Well done! A little bit of every sci-fi you've ever read, but it's uniquely greater than the sum of all those little recognizable tropes. If anything, this is structurally like a feudal low fantasy drama, with a starry-eyed, prodigal son waking up on a world in which he finds himself fighting to survive in, and subsequently climbing the ranks of its hierarchy with his rock-bottom learned empathy, his blueblood arrogance, and genius silver tongue. It has some interesting things to say about imperialism, class, linguistics, and I am a sucker for a flawed young protagonist. Hadrian is a simpering wet dog one moment and high opera aristocratic manipulator the next. My biggest gripe is the prose, ironically; Ruocchio writes with a gilded flourish - exactly as our messy space-dandy antihero would if he was telling us his life's story -  and I like the adherence to the voice. It's very characterized and feels right. But I felt certain simple rhetorical tricks being reused more than I'd like and the gestural details were really rinse and repeat with sighs, wide eyes, etc. Oh and the length is ROUGH. Pacing is slow, but the vast and patient setup and non-cliffhanger ending are refreshing tbh.
3.75/5, I will be continuing this series!