The Lesser Devil

By: Christopher Ruocchio

Narrated by: Samuel Roukin

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....

©2020 Christopher Ruocchio (P)2020 Recorded Books

Amazing Characterization

Redeemed the main character of this book from an annoying little brother to someone i could understand and sympathize with.

Excellent

Such a good story and excellent view into the other side after Hadrian ran away. It was heartwarming, Chris does such a good job at character development, without rushing that I am used to, I cared about so many of these characters and felt loss as each of them died or were wounded. Beautifully done, never stop writing books!

A great improvement and addition to the much slower first book to a more fast paced plot.

This Novella officially locked me into this series. This was sooooo good.

Crispin being a minor character in the first book that I despised, didn't even occur to me of being a returning character yet. Actually adoring Crispin, maybe even more then Hadrian, was especially not on my mind either. This novella however absolutely got me enjoying Crispin and his complex character as well, seeing him grow and mature was really interesting to see what time was able to do to him.

The plot was especially engaging here and started right away, although short, was incredibly well written. I really liked the great work this author did in re-introducing and building characters to quickly shift to get a compelling plot together. The great descriptive writing at times made me feel like I was watching a movie.

I really can't wait until this character is revisited, I hope, in the main series. This was such a great book to read in an afternoon and a great pallete cleanser from the overly slow full size novel that the first book was.

More Than Game of Dune

This was a great read. Picasso once said that good artists borrow, but great artists steal. Ruocchio steals from Dune and GoT in the way that Herbert stole from Heinlein, or GGRM stole from Stan Lee (or Tolkien); he appropriates and extends the literary grammar he has inherited.
In this pullout of the Sun Eater series, we explore the consequences of a devastating war between great houses far in the future. As in GoT, there are often unexpected consequences to war, because you can’t kill them all, and the losers stay angry long after the winners have forgotten the brutality that led to their victory. But, unlike the original Dune, where character was mostly a function of class, here, class is a function of character.
Ruocchio understands that the most satisfying stories involve characters challenging their own limits. His books also bring us the joy of having minor characters emerge as fully formed, with independent motivations. Ruocchio is next big thing in SciFi, and the Sun Eater series more than fills the void created while waiting for both the new Dune movie, and WoW.

Unexpected treat!

What an unexpected treat!
Absolutely loved this little novel, while waiting on "Demon in White" to hit the shelves.
It delivered a good insight to the character of Crispin and his idealization of Hadrian, gone but never far from his thoughts.
Crispin always feeling the lesser of his brother and even younger sister Sabine, breaks free to shine in his own right, with the unfolding of his true self.
Samuel Roukin gave another great presentation. Perfect narration for this series.

Great addition to the sun eater universe without any spoilers past book one

1/3 of the way through you may think about giving up. Don’t. This is a very worthy addition to the sun eater universe. Go ahead and buy it and listen. I am now thankfully going to listen to book 6.

It was an enjoyable listen

This was an enjoyable short story. I enjoyed it a lot more than the first book and I’m glad I gave it a try.

Nice change of pace

This short novel was a wonderful twist from what you’d expect out of this character.

fantastic story addition

includes a great battle and, like the rest of the series religions and wisdoms on life

Wonderful tale!!

Loved getting this look into Crispin's life and as usual Sam Roukin nails the narration!!