Christopher ruoCChio

Meet the assistant editor behind epic space opera EmpirE Of SilEncE

Tell us about your protagonist.

Hadrian tells us on page one that he’s both the man who saved humanity from a species of marauding aliens, and the man who killed billions of people to do it. I’ve seen the word “antihero” used to describe him, but he’s really both hero and villain. The question is: why?

Did anything in particular spark the idea?

Luke Skywalker. I first saw Star Wars aged three or four, and I’ve loved hero stories ever since. These days, it’s popular to deconstruct and criticise the idea of heroism. I’ve had enough of that. Heroes are who we should strive to be, and if they’re flawed, their flaws are meant to instruct us, not discredit the idea of heroism. I want a hero again.

Does this story have any historical echoes? How long did it take to write?

Hadrian is perhaps part Lord Byron and part TE Lawrence, but the majority of my historical influence is in the worldbuilding. The Sollan Empire is part Rome, part Byzantium, part Victorian Britain.

It’s been about three years since I started to write Empire, but this story and character have been with me in some form for about 17 years. I’ve written and rewritten it dozens of times since it started on the backs of my math tests in second grade. It’s changed completely since those days. It began as an epic fantasy! With elves!

Empire Of Silence is published on 5 July.