Howling Dark by Chrisopher Ruocchio

Title: Howling Dark

Author: Christopher Ruocchio

Publisher:  Daw Books

Published Date:  July, 2019

Length: 688 pages

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Space opera, epic, etc. 

Rating: 4.75/5

The second 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.

Hadrian Marlowe is lost.

For half a century, he has searched the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping to find a way to contact the elusive alien Cielcin. He has not succeeded, and for years has wandered among the barbarian Normans as captain of a band of mercenaries.

Determined to make peace and bring an end to nearly four hundred years of war, Hadrian must venture beyond the security of the Sollan Empire and among the Extrasolarians who dwell between the stars. There, he will face not only the aliens he has come to offer peace, but contend with creatures that once were human, with traitors in his midst, and with a meeting that will bring him face to face with no less than the oldest enemy of mankind.

If he succeeds, he will usher in a peace unlike any in recorded history. If he fails…the galaxy will burn.

+++++

First of all, I can’t believe that it took till 2024 for me to read and review Howling Dark considering how much I enjoyed Empire of Silence. Still, I always knew I will pick it up again and continue with the series so I wasn’t too worried. It is two years later though. I can say that it is already a better time because I have already finished reading Demon in White, the sequel to Howling Dark. So, hopefully, I can work towards that review soon, too. I did re-read Empire of Silence before I even thought to tackle Howling Dark though because I was so sure I had forgotten many things. I hadn’t, as I was soon to find out but I had forgotten tiny bits that were fairly important.

I enjoyed that re-read a lot and was able to continue with the second installment pretty much immediately after I finished with the first book. Howling Dark is, as I kept reading, much better than Empire of Silence and I was already in awe of that one. If Empire of Silence was showing us Hadrian finding himself and realising how the world around him works, then Howling Dark is Hadrian finding himself in places he only dreamed of, in company of people he thought as only legends and the world of Sun Eater opening up and showing us the true scale of how big space truly can be.

One of the true obstacles in this book is in the very beginning because it does not start off where it left off in Empire of Silence. Almost fifty years have passed since the events of Empire of Silence. We are left feeling as adrift and clueless as we were in fugue ourselves all those years because Hadrian makes references to the events that happened and we have no context whatsoever. It was jarring and I read somewhere that Ruocchio meant for the reader to feel the uncertainty and feeling of being lost and I will be honest, it took me a bit to truly pick up my reading pace because of that. I was slightly put off by this but as the story moved forward, I found that I was still just as engrossed and engaged as I was in Empire of Silence. The old crew was there and there were few additions of relationships that felt like a smack in the face.

“Always forward, always down, and never left or right.”

In any case, Hadrian’s mission is the same as it was at the end of Empire of Silence. To find Vorgossos, to find the people to negotiate with on behalf of Cielcin. To initiate diplomatic relations with the Cielcin at best and those almost fifty years have brought nothing solid to the table. I think of all the surprises, it was Hadrian’s relationship with Jinan that I found slightly hard to swallow, simply because I wasn’t there to read when it started or why or how. It made it hard for me to truly root for them but it was good to see Hadrian in love. I love his friendships with the Red Company. From Valka, Switch, Pallino, Ghen and even Bassander Lin (now that was an interesting relationship), Hadrian has such good and complex relationships with people. I think Hadrian experienced one of the worst ways of friendship break-ups and ups and downs of friendships in general, I doubt the Hadrian of Empire of Silence could understand this Hadrian.

I have to tread so carefully about the next part of the review because I don’t want to spoil anything, even accidentally. One of the complex relationships Hadrian has is with Bassander Lin. Lin is a true soldier who follows orders and likes knowing there’s a hierarchy to things. He also cannot, most times, stand Hadrian’s melodramatic and righteous convictions, they were bound to have clashes and boy do they have those in this book. There’s a new character introduced that’s so interesting and slightly terrifying (because who knows how much this person has hoarded in knowledge), Hadrian has to confront a truly intelligent and almost all-powerful being and come out alive and it was so interesting to read about. The things I got to read in that part of the book. Oh, how I wish I could talk more about it.

“Deep truths there may be, but none is deeper than this: Those lost to us do not return, nor the years turn back. Rather it is that we carry a piece of those lost to us within ourselves, or on our backs. Thus ghosts are real, and we never escape them.”

All this and I haven’t even talked about the main conflict of humanity and Cielcin. There’s so much we learn about Cielcin and almost none of it is good. All of Hadrian’s previous need to have diplomatic approach and have a dialogue with the Cielcin proves to be almost impossible. We do meet the Cielcin mentioned in Empire of Silence and the meeting goes about as well as it went in Empire of Silence with those bunch of Cielcin. I will say that Ruocchio added so much history that was hidden in Empire of Silence, history of how humanity launched into space and decided to colonise as much of space as they could. The Mericanii, the Extrasolarians, the daimons and robots and so many other terrifying things, they are explained and explored in this one. I love that there’s such a philosophical side to this series, so much of Hadrian is just a nerd and we see a lot of things from a nerd’s point of view. Granted, a nerd that glorified parts of history and had to adjust his understanding after learning first hand how horrifying most parts of history really were.

From the Cielcin, the Quiet, the Empire itself and Hadrian, we, as a reader, get to see so many things and sure, there are some overused tropes. However tropes exist for a reason and when done well, tropes can really make for a better reading experience. In this case, I’ll only give one hint as to how amazing this book really is. (This must be.) I think this is the book where Hadrian truly starts the journey to become what he’s hinted at (I say hinted but he just straight up said it in Empire of Silence), he starts to become the hero and the villain. These two have a very thin line between them and it becomes hard to distinguish for people and Hadrian (at times) to see which is which. However well-intentioned his actions might be, Hadrian does end up doing something he probably shouldn’t have but there also might not have been a lot of choice involved for him. (I know I have started meandering so I will try to keep it brief.)

“There is civilization: its cornerstone a grave.”

Overall, from the beginning to end, Howling Dark is absolutely amazing. A worthy sequel to Empire of Silence. Howling Dark explores Hadrian and forces Hadrian to widen his horizons of understanding the world. The politics and the world-building truly shines in this one, perhaps even more than Empire of Silence because I could so easily picture it all. I have a feeling (this is definitely backed up by the fact that I already finished Demon in White) that this series would only get better and better with each installment. Having Hadrian as a first person point of view works in brilliant ways and his growth as a character as well, how actions speak louder than words and how they kinda make him an unreliable narrator. The last hundred or so pages were truly something else, if Empire of Silence’s last hundred pages were traumatic, with Howling Dark, it was still slightly traumatic but there was so much happening and at times, I truly had to go back and read a couple of paragraphs again to make sure I read what I read correctly.