The Lesser Devil

By: Christopher Ruocchio

Narrated by: Samuel Roukin

Can the youngest son of a noble house save his family from a plot generations in the making?

Crispin Marlowe grew up in his brother’s shadow, but Hadrian is gone, and his grandmother - the Duchess of Delos - is dying.

Answering her summons, Crispin takes off on what should be a routine flight to the ducal palace from the castle at Devil’s Rest. But he is flying into a trap. There are whispers of treachery among the duchess’s many daughters, rumors of hidden knives in the planet’s court...if he can even make it there.

With no one coming to save him and only his sister, Sabine, and a few injured guardsmen to protect him, House Marlowe’s least famous son must make his heroic stand, and contend not only the foes arrayed against his house, but with the cultists who dwell in the mountains above his family’s ancestral home....

©2020 Christopher Ruocchio (P)2020 Recorded Books

More Than Game of Dune

This was a great read. Picasso once said that good artists borrow, but great artists steal. Ruocchio steals from Dune and GoT in the way that Herbert stole from Heinlein, or GGRM stole from Stan Lee (or Tolkien); he appropriates and extends the literary grammar he has inherited.
In this pullout of the Sun Eater series, we explore the consequences of a devastating war between great houses far in the future. As in GoT, there are often unexpected consequences to war, because you can’t kill them all, and the losers stay angry long after the winners have forgotten the brutality that led to their victory. But, unlike the original Dune, where character was mostly a function of class, here, class is a function of character.
Ruocchio understands that the most satisfying stories involve characters challenging their own limits. His books also bring us the joy of having minor characters emerge as fully formed, with independent motivations. Ruocchio is next big thing in SciFi, and the Sun Eater series more than fills the void created while waiting for both the new Dune movie, and WoW.

Unexpected treat!

What an unexpected treat!
Absolutely loved this little novel, while waiting on "Demon in White" to hit the shelves.
It delivered a good insight to the character of Crispin and his idealization of Hadrian, gone but never far from his thoughts.
Crispin always feeling the lesser of his brother and even younger sister Sabine, breaks free to shine in his own right, with the unfolding of his true self.
Samuel Roukin gave another great presentation. Perfect narration for this series.

Great addition to the sun eater universe without any spoilers past book one

1/3 of the way through you may think about giving up. Don’t. This is a very worthy addition to the sun eater universe. Go ahead and buy it and listen. I am now thankfully going to listen to book 6.

Exploring old earth culture and religion

I honestly liked this better than the first book! I like the themes the author explored and the characters development throughout the book

Interesting, but not noticeably essential?

I was curious what was going on at home after Hadrian escaped going to the chantry in Empire of Silence so it was interesting to see that in the 30 years since Hadrian’s escape, Crispin did actually miss him, their parents had a new sister grown to replace Hadrian, and that they assumed Hadrian was dead out in space somewhere. Other than that this story seemed to be politics as usual for the Marlowes