My feelings on Sun Eater went from excitement to relief
I finally finished the series, and I honestly don’t know how to feel.
The first book grabbed me right away. It wasn’t perfect, but I had a great time with it and immediately wanted to keep reading.
Then I hit book two… and wow, it was rough. I actually restarted it twice because I kept getting bored. I also couldn’t get over the main premise. Hadrian is somehow convinced that finding the Cielcin will magically lead to peace, and an empire that’s been fighting them for centuries is willing to pour resources into chasing that idea based on… what, exactly? Hope? It just never made much sense to me.
Thankfully, the ending of book two was much better, and it gave me enough motivation to keep going. The rest of the series had ups and downs, but overall I enjoyed it.
Then I got to the last book.
I’m not gonna lie, I thought it was a complete slog. I only finished it because I’d already invested so much time into the series. There were so many sections that felt like they dragged on forever and could have been cut without losing anything.
I don’t even mind that the ending leaves some things unresolved. That’s not what bothered me.
What really lost me was Hadrian. By the end I genuinely couldn’t stand him. His refusal to even entertain the possibility that other people might sincerely hold different beliefs became incredibly frustrating. And the story’s shift into what felt like increasingly heavy-handed religious messaging just wasn’t for me.
By the time I reached the last page, I wasn’t sad the series was over, I was just relieved.