's still an annoying kid, let's be honest. Over the course of the series (and 1700 years) his experiences have molded him into something of a philosopher-Roman-warrior-monk. I mean, you're still going to roll your eyes at him sometimes, but my god, what a character he is. Please someone turn this into a TV show!

The only thing that made my eyebrow raise was this line, from Hadrian's POV: "Selene dismissed this with that lack of concern with trivia that is the hallmark of women everywhere." I believe this is Hadrian's belief, and not the author's; while Hadrian isn't sexist, it also doesn't surprise me he'd say something like this. But if it's the author's opinion... Chris. Chris. Chris, my friend. Women are not a monolith. Regardless of whether you mean trivia as in useless info or as in trivialities, trust me, there are plenty of women concerned with it. I mean, historically women were responsible for the entire running of households, do you not think that involves a LOT of trivialities? Or if you mean just useless knowledge, have you never been to a trivia night and seen women there?

Anyway. I rant, but I'm pretty sure it's Hadrian speaking there, not Ruocchio.

From my five star rating, I think it's pretty clear I loved this book. This is the penultimate in the series and I can't wait for the last. show less

This book is what you get if you read Bacigalupi's "Wind-up Girl" (which Ruocchio clearly has and makes at least one explicit nod to), draw precisely the wrong lessons from it, and write a sweeping, grand story with cool weapons and tech and battle that tries to wrestle with grand questions of personal identity, the nature of mind, morality, and free will. Be advised, this book is shot through with false notes, non-sequiturs, misogyny and lookism masquerading as insight or dressed up in an show more Ultimate Truth (tm) costume purchased at a dollar store and already coming apart an hour after. Review rating change- 2 stars. Avoid this series.

Frequently, in this book, good looks are stand-ins for virtue; deformity, for vice and inhumanity. Very often, any deviation from traditional western gender roles and "clarity" is also treated as: alien, inhuman, wrong, monstrous. Marlowe, the protagonist, has "trouble" using the "right" pronouns for creatures that defy human expectations of gender and sex, but makes sure to let you know that such creatures are evil, monstrous, and fundamentally incomprehensible .

Especially galling is the narrator's insistence that we are more than meat and machine instructions (DNA), but then he keeps doing the above and finding that meat is central, and when too much meat is replaced a thing becomes monstrous or inhuman. To the contrary, if we are more than meat and machine instructions, then it is that which is Theseus, that which is the part that cannot be replaced, that which makes us what we are.

I made a note on one passage in which he discusses "bone cutters," those who can modify bodies, including changes of sex. What we are offered is fancy transphobia and collapsed metaphysical dualism backed by aristocratic snobbery and privilege. Marlowe fundamentally projects his own subconsciously held, consciously rejected belief that we are in fact mostly meat onto those who do such things as transition genders, when that is precisely the opposite of what nearly any trans person would tell you about their sense of self, or the ontological priority of that sense well before anything else is done, independently of whether anything else is done.

Tellingly, Marlowe himself is genetically modified by his parents in utero (not really, he was creche grown) and one may be sure that THOSE modifications are allowed and valid, and that he is fully human. It's those others, see, who are less than.

I've barely scratched the surface, but I've gone on at some length because this book attempts to be Serious Sci Fi and I appreciate the author's reach, but it exceeds his philosophical grasp. Marlowe certainly does manage to be a cautionary figure, a blundering, arrogant, self-righteous patriarchal fool for the most part.

I haven't even touched on the almost literal Deus Ex Machina conceit behind Marlowe's name of "Marlowe Half-Mortal," but it is definitely problematic as well and I'm unhappy about it because it feels lazy, but I am holding out hope it may be made to make sense in the next book(s). Update 2025: it doesn't get better. It just gets ever more pompous, humorless, and self righteous. Avoid.

Read Abnett ‘s Eisenhorn books, which clearly are the source for a great deal of Ruocchio’s ideas, instead. show less

Overall the volume leant more towards horror than I expected, which was not necessarily a negative as "Howlers in the Void" was worth the price of the book alone. Some stories verged on greatness such as Oyebanji's "The Wrong Shape to Fly," but too many hints gave away the twist far earlier than it should have. Edelstein's Dark Eternity was hampered by too much world building lingo - there's a fine line in a story where it either enriches or it distracts, and it this case it was the latter. show more Some stories left me wanting more, such as Chiles' "Rocking the Cradle," but others like Johnson's "Mere Passers By" felt unfinished, with too many unresolved plot threads - but also not enough meat on the main mystery to leave me much to ponder before moving on to the next story. "Sleepers of Tartarus" was a thoroughly enjoyable pulpy adventure, and it left me wishing the volume contained more of the same.

Ranking the Tales in descending order of preference:

1. Howlers in the Void, by Brian Trent
2. The Sleepers of Tartarus, by David J. West
3. Rocking the Cradle, by Patrick Chiles
4. The Building Will Continue, by Gray Rhinehart
5. Mother of Monsters, by Christopher Ruocchio
6. re: something strange, by Jessica Cain
7. Retrospective, by Griffin Barber
8. The Wrong Shape to Fly, by Adam Oyebanji
9. Giving Up on the Piano, by Orson Scott Card
10. They Only Dig at Night, by Sean Patrick Hazlett
11. Mere Passers By, by Les Johnson
12. Never Ending, Ever-Growing, by Erica Ciko
13. Rise of the Administrator, by M. A. Rothman & D. J. Butler
14. Dark Eternity, by Jonathan Edelstein show less

Another enjoyable, though dark, entry in this series. I continue to kind of dislike Marlowe, the undoubtedly brave but also arrogant, solipsistic, narcissistic protagonist. I also am fundamentally in opposition to several of his fundamental philosophical beliefs, and I oppose his uncritical parochialism and unthinking exceptionalism. Nevertheless I continue to be drawn to those in his orbit and who influence him. This is a rich world, filled with classical and modern references and allusions show more across several media types. If there are at times too many repeated references - for example, to the poem Ozymandias by Shelley - there’s still too much here to award less than four stars. I look forward to the next one. show less