Laith
I assume anyone clicking on a review for Book 6 of a series isn't exactly looking for reasons to read on. That's especially true here, Book 5 skipped past the “hanger” part of cliffhanger and threw us off the cliff altogether. But if you're the type of reader who needs positive confirmation or reinforcement or whatever, here it is: Ruocchio has saved the series climax for book 6 out of 7, this is the height, the pinnacle for this type of story, you must read on. I'm assuming that everyone else who clicked on this wants to know my thoughts about the series and where I think this is going, you too must read on.What I actually want to talk about is the series as a whole, because while I stand by my previous review of The Empire of Silence, I didn't totally grasp what I was reading that early into the series. I accused Book 1 of being strongly King killer/Red Rising/Dune influenced, and that threw me off of the scent. I was expecting grand action, betrayal, and galactic politics; all of that stuff is in there, and it plays a fairly important role in the story and the plotting, it's just not what the series is about. Buried under all of those prominent nods and story features, I was shocked to discover a kernel of [b:The Book of the New Sun 968868 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388595738l/968868.SX50.jpg 6965668]. It wasn't clear at the outset, but if this series is a derivation of any singular story, it has to be Gene Wolfe's Christ-inspired masterpiece. Is that a bit like saying, “Oh, I love [Insert Contemporary Fantasy Series], but buried under all of that new stuff it's LOTR to the core”? Sure it is, and I understand the concept of a foundational work influencing everything that comes after it just as surely as I consider TBNS a foundational work in its own right. But TBNS has been slower to penetrate into contemporary lit; this series is just the first example I can now point to as evidence for that claim. Before anyone gets carried away and takes this as me saying that Chris Ruocchio is a copycat hack, first shut up, second TBNS isn't dealing in a wholly original premise either. Obviously. It's all memetics at a certain point, but Sun Eater, just as surely as TBNS and LOTR, is built on the monomyth. The Heroes Journey, we meet again. I'm not going to give an in-depth lecture on the monomyth, anyone who has taken an English class will get the general idea; Departure, Initiation, and Return. You can get really screwy, breaking it down into 17 steps, but I've always focused on this point: You can break most stories into this three part structure. Myths, Fiction, even religion. Most especially religion; the literary concept is often introduced within the context of the rebirth of Christ. What I'm trying to not so subtly say is that the Christ allegory isn't missed on me here in Sun Eater, as it wasn't in TBNS or in LOTR. It's just so much more obvious here, and it's on purpose. In TBNS the critical question of the series is what happens at the end of creation? What happens when we die? This book is where we start to see Roucchio's answers, and they are cut extremely close to those that Gene Wolfe offered up.That's kind of my ultimate takeaway on the series so far, it's a Christ allegory, and it's in the penultimate act, so I'm trying to true reserve judgement until the conclusion. Maybe this is what happens when you read Gene Wolfe, you start to see him in everything even remotely close, but as we approach the end of the series I get a strong sense that we are converging with Roucchio's inspirations. Whether this series can differentiate itself meaningfully from TBNS remains to be seen; I would argue everything we've gotten so far is more than enough for this series to stand on its own merits regardless. But I would feel a little cheated if the ending arrives at the same moral conclusions. PS and TLDR: As the series has gone on, it's gotten more and more philosophical, and we are arriving at the point where the philosophy really matters. Even if book 7 ends up a rehash of Urth of the New Sun (and the bible), this is still going to be one of the best SF series I've ever read. Even if Sun Eater only manages to be a re-encapsulation of TBNS by its conclusion, it's still a slam dunk to me because someone has finally translated Gene Wolfe into something truly page turning and accessible.
I assume anyone clicking on a review for Book 6 of a series isn't exactly looking for reasons to read on. That's especially true here, Book 5 skipped past the “hanger” part of cliffhanger and threw us off the cliff altogether. But if you're the type of reader who needs positive confirmation or reinforcement or whatever, here it is: Ruocchio has saved the series climax for book 6 out of 7, this is the height, the pinnacle for this type of story, you must read on. I'm assuming that everyone else who clicked on this wants to know my thoughts about the series and where I think this is going, you too must read on.What I actually want to talk about is the series as a whole, because while I stand by my previous review of The Empire of Silence, I didn't totally grasp what I was reading that early into the series. I accused Book 1 of being strongly King killer/Red Rising/Dune influenced, and that threw me off of the scent. I was expecting grand action, betrayal, and galactic politics; all of that stuff is in there, and it plays a fairly important role in the story and the plotting, it's just not what the series is about. Buried under all of those prominent nods and story features, I was shocked to discover a kernel of [b:The Book of the New Sun 968868 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388595738l/968868.SX50.jpg 6965668]. It wasn't clear at the outset, but if this series is a derivation of any singular story, it has to be Gene Wolfe's Christ-inspired masterpiece. Is that a bit like saying, “Oh, I love [Insert Contemporary Fantasy Series], but buried under all of that new stuff it's LOTR to the core”? Sure it is, and I understand the concept of a foundational work influencing everything that comes after it just as surely as I consider TBNS a foundational work in its own right. But TBNS has been slower to penetrate into contemporary lit; this series is just the first example I can now point to as evidence for that claim. Before anyone gets carried away and takes this as me saying that Chris Ruocchio is a copycat hack, first shut up, second TBNS isn't dealing in a wholly original premise either. Obviously. It's all memetics at a certain point, but Sun Eater, just as surely as TBNS and LOTR, is built on the monomyth. The Heroes Journey, we meet again. I'm not going to give an in-depth lecture on the monomyth, anyone who has taken an English class will get the general idea; Departure, Initiation, and Return. You can get really screwy, breaking it down into 17 steps, but I've always focused on this point: You can break most stories into this three part structure. Myths, Fiction, even religion. Most especially religion; the literary concept is often introduced within the context of the rebirth of Christ. What I'm trying to not so subtly say is that the Christ allegory isn't missed on me here in Sun Eater, as it wasn't in TBNS or in LOTR. It's just so much more obvious here, and it's on purpose. In TBNS the critical question of the series is what happens at the end of creation? What happens when we die? This book is where we start to see Roucchio's answers, and they are cut extremely close to those that Gene Wolfe offered up.That's kind of my ultimate takeaway on the series so far, it's a Christ allegory, and it's in the penultimate act, so I'm trying to true reserve judgement until the conclusion. Maybe this is what happens when you read Gene Wolfe, you start to see him in everything even remotely close, but as we approach the end of the series I get a strong sense that we are converging with Roucchio's inspirations. Whether this series can differentiate itself meaningfully from TBNS remains to be seen; I would argue everything we've gotten so far is more than enough for this series to stand on its own merits regardless. But I would feel a little cheated if the ending arrives at the same moral conclusions. PS and TLDR: As the series has gone on, it's gotten more and more philosophical, and we are arriving at the point where the philosophy really matters. Even if book 7 ends up a rehash of Urth of the New Sun (and the bible), this is still going to be one of the best SF series I've ever read. Even if Sun Eater only manages to be a re-encapsulation of TBNS by its conclusion, it's still a slam dunk to me because someone has finally translated Gene Wolfe into something truly page turning and accessible.