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bigheadted 's review for:
Empire of Silence
by Christopher Ruocchio
3.5 Stars rounding down. I really wanted to like this book and my expectations were high, but it just didn’t grab me.
Worldbuilding: Solid. The world is very fleshed out and detailed, and I came away with a solid understanding of a rich galaxy full of different factions and planets. I felt very comfortable with the planets and settings featured.
Characters: Meh. I didn’t sympathize with the main character’s motivations and didn’t find it believable. He reads like a tropey young adult protagonist, “it’s so hard being rich and famous!”. The other characters in the story didn’t feel very fleshed out either and I never found myself invested in anyone.
Plot: Poor. The arcs in the story didn’t flow together very well, and seemed rather disjointed. Oh, now he’s here! Oh ok, nevermind that story, now he’s over here. There didn’t seem to be anything that “came together” at the end of the story for me. I know this is the first book in a long series, but there were no real revelations, tricky situations, or any real sense of gravity. I did get more interested in the story during the final arc, but there felt like no real payoff, just a setting up of the next book in the series.
Prose: Moderate. The author is clearly highly intelligent and educated, and I enjoyed at times his philosophizing. He constructed his sentencing well. I did at times find annoying details in the prose (like using the same word twice in the same sentence - a real painful one for me), and I was never “sucked in” to the writing.
Worldbuilding: Solid. The world is very fleshed out and detailed, and I came away with a solid understanding of a rich galaxy full of different factions and planets. I felt very comfortable with the planets and settings featured.
Characters: Meh. I didn’t sympathize with the main character’s motivations and didn’t find it believable. He reads like a tropey young adult protagonist, “it’s so hard being rich and famous!”. The other characters in the story didn’t feel very fleshed out either and I never found myself invested in anyone.
Plot: Poor. The arcs in the story didn’t flow together very well, and seemed rather disjointed. Oh, now he’s here! Oh ok, nevermind that story, now he’s over here. There didn’t seem to be anything that “came together” at the end of the story for me. I know this is the first book in a long series, but there were no real revelations, tricky situations, or any real sense of gravity. I did get more interested in the story during the final arc, but there felt like no real payoff, just a setting up of the next book in the series.
Prose: Moderate. The author is clearly highly intelligent and educated, and I enjoyed at times his philosophizing. He constructed his sentencing well. I did at times find annoying details in the prose (like using the same word twice in the same sentence - a real painful one for me), and I was never “sucked in” to the writing.