Queen Amid Ashes: A Tale of the Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio
After walking through the darkest of nights, you believe you know the meaning of true darkness, that is until you reach the planet where a queen sits underneath her decimated city, a heap of ruins. But this ruin is the least of the horrors Hadrian Marlow is about to face in his new knighted position in the days and hours to come.
Artistry and Craft
Queen Amid Ashes takes all of the more gruesome parts of the Sun Eater series, The Howling Dark*, and amplifies it in certain ways. The book leans into the body horror element, leaning away from space opera. I didn't mind this shift at first, but it did bring on a different feel compared to Ruocchio's last number of novels.
The writing, I found, was less florid compared to the previous books in the series as well. I thought that this was a nice way to impress upon the reader the seriousness of the situation and the horridness of it all, accurately displaying the numbing desolation Hadrian expresses.
In spite of how the floridity was cut back and how I felt this added to the overall narrative, this left me somewhat bored, which didn't help with how I felt about the storyline in general. I found it hard, not only to get into, but to remain in, which is, in all accounts, worse.
As the book takes the body horror elements of the previous novel and expands upon them, I also found it was too violent for my taste, although I understand the necessity of describing the violence to the reader in the context the author is trying to explore. I also found the dialogue, which possessed innuendo sometimes in previous books to explore courtly intrigue also had this in a part with main plot point, which made it feel much more than it was, but nevertheless made me feel uncomfortable.
I found the lack of development and intense focus on violence to be somewhat empty and unsatisfying, leaving me to wonder what the merit of this novella was supposed to be. At this point, I decided to put down the book and DNF it on account to preserve my motivation to read and not get burnt out. I got approximately 45% through the novella.
Themes and Messages
I thought the themes in Queen Amid Ashes were unfortunately not as deep as the previous novella and books before it apart from the attitude humanity has towards the "other." For instance, in Project Hail Mary, the novel focuses on the question: What if we're projecting humanity onto the 'other' in our imaginations and that's why often there set on dominating humanity or earth, but really they're just different from us ," etc.? The novella inverts this idea by using Hadrian, who is hopeful about those not of human race, thinking that they are not who people say they are until it is too late. Queen Amid Ashes takes the echoes of such vain hopefulness and makes it not only vain, but contemptible: that one can not only regret actions or words, but sentiments and thoughts as well, even if it is out of a place of innocence, it blossoms in arrogance.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I surprisingly found myself bored despite the life-threatening crises. I am motivated by moral revelations and floridity, as well as relationships in books; it is no surprise I feel I couldn't pick it up less I be at risk of burn out. I wasn't thrilled at the gruesomeness, although I feel like it could've been worse—not that I wanted it to be; less would have been more in this case. I unfortunately won't be continuing the series for the time being out of consideration for my own motivation.
Content Discretion:
Blood, dark themes, high levels of gore, body horror, alien horror, language, inuendo
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