The first book of Ruocchio’s seven-book Sun Eater saga lays out the early life of Hadrian Marlowe, the son of a noble family cast down and forced to make his way in a decaying, theocratic late-stage interstellar empire. It’s comforting to occasionally lose yourself in an epic space opera — the worldbuilding, the sprawling cast, the deep characterisation. The story’s framing evokes Gene Wolfe — a memoir recounted by an...