This isn't the first time that the Emperor has given Hadrian an impossible task, but it certainly seems more boring than the others. And the boredom is starting to get to him. There have been numerous attempts on Hadrian's life, and that is one of the reasons he has been relegated to an obscure planet where his talents are going to waste. As Hadrian, humanity's most effective effective weapon, sits on the sidelines for decades, the war between the Empire and the Cielcin rages on without him. There is however one thing that has changed - humanity is now clearly losing the war. The Great Prince Syriani Dorayaica has united the Cielcin clans and is driving the Empire back at every turn. Hadrian has high hopes when he learns that the Emperor is coming in person to give him a new mission, but he is quickly disappointed when he finds out what it is. Hadrian is commanded to travel to the Lothrian Commonwealth and convince them to join the war on the side of the Empire. An impossible task for sure, and a boring one. Or not?

This 4th book in the Sun Eater series allows us to learn a lot about life outside the Empire as the majority of it is spent either within the Commonwealth or among the Cielcin. The story arc just continues to get more epic in scope, even if it seems to be moving ahead somewhat slowly. This book offers up less big battles for sure, and it can also get very dark at times, but the multi-dimensional time bending concepts remain nice and crunchy. Hadrian's ability to see the possibilities of other timelines is interesting, but it also borders on a limitless form of deus ex machina that Christopher Ruocchio can deploy as a way out of almost every dire situation. If anything is going to ruin this series for me, that will be the reason, but we are not there yet. That means I will be diving right into the 5th book to see what happens next.

Samuel Roukin does another excellent job on the narration but he suddenly changes the way he pronounces the name of the big baddie, Syriani Dorayaica, and I always dislike when narrators do that. It is hard to know if it is intentional or just poor continuity, but either way you get used to the new pronunciation before this one is over. I still whole-heartedly recommend listening to this series over reading.