Ashes of Man

This fifth installment of Sun Eater is everything you could want after Kingdoms of Death. It's probably the two books I feel benefit the most from being split (that I've read). Ashes of Man was able to deliver breathing space and emotional beats and a bit more of a ramp up to the next thing after all the crazy events of Kingdoms of Death.

I think I liked the climax of Kingdoms of Death more, but the falling action in this book is some of the stuff I've liked the most in the entire series. This book is harrowing and emotional, but still has epic space battles and pew-pews and laser swords. The characters in this series continue to grow and interest me in new ways, and Hadrian is so old now and been through so much that he feels like a new character from where we started, but in a believable, earned way. I also think this book has Ruocchio's best prose to date; it is extremely well written.

9/10