This was never his war.

On the wrong world, at the perfect moment, for reasons he believed were just—Hadrian Marlowe set foot on a path that could lead only to destruction. History would name him a hero: the man who wiped the alien Cielcin from the stars. Others would call him a monster: the one who shattered a sun and doomed four billion lives—including the Emperor—defying the Empire’s command.

But Hadrian was no hero. He wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t even a soldier.

Escaping a cruel father and a destiny as a torturer, Hadrian ends up marooned on a forgotten, fringe planet. Thrust into the brutal life of a gladiator and entangled in the dangerous politics of an alien court, he’s forced to fight a war he didn’t choose—for an Empire he doesn’t serve—against an enemy he may never comprehend.