Juan Sebastian’s Reviews > Empire of Silence > Status Update

Finally some direction!

This might be my favorite bunch of chapters so far. Hadrian is frustrating and his actions sometimes don’t make sense but when you get past that it’s not so bad. The setups are great, albeit very fantasy, more than sci-fi, which is not an insult at all. A lot of small mistakes in both grammar and worldbuilding but IVe already accepted they’re par for the course.

Especially the last few chapters have been good for the worldbuilding on a macro scale, and I like the relationship at the forefront of it. The book is meandering a bit and it seems kinda directionless apart from a veeery general goal but I’m enjoying it—up to a point. There is a lot of sloppy worldbuilding in the sense that offhand comments, etc. are contradictory with the lore established so a bit annoying.

It feels on purpose but I just have to say that the ack of agency on Hadrian’s hands is rough. He’s a very passive character despite all the efforts he seems to make to not be. The story promises change in that regard so I don’t want to take it against it but at the moment it’s quite something. Cat and Valka are great; can’t wait to see more.

Some of the current-day references might be pushing it a bit and the story setup might be a bit generic but the world seems interesting and the conflict looks good so far