Howling Dark (Sun Eater #2) by Christopher Ruocchio is so fucking good (An Honest Review)

I finished Howling Dark a couple minutes ago as I am writing this and holy shit, it is peak. I have so many thoughts on the book that I need to get out, but first, I'd like to say I finally understand what people mean when they say that Empire Of Silence is the weakest of the lot. I really enjoyed it and always found it weird how people act like it is a step below the rest (even though it was the only book I had read at the time). But with how good Howling Dark was, I can see where they're coming from, even if I still feel like EoS is a masterpiece.

I had little in the way of criticisms in the first book but my two main complaints were the character work for everyone other than Hadrian and how anticlimactic the ending felt. Both these issues are resolved astonishingly well. The side characters felt way more alive and real within the first hundred or so pages than they did in the entirety of the first book and that trend follows. I really started to fall in love with everyone (even if I feel like Hadrian's old crew from the coliseum), even the characters I hated.

And man, that ending... Before reading Howling Dark, I also happened to have read two books that I think have absolutely amazing climactic endings in the form of Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight Archive #3) and 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I think the ending/climax to Howling Dark is the best I have read in sci-fi so far, easily beating out the last book and the first three Red Rising books I have read. In terms of fantasy climaxes/endings, I'd put it in the same league as either The Way Of Kings or Words Of Radiance, but below Oathbringer or the Mistborn Era 1 books.

I think it would be best if I listed out all the major things I liked about the book and my few minor nitpick, especially in comparison to book 1.

The Good-

1. The Prose: Man, Ruocchio's prose is the only one I actively appreciate other than Rothfuss's. I swear, there's something in the water over at Daw books. I also feel like there was a slight improvement between books as it doesn't have nearly as much of the slightly stilted and awkward sentences that book 1 had.
2. Characters: Hadrian is great as a protagonist as always. There were moments I was frustrated with him, yes, but rarely any where I didn't love or even actively disliked or not rooted for him. Also, his evolution in this book in particular is wonderful. I guess you could call it 'a descent to the dark side', but I think it is better described as him letting go of his idealism and dreams of peace with the Cielcin and becoming a worse person for it. As I said, the rest of the cast were also much better written than they were before. The character work for secondary characters aren't exactly top tier but still damn good.
3. The Action & Hype Moments: The fancy prose and the long winded tangents that Hadrian regularly goes on (which I love) has an uncanny ability to make you forget how good Ruocchio is at writing amazing action scenes and those hype "Oh Shit!" moments that one (me) usually assosciates with a more pulpy, informal writing style. There were many moments throughout the book that made me want to stand up and cheer but the biggest highlight for me was of course when Hadrian came back from the fucking dead and shanked Aranata's bitch ass.
4. Worldbuilding: As someone who never got into any of the major sci-fi universes like Star Wars, Trek, Warhammer, Dune, etc. when I was younger (19, btw), I think Sun Eater will be that series for me. One I obsess over and become a total geek for, just like how I am for The Elder Scrolls. I love Ruocchio's approach to worldbuilding with so many refrences to the history we are familiar with but distorted by time. My mind was blown when I figured out that Cid Arthur=Siddartha and was a mix of the Arthurian Legends and Buddhism. I'm also 99% sure the Mericanii are meant to be Americans. And there are so many other examples of this too. My doubts about the Cielcin being just an uninteresting alien race have been wiped away too. The fundamental gap between them and humanity in spite of their remarkable similarities is great. And don't get me started on the cosmic horror aspects from the Brethren and The Quiet which I hope we'll see more of.
5. Gibson and Cat: It's clear how much of an influence Gibson has had on Hadrian with him appearing almost every chapter. Makes sense considering that he was more of a father than Alistair ever was. But man, Cat was one of my favourite parts of book 1 and her death legit made me cry. I really appreciate that Hadrian thinks of her so much and still mentions her. I like to think that she was his first real love. I hope that we get more of him thinking about her in later books.

The Bad (okay, maybe that's too harsh a term)-

1. The Timeskip: Yeah, the start to this one was rough, to say the least. It was so confusing and I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on an entire book between Empire Of Silence and Howling Dark. It took more than a hundred pages for me to finally get back into rhythm and start enjoying the book while Empire Of Silence has one of the strongest starts I've ever read in any book.
2. Jinan: I didn't dislike her but I felt like she was pretty bland, even with how much better the character work is within the book. I also really didn't like the relationship between her and Hadrian, not out of me rooting for Valka but because I felt like they had no chemistry and because it really came out of left field with how the relationship between Hadrian and Valka was teased at the end of book 1. Again, I feel like the timeskip is to be blamed for this. Please tell me one of the short stories or novellas covers this time period.
3. Emotions: Outside of the hype, fuck yeah moments, Howling Dark didn't evoke as much emotion for me as Empire Of Silence, I feel like. No one infuriated me like the way Gilliam did (though Bassander came close early on), no singular death made me cry the same way Cat's did, and I generally wasn't filled with that same sense of wonder until Vorgossos came into play.

Overall, I think it'd be fair to give the book 5/5 stars. One of my best reads of the year but I don't know if that'll hold up as I'm planning to finish the rest of the series before the end of the year.