Kingdoms of Death

Hadrian Marlowe has served as the Emperor's advisor for nearly a century. Across the Sollan Empire he is known as the Sun Eater, a title he earned in the long war against the alien Cielcin.

That war has dragged on for roughly two hundred years since the previous book. Now the Cielcin are being gathered under the Great Prince Syriani Dorayaica, and humanity faces an enemy unlike any before it. Help is scarce. The Emperor sends Hadrian on one more mission that looks impossible: go to the Lothrian Commonwealth and talk its people into joining the fight.

The errand takes him deep behind enemy lines, where appearances cannot be trusted. His reputation follows him and shapes every decision he makes, since people already hold opinions about the Sun Eater before he speaks.

This is the fourth Sun Eater novel, and it mixes space opera with epic fantasy. Hadrian tells the story in his own voice, looking at events from his own side of them. It was published as one half of a story divided into two books, so the tale does not close here and carries on in Ashes of Man.