Howling Dark

It took me quite a while, but I did finally finish book two of the Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio, Howling Dark. I must confess I considered bailing on the series after this...the scope of it is simply daunting with seven hefty volumes. It must be around 4,300 total pages or something. Wow. Anyway, I decided against it and became glad I already had purchased book three of the series, which hope to read sometime in 2026.

It had been quite a while since I read book one, Empire of Silence, which I had received for a Father's Day present a year-and-a-half ago now. This book had a different flow than the previous one, and it took me a bit to accept its differences. It steadily grew on me, though, and, by the time I was halfway through it, had trouble putting it down. Indeed, I wasn't expecting to finish it before year-end, but I did (and on New Year's Eve no less).

In Howling Dark, the main character, Hadrian Marlowe, abducts an alien hostage from the Empire and flees intent on finding the elusive planet of Vorgossos. There are a lot of set backs and even casualties along the way. The group ends up hitching a ride on an Exalted ship, which can travel several thousand times faster than light and is so massive that it dwarfs their ship. It's a moving metropolis, basically. Enormous.

Once they arrive at Vorgossos, they are basically abducted themselves as their ship's systems lose its capabilities, sensors, and even the ability to communicate as it is forcibly docked. One of the residents of the planet is often referred to as the Undying...a human who has perpetuated his life at that point for around fifteen thousand years. He's patient and powerful. I love that the author likens his standing up to a mighty tide coming in. He's the character on the cover of the book.

Cover of Howling Dark

Howling Dark is beautifully written. I have a couple of quotes I'd like to share to here that I had shared with family and close friends while I was reading. The first: "Sometimes we say things and do not understand them. In doing so, like Dante, we step off the path and enter into a dark and dangerous new world. There, our lies and wrong turnings swallow us like the sands of the desert. The world objects, or other people do, and we are left desolate and alone. But one need not know Truth to speak it. Truth is, and may be found as readily as disaster and by the same process. One need only put one's finger on it, or one's foot in it.""

Ultimately, one of Hadrian's crew, out of fear and desperation and likely other emotions he had trouble with, betrayed their location to the Empire. The Empire arrives with a bunch of ships and soldiers to retake their stolen alien prisoner and its thief, Hadrian. After long and fruitless negotiations, where it appeared that Hadrian would be offered to the aliens as an ambassador to establish diplomatic relations and a hopefully enduring peace, all hell breaks loose again with yet another betrayal and many lives lost. Hadrian sees the face of Death and is brought back by an ancient civilization referred to as the Quiet. He doesn't understand what happened to him. As a reader, I don't either. But I remain interested and engaged.

On that note, here's one more quote: "The answer was within. Within the structure of literature, of art and meaning that we humans had raised about ourselves like an ark, a curtain wall to block out the waters of chaos and the world. That is why we pray, why we build great temples and write great books: to ask great questions and to live--not by the answers, for such questions are unanswerable--but by the noble process of seeking those answers that we might stand tall and struggle on. If I die, what happens to me?"

I couldn't guess where Ruocchio is taking this story. Again, its scope is so epic that it is tough to anticipate that far ahead. Add that to the fact that the author surprised me a number of times throughout the book and I have to recognize that he's a masterful storyteller. Can't wait to start book three.