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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Writing style: The writing style alone would be ranked at a 5.0 star; Christopher Rouchio trusts the reader's intelligence and allows open interpretation of philosophical elements throughout the book, a very pleasurable experience to read.
Plot: I rank this at 2.5 stars, I would argue a lot that happens in the plot is very adventurous (if that's your thing then perfect), but not very progressive towards the actual plot. Personally, I prefer constant progress over adventure.
Characters: I rank Hadrian at a 4.5. Intelligent, bold, competent main character with many stoic attributes. The only thing I'd say is he could be a little more comedic. He's also got a very interesting unique set of skills. I got mixed opinions on the rest of the characters as I felt we didn't get to know most of them that well. The rest of characters ranked at 2.0 except Valka.
Overall: Although I think this book lacks in progressive elements and its overall plot, actually reading it was one of my favorite reading experiences (if not my favorite), its a great setup book for the rest of the series. Very philosophical as well which is largely why I found the reading experience so pleasurable.
Plot: I rank this at 2.5 stars, I would argue a lot that happens in the plot is very adventurous (if that's your thing then perfect), but not very progressive towards the actual plot. Personally, I prefer constant progress over adventure.
Characters: I rank Hadrian at a 4.5. Intelligent, bold, competent main character with many stoic attributes. The only thing I'd say is he could be a little more comedic. He's also got a very interesting unique set of skills. I got mixed opinions on the rest of the characters as I felt we didn't get to know most of them that well. The rest of characters ranked at 2.0 except Valka.
Overall: Although I think this book lacks in progressive elements and its overall plot, actually reading it was one of my favorite reading experiences (if not my favorite), its a great setup book for the rest of the series. Very philosophical as well which is largely why I found the reading experience so pleasurable.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book lifts and blends a lot of ideas from both [b:Dune|44767458|Dune (Dune, #1)|Frank Herbert|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555447414l/44767458._SY75_.jpg|3634639] and [b:The Name of the Wind|186074|The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)|Patrick Rothfuss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1270352123l/186074._SX50_.jpg|2502879]: from Dune there's the personal shields that only stop fast-moving objects, the general societal structure with noble houses, Dukes, Barons etc. placed under an Emperor, an equivalent to Mentats, a Church that likes to meddle in politics, and finally the Roman-style coliseum fights.
The inspiration from The Name of the Wind is even more stark. Just like The Name of the Wind, Empire of Silence is an account written in the first person perspective by a legendary, infamous figure. Empire of Silence lacks the 'padding' that The Name of the Wind sets up with the Wayward Inn and the Chronicler, who gets Kvothe to tell his life story in the first place, but the concept is exactly the same otherwise: Empire of Silence's Hadrian continuously hints at all the dark deeds he is yet to perform over the next few books and that We, as the in-world reader of his account, only know as myths and legends.
Empire of Silence even lifts Kvothe's entire starting monologue, the whole thing of "I'm the most infamous person alive right now, you've heard stories about me, but here's what really happened, from the very beginning. Well, not from the very beginning of the universe, of course. Let's skip over the rise and fall of empires, the life and death of kings and queens, and come to the only beginning that matters: my own." If this sounds negative in any way, it's not meant to be: This style of storytelling is one of the biggest strengths of The Name of the Wind, and it worked brilliantly here as well.
The overall story arch broadly resembles The Name of the Wind as well, with Hadrian having a teacher figure early on, wanting to visit the 'university', leaving his family for that dream, ending up on the streets and later entangled in the politics of noble houses and the Church. With the last bit the inspirations spills over into The Wise Man's Fear, but the direction is clear. There's even a Denna character in Empire of Silence (and We the reader are told so the first time We meet her), although Empire of Silence's Denna is much more competent. The protagonist's adolescent wannabe-romantic view of that character is just as awkward as it is in The Name of the Wind though.
I also get the impression that Ruocchio tried very hard to write prose on the level of Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, too, but is too inexperienced a writer to fully pull that off. Now, the prose in Empire of Silence isn't bad, and Hadrian even launches into philosopher mode quite a few times, but the writing isn't quite as lyrical and flowing as that of Rothfuss. Instead, Ruocchio sprinkles a lot of arcane and unusual English vocabulary over his story. The number of words I had to look up while reading was way higher in this book than in any other I have read over the past few years; a bit less thesaurus could have helped make the text more easily digestible without taking away any world-building.
Lastly on the topic of inspirations, there's a duel that's initiated with "Scared, Marlowe?", so we can safely add Harry Potter to the list of things Ruocchio has read.
So, Empire of Silence is based on two excellent books. Is it itself excellent? Yes! The selection of things to lift from other works is good and blends together quite well. The concept of space travel is intriguing and something I haven't really seen done like this in other SciFi works. The mysteries of the universe and the handful of aliens we find are intriguing. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.
Nevertheless, let's list some weaknesses. First: The main character, Hadrian, has a tendency to snap at other people and react in anger. This is used a few times too many for my taste as a means for the author to end conversations and prevent critical information from being exchanged.
Second: We spend too much time with Hadrian's miserable family. One or two chapters fewer would have been plenty.
Third: Hadrian meanders through the world(s) just as much as Kvothe does through his, but has an even larger tendency to leave friends behind -- or what the reader thought would be his companions for the next couple of chapters. It's not clear to the reader which side characters one is supposed to grow attached to. This gets somewhat resolved at the very end, but still feels weird throughout the last two-thirds of the book.
Finally, let's mention a thing which Ruocchio does better than Rothfuss: Empire of Silence is part of a 7-book series, and five (5) of those books have already been published, with the sixth coming soon. Whereas The Doors of Stone, well...
The inspiration from The Name of the Wind is even more stark. Just like The Name of the Wind, Empire of Silence is an account written in the first person perspective by a legendary, infamous figure. Empire of Silence lacks the 'padding' that The Name of the Wind sets up with the Wayward Inn and the Chronicler, who gets Kvothe to tell his life story in the first place, but the concept is exactly the same otherwise: Empire of Silence's Hadrian continuously hints at all the dark deeds he is yet to perform over the next few books and that We, as the in-world reader of his account, only know as myths and legends.
Empire of Silence even lifts Kvothe's entire starting monologue, the whole thing of "I'm the most infamous person alive right now, you've heard stories about me, but here's what really happened, from the very beginning. Well, not from the very beginning of the universe, of course. Let's skip over the rise and fall of empires, the life and death of kings and queens, and come to the only beginning that matters: my own." If this sounds negative in any way, it's not meant to be: This style of storytelling is one of the biggest strengths of The Name of the Wind, and it worked brilliantly here as well.
The overall story arch broadly resembles The Name of the Wind as well, with Hadrian having a teacher figure early on, wanting to visit the 'university', leaving his family for that dream, ending up on the streets and later entangled in the politics of noble houses and the Church. With the last bit the inspirations spills over into The Wise Man's Fear, but the direction is clear. There's even a Denna character in Empire of Silence (and We the reader are told so the first time We meet her), although Empire of Silence's Denna is much more competent. The protagonist's adolescent wannabe-romantic view of that character is just as awkward as it is in The Name of the Wind though.
I also get the impression that Ruocchio tried very hard to write prose on the level of Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, too, but is too inexperienced a writer to fully pull that off. Now, the prose in Empire of Silence isn't bad, and Hadrian even launches into philosopher mode quite a few times, but the writing isn't quite as lyrical and flowing as that of Rothfuss. Instead, Ruocchio sprinkles a lot of arcane and unusual English vocabulary over his story. The number of words I had to look up while reading was way higher in this book than in any other I have read over the past few years; a bit less thesaurus could have helped make the text more easily digestible without taking away any world-building.
Lastly on the topic of inspirations, there's a duel that's initiated with "Scared, Marlowe?", so we can safely add Harry Potter to the list of things Ruocchio has read.
So, Empire of Silence is based on two excellent books. Is it itself excellent? Yes! The selection of things to lift from other works is good and blends together quite well. The concept of space travel is intriguing and something I haven't really seen done like this in other SciFi works. The mysteries of the universe and the handful of aliens we find are intriguing. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.
Nevertheless, let's list some weaknesses. First: The main character, Hadrian, has a tendency to snap at other people and react in anger. This is used a few times too many for my taste as a means for the author to end conversations and prevent critical information from being exchanged.
Second: We spend too much time with Hadrian's miserable family. One or two chapters fewer would have been plenty.
Third: Hadrian meanders through the world(s) just as much as Kvothe does through his, but has an even larger tendency to leave friends behind -- or what the reader thought would be his companions for the next couple of chapters. It's not clear to the reader which side characters one is supposed to grow attached to. This gets somewhat resolved at the very end, but still feels weird throughout the last two-thirds of the book.
Finally, let's mention a thing which Ruocchio does better than Rothfuss: Empire of Silence is part of a 7-book series, and five (5) of those books have already been published, with the sixth coming soon. Whereas The Doors of Stone, well...
A 600 page prologue. Doesn't even start introducing characters who matter until about halfway through the book.
Some pacing issues, but I'm looking forward to read the rest of the series.