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MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.5/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
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 . . . .
MY REVIEW
One of the best novellas that I’ve read to date, and I’ve read some pretty fantastic novellas through the years. When I saw that this was a story about Crispin during the time of Hadrian’s absence, I was really ecstatic to see what happened to him and to see if some theories I had came to fruition. I didn’t expect to come away from this story liking Crispin the way that I do now, I was expecting to see him end up as the really bad kid that got worse as an adult, but that wasn’t the case, and this story shows a major evolution into him and I truly hope there’s more to his story going forward.
“If you answer violence with violence, you will inherit violence without end. Whoever slays the killer quickly discovers that killers are avenged sevenfold.”
This novella feels like it was written to show the contrasts of the two brothers, Hadrian and Crispin. In Empire of Silence we got to see the pov of Hadrian and his inner thoughts on Crispin, now we get to see Crispin’s and just how much he actually looked up to him. I connected with Crispin on a much bigger level than I expected because as a little brother also, we can come off a bit annoying and sometimes seem like we are getting favored more to the older sibling. Beyond that though, I loved how action packed this was, with how Empire of Silence was more slow and methodical with some action which fit Hadrian’s personality, The Lesser Devil is near non-stop adrenaline ride that fits more woth Crispin’s.
And of course I have to mention the stellar performance of Samuel Roukin, who knocks it out of the park again. Between him, Tim Gerard Reynolds & Steven Pacey, this may be the holy trinity of SFF narration, and I will stand firmly on that hill. I also have to mention Ruocchio’s incredible writing that just sucked me in from the get go. Just phenomenal storytelling, world build and character work.
Wolfmantula.com 