Kingdoms of Death

This volume 4 of Sun Eater is such a heavy hitter. Ruocchio has a great talent as a story teller but this book takes that talent further than the first three in the series. Hadrian has been through some 'stuff' in those books, but this time Ruocchio throws him to the wall. At the 40% point Ruocchio stomps on Hadrian, and then does it again and again and again. This is not merely a crisis moment, for hundreds of pages Hadrian is pounded deeper and deeper into suffering. I found it a painful thing to keep reading, but the writing is so good and the story is so imaginative that it kept me glued to the page.

We know that Hadrian is writing this way into the future so he has to survive, but I could not fathom how Ruocchio was going to get him out of the fire this time.

There is a long denouement in this story and it's the first time for as long as I can remember that a book has brought me to tears.