Howling Darkness

As with Empire of Silence, this book is written as a memoir, with intermittent flashes back to Hadrian in a scholiast’s monastery as he puts ink to paper to tell the tale of his extraordinary life. We pick up the story over a dozen years (subjective time) after the events of Empire of Silence to find Hadrian finally close to tracking down the Cielcin, the predatory race that has been preying on mankind’s colonies for centuries. Hadrian and his mercenary company have been jumping from planet to planet in their galactic alien-hunt, with each clue measured against the number of bodies left in the wake of the continued Ceilcin raids.

As with Empire of Silence, Ruocchio has once more delved deep into his thesaurus to give us a deluge of purple prose that at time requires a snorkel to keep from drowning under. But, having prepared myself for this from my experience with Empire of Silence, I knew what was coming and knew that, as before, this wasn’t some vain attempt at pretension but rather a true expert of the English language using all the skills at his disposal to paint a picture so deep that it often felt like it would swallow you. The descriptions in this book are perfect, so long as you can actually follow what is being said.

The story is not a fast paced one, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring. There are some amazing action scenes where the horrors of future technology are implemented in wickedly creative manners to paint a mental picture of what should be outwardly alien but comes across so vividly that you can almost taste the blood, ozone, and engine grease. The juxtaposition of future ranged weaponry against the beautiful and brutal melee combat is wonderful to listen to. I know a lot of sci-fi has far more melee in it than current warfare, but this book actually goes to the trouble of explaining why that is the case here in a simple and head-smackingly obvious manner, which in a book whose seriousness demands constant logical explanations, allows you to fully appreciate the flurry of swashbuckling without for one second pulling yourself out of the story with the old realism yank.

The story itself is both an adventure through the stars and a deep dive into human nature, with some of the content almost initiating an existential wobble in its clever complexity. Basically, there is some really deep shit in this book. The kind of stuff that lingers with you for a while. Often when I find this in books (usually sci-fi) it can detract from the quality of the story, fixating us on its complexity at the expense of the narrative. Not so here. The story progresses, interesting and intriguing events occur, and all the while we are constantly battered with a barrage of profound conclusions and opinions.

In short, if you are not a fan of literary fiction and just want to listen to an easy page turner before going to bed, then this is not the book for you. But if you are after a story with real substance that, if you manage to follow all the mental, technical, and often spiritual twists and turns, is at its heart still an entertaining listen, then you will enjoy this book. I don’t think it quite reaches the all-round quality of Empire of Silence, but it is most certainly is a worthy successor. If you liked Book 1, you will definitely like Book 2. 

As for narration, I’m not totally sold on Saul Reichlin. He has the voice of an old man, which certainly makes sense for the parts that are from the older Hadrian’s perspective. But for the rest of the book, he appears to often make his characters seem a lot older than the words were painting them. He still did a damned fine job, but it was one of those things that kept niggling away at my enjoyment.

Personal Score: 4 stars

Profession Score: 4.25 stars