Empire of Silence

Empire of Silence is a story narrated to us from the future by Hadrian Marlowe. Addressing the reader directly, he recounts his early life and the foundation as to what led to him being branded as an enemy of the empire, a demon, the sun eater, and various other names.

“I have lived a long life, longer than the genetic therapies the great houses of the peerage can contrive, and I have had many names. During the war, I was Hadrian Halfmortal and Hadrian the Deathless. After the war, I was the Sun Eater.”

Hadrian’s early life

Hadrian starts from the very very beginning of his life, from his time on his home planet Delos, ruled by his maternal grandmother and part of the larger Sollan empire. His father is Lord Alistair Marlowe who cruelly rules a prefecture of the planet called Meduia. Hadrian’s father holds a vital monopoly on uranium that gives him leverage over the planet and local star system, allowing him to act as a tyrant. As the eldest son, Hadrian should be the one to be heir to the throne, but his place is challenged by his brother whose manners and physicality appeal more to his tyrannical father.

Political theater at the universe stage, and the war with the aliens

Early on in the novel, we learn that politics and theater are at full force on Meduia and the broader Sollan empire. We also learn there has been an ongoing centuries long war with an alien race called the Cielcin. There’s genetic engineering in terms of how royalty and lordship is cast as well, so not everyone can be a lord or a ruler.

Path to exile

This sets things up for Hadrian to relate how he slowly gets distanced from his family. A lot of this is due to the influence of his tutor Tor Gibson, a sort of royal scholar. Hadrian learns ancient and other empire’s languages and cultures, including old English, and the alien language of the Cielcin. He also is well tutored in combat. Hadrian sees Tor more like a father figure than his own father. I got big Luke and Obi Wan vibes from his relationship with Tor Gibson.

Eventually this distance and path forces Hadrian to leave his home planet, and put on a path that start to shape the course of the series and his first encounters with the alien species the Cielcin. He makes and loses friends, lives as on the streets in a foregin planet, becomes a gladiator, and much more. Hadrian feels authentic and realistic, and when he’s out of his depth, it feels relatable. If he wins, he wins at a cost, or its not so fantastical that it was all him.

Language, Translation, Xenology

A very fascinating element of the book is the exploration of linguistics. Communication with alient species is not a new subject, but always welcome, see Left Hand of Darkness, A Memory Called Empire, or perhaps Ted Chiang’s short story Story of Your Life, or maybe Project Hail mary. We learn about things like The Chantry, an inquisition like religious order, actively purge or censor historical records and prevent citizens of the empire to learn too much about the past or other cultures. Hadrian’s tutoring makes him immensely unique, and very sought after by those in the Chantry. It also makes him deft, he can leverage his knowledge and language skill across negotiations between empires and species.

I loved Hadrian’s take on even things like our names:

“Dangerous things, names. Perilous. They begin to shape us, for better or ill, guiding us by the hand or by opposition.”

In the final act of the novel, Hadrian gets to be in contact with the Cielcin, and that’s where we learn that language and its meaning doesn’t always translate the way we expect it to. For instance, the human word for ‘peace’ doesn’t even exist in the Cielcin language. When humans try to offer a peaceful resolution, the Cielcin literally interpret as an admission of weakness or a demand to enslave them.

“We think that because we can map their sounds to our words, we understand them. But we are only mapping our own concepts onto a mind that doesn’t have the space for them. True translation isn’t changing the words; it’s changing the shape of your thoughts.”

Verdict

This is a slow burn space opera with a lot of world universe building. The first novel really paints Hadrian as a priveleged youth, slightly insufferable, and we are very often deep in his mind, to the point that it can get annoying. The book touches some important themes around relgion, science, culture, imperialism, war etc.. but clearly its all set up for a sprawling space opera that we are being reminded all went wrong and eventually cast Hadrian as a monster of sorts. Are we reading the story of a villain in the making?

“The Empire has its official version, one that ends in my execution, with Hadrian Marlowe hanged for all the worlds to see…”