I have been going through the science fiction novel Empire of Silence: Sun Eater: Book One by C. Ruocchio and I recommend it.

This is a tale of a young palatine [noble], Hadrian Marlowe, who runs away from home, from his father and his father’s rule. Faith is not kind to the young noble who ends up far away from where he intended, in a backwater world, first destitute living in the streets and canals of a capital city, then fighting in the pits as myrmidon at the Colosseum. He gets captured and held captive for his fortuitous genes by the Ruler of that system, disavowed by his father. He kills the high priest of the land, the leader of the Chantry in a duel. Then he gets to fight the enemy race of the mankind, a race by the the name of the Cielcin.  Why? How? …because he can speak their language.

Life gets rusty when you get hit left and right, front and back.

For you seldom land where you aim.

But you can still aim. All you can do is AIM.

“The man who hopes for the future delays its arrival, and the man who dreads it summons it to the door.”

“The future might come only in its own time, but the scholiasts teach that there are many futures, and it is only the crashing of the waves of time and possibility against the interminable now that makes the world. It is not the future that is present in Ever-Fleeting Time but the futures. Freedom-freedom of thought and action- matter and are guaranteed because the future is not. There are no prophecies, only probabilities. No Fate, only chance. The present time is not when we are, but what we do.” –Empire of Silence

Weaklings will not understand that. That’s alright, we don’t need them. Let them stay home safe and sound.

“If you’ve never left home,  you will never find yourself.” -Max Cantor maxim #76

Hadrian uses a knife to sharpen a pencil. He says that when he doesn’t feel well he draws. “The tools we use help adjust our thinking.” 

Buy Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio (Amz link)