The Sun Eater is a series that chronicles the life of Hadrian Marlowe. The official blurb says "The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives - even the emperor himself - against Imperial orders." So this is one of those series where the reader knows that the protagonist is not going to die because he is the one telling the story of his life, something I am not a fan of, but it does come highly recommended so I decided to give it a try. This is a far distant future where Earth has been destroyed and since become the basis of the dominant religion, and humanity has spread among the stars using ships capable of interstellar travel. So it is epic in scope and the quoted blurb sets the stage for big things to happen, but it all starts with Hadrian as a young noble who resents his parents and wants no part of the gilded future that is available to him.
Hadrian Marlowe is not exactly the most likable character, which makes this book a bit challenging to whole heartedly recommend; however, it is intriguing to ponder how the kind hearted, young noble introduced at the start of this book is going to become the hero/monster mentioned in the promotional blurb. To be clear, you still won't know how that happens when this book is over, but Hadrian's early life course is interesting enough. Despite the advantages that he is born with, from genetically-engineered physical advantages to being a member of a financially and politically powerful family, Hadrian manages to move from one bleak situation to another in an unpredictable way that does a decent job of world building. This is a slow burn overall but there is a galactic war going on, and there are a few gladiator fights and duels mixed in to ratchet up the action; however, since you know the main character is going to survive you'll have to get invested in the secondary characters if you want to feel tension in the outcome of such events. Overall it worked well enough for me to continue on in the series, so I do think it is a worthy read/listen for fans of epic sci-fi.
Samuel Roukin does a fine job as narrator and definitely makes listening a good option.