A man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, tells the gripping story of his life in the debut book of the Sun Eater tetralogy, created according to the best canons of epic space opera. Adrian Marlowe, with the best of intentions, set out on a path that could only end in fire . And now the Galaxy is grateful to him for the extermination of all the Cielsin aliens. But she also remembers him as the devil who destroyed the sun, killing a billion people - and even the emperor himself - against the will of the Empire. Hadrian was not a hero. He wasn't a monster either. And even just a soldier. Having escaped from his father, who had prepared for him a future as an executioner, Adrian found himself on an alien, backward planet, without a means of livelihood. He was forced to fight in gladiatorial battles and survive the intrigues of the court of a planetary ruler, and ended up fighting a war he did not start, for an Empire he did not love, against an enemy who remained a mystery.