Morning Star
Ratings804
Average rating4.4
Really enjoyed this. Resolved the series well. Found that I had grown really attached to the characters by the end.
two spoiler things:First, dunno if it was this book or the last, but I wasn't up for the redemption of Tactus the rapist. I did not feel sad when he got his comeuppance.And second, I feel like the twist near the end here could easily have come off as Deus Ex Machina but I believe it was pretty well-executed. My only gripe is that at no point in the trilogy before that point had we seen such an unreliable narrator. Yes, Sevrus had swooped in a few times without warning, but it seemed like we saw real emotion from the protagonist when he “died,” which is more than withholding information. But still, even with that, I liked it. It was set up well and was a big moment of joy when it was revealed.
9/10
This trilogy is kinda frustrating to me. I absolutely love the characters and some of the plot beats and the worldbuilding is good, the action is good. The prose, while not my favorite, is usually pretty good at conveying what it's trying to and is genuinely moving a lot of the time. But each book has a few things in it I really don't like, and that's extra frustrating because with very few adjustments, this could be one of my favorite series ever. As it is, it's still really good.
But I felt like Brown was sometimes trying to get one over on the reader and be shocking in lieu of trying to tell the best story, or do the thing that actually should happen. This is a weird preamble to a 4.5 star review, I know. But the thing I really didn't like was near the end of this one and was much more important to the climax than other things I didn't like. I feel like if Brown wanted the story to be that way, he needed to choose a different style of POV to begin with, or introduce some element of change, or suck it up and play it straight. This is taking up a large portion of a positive review for the book because it happens near the end, but the rest of the book was largely excellent.
I really felt like the way this played out was a mistake and shouldn't have gotten past the editing stage. However, I can't deny that this book made me feel a wide range of emotions, I binged most of it in a day because I wanted to know what happens, and it was an extremely compelling book for most of it. This trilogy was very good at writing characters and relationships that I cared deeply about and was invested in, and that is very hard to do, especially in relatively shorter books. I'm really excited to continue to the sequel series, hopefully it will be free from these temporary lapses and RR can enter my list of favorite series.
Live for more.
This series just continued to be better and better. Action packed with characters you become fully invested in. Twists and turns all the way to the last couple chapters.
4.5 stars
What a satisfying ending to this first part of the saga. There were some parts I found frustrating, but again, Brown pulled through in the last third of the book. It was so fast paced and I felt like it honestly ending so well (besides one part, but that's ok.) Not a new favorite series, but super fun and enjoyable nonetheless.
4 star story with a 5 star ending. Probably my favorite ending of a story behind Justin Cronin's The Passage series.
I'm actually one of the very few that think the first book is the best. The dystopian world building was a blast to read about. I will say that I've never read a main character who cries more than Darrow. Good lord suck it up man!
Honestly? I'm disappointed. I predicted so many of the ‘twists' that it felt disappointing and a slog by the end of it. I thought this trilogy would be a spectacular read that would jump to my favourites list yet it falls so far behind it; astonishingly the first book was better than the subsequent ones, hopefully, the next two are better. So many things were pointless or could have been done better.
Pierce Brown's writing just gets better and better. The feeling and theme in this book is just so strong and sweeping.
The story is fast-paced and fairly original.
The problem is that I just didn't connect with any of the characters. Couldn't root for either side. The moral values of both sides were pretty atrocious. So much lying and deceit. Difficult to believe the motivation of the main character, after all that he went through. Very little, if any character growth. In the scheme of things, the bad guys were only very marginally “worse” than the “good” guys.
In the end, I really struggled to finish these, even on audio book. No way will I be picking up the next trilogy in the “series” as there are too many books with great potential out there.
This series was everything I needed and more and the ending was perfect! I will definitely be continuing with the sequel trilogy
A nice tight finish to the overall series without ever hitting the heights it could have reached. The end is a bit predictable but don't let it take you away from the achievement that is Red Rising. One of the best trilogies going around and if you don't have it in your read list you had better!
I really liked this book because every time something seemed to be going wrong it would turn out to be part of Darrow's plan all along.
Splendido finale di una saga fantastica. In alcune parti traduzione molto approssimativa e con scarsa coerenza terminologica. Da leggere tutto d'un fiato.
Good and solid series. Never elevates to Great SciFi and is stronger in the Fantasy and adventure role but the transparency in the writing style works in the book's favour making it entertaining and drawing you through the plot.
Yeah, this was great.
It's been a long while since I left Darrow. Red Rising and Golden Son were both a blast to read but they were trials. They both put you through failure, love, betrayal, fear. They are stressful books. Which is why it took me five years to finally pick up Morning Star. Also because the speed that I have been reading has gone down considerably over the past few years, and with Morning Star's hefty page count, I knew it was going to take more than two renewals at the library. And then I realized that not only do audio books exist but they are perfect for my current circumstances. As it turns out, audio book is a wonderful way to enjoy the final installment to the Red Rising series. Tim Gerard Reynolds is like a cross between Anthony Hopkins and Liam Neeson and I loved it.
Darrow has been betrayed. To be fair, he was a spy. An operative, a man disguised as something he was not. And then he got found out. Morning Star takes Darrow of Lykos from his absolute lowest - shriveled and alone in a dark, cold box - to the path to rebuilding himself as a leader, and rebuilding his uprising. Morning Star doesn't quite have as many constant twists and turns as Golden Son, if I remember correctly, but it does have a somewhat episodic nature to it. The story moves between starkly different worlds - the brutal ice of the Obsidians, to the moons of the outer rim. Between villains and allies, victories and sacrifices. Its less frenetic than Golden Son, giving you time to catch your breath between the action.
In contrast to the brutality and unforgiving plot twists of Red Rising and Golden Son, Morning Star is almost....fanservicey? I know, I just said a bad word, but what I mean is that Pierce Brown here gives you what you deserve for hanging with him and Darrow through all of this. There are pop culture references, there's lots of drinking and reminiscing, there's even a wedding. This is a Darrow who has been through some shit, and he is both a young man still and an old one. He's tired of using people, and he's tired of losing people. He's a warrior, the Reaper, the best and the worst and bloodiest all at once, but he's also a sentimental teddy bear and that's what I love about him. There is a moment where you think that Darrow's tender heart has finally, finally taken things too far, but like I said, this book gives you what you deserve.
Morning Star is thrilling and fun. Hilarious and devastating (but not quite so much as previous books). It is deeply personal, and while there are huge battles, Brown rectifies some of the issues of Golden Son by keeping the most important moments intimate. Throughout the series, Darrow has built powerful relationships - in both friends and enemies - and each comes to satisfying (some tragic, some triumphant) conclusions. And Brown has a skill for applying his cinematic mind to the novel format - I had a feeling he was going to pull a fast one on me at the end, but he still managed to surprise. I'm so glad this whole series was worth every page.
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3JA1DGNC2SKY1?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
If I could give this more than five stars, I would.
There are spoilers for the first two books. So, if you haven't read them and don't like spoilers, for the love of Eo don't read this review.
This is the conclusion of the “Red Rising” trilogy. In the first book, we were given a YA dystopia in the mode of “Hunger Games” and “Divergent.” The hero, Darrow, lives in a future where the solar system has been terraformed and society (the “Society”) has been transformed into a genetically determined caste system based on “Colors,” with Gold being the rulers and Reds being the proletarian slaves. Darrow is a Red who is “cut” to become a Gold by the subversive “Sons of Aries” revolutionary movement in order to penetrate and. He enters the Gold academy and performs brilliantly and is poised to enter the Society at a high enough level to further the goals of the movement. Along the way, he makes friends (Sevro, Cassius) and finds a love interest (Mustang.) At this point, it is all a solid YA dystopian coming of age novel.
In the second book, Darrow moves his plot along, overcoming long odds, making alliances, poising himself for some military position high enough to support the revolution. We see further into the Society, how it developed, its mores and military practices, such as the “Iron Rain.” However, it all comes undone at the last minutes when Darrow is unmasked, some of his friends are killed, and he is handed over to his enemy for torture and execution.
The third book opens with a defeated Darrow imprisoned in a tight, cramped box. Things look bad for him, until - voila! - there is an improbably rescue filled with excitement and action. He is re-united with Sevro and the rest of the surviving Sons of Aries who have been fighting a guerilla war on Mars in his absence. From there it is a matter of reintegrating him in the movement and allowing him to take over more and more control as the stakes and battles get bigger and bigger.
I loved this book as a classic in the pulp tradition. The space battles were exciting with a logic to their seguences as leech craft lock onto capital ships to drill their way into those ships to allow the marines they carry to capture the ships from inside. At the same time Ripwings try to destroy the leechcraft and rail guns shred friends and enemies alike.
If you ever liked classic pulp from E.E. “Doc” Smith, this is your book.
This is not to say that there are not problems with the book. The ending sequence seemed wildly unlikely and ad hoc, and, yet, satisfying. At other times, the author's desire to build suspense led me to weirdness. Mustang gets a near disembowling cut at the end, which is ignored immediately and she continues to fight for another hour, I think.
Another problem is that Darrow becomes a completely dishonest narrator at the end in order to conceal the big surprise. There may be some wiggle room to argue that he was simply acting in order to sell the scam, but that is hard to do with author Pierce Brown's decision to write a stream of consciousness in the present tense.
But the fact is that by that time Brown had made the sale to me so that I was willing to overlook issues that I would have picked at if I had been even slightly bored. Instead, I moved past problems, caught up as I was in the excitement of the storytelling.
Brown has left plot ends dangling for later books.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly as a kind of escapist return to the roots of science fiction.
Just about had me for one terrible gorydamn minute, you sneaky wolf!
The bait and switch near the end was so convincing that there was random swearing directed at the poor innocent book. This series has me so invested in the characters, flawed as they are, that I will believe anything, apparently. And that's not a criticism.
I read this bad boy in a day and a half...could not put it down. The only mild complaint I have are about the scenes “on the ice.” I get the importance of what those scenes set up but they do slow down the pace just a bit.
Iron Gold awaits but I think my heart needs a break. Bring on the puppy videos!
Well done, Pierce Brown. Well done.
Wow! It was a big book but so much happened! There was laughter, tears, romance, death, life. I did not see the what happened at the end of the book coming, but so glad it did!
I think my brain is exploding.
Oh my days. What a fantastic ending. Could. Not. Put. Down.
It's a beautifully written roller coaster ride of a novel, thoughtful and full of passion and intensity. The characters are complex, intetesting and so very human. The battles, both huge and small, are brutal, violent and breathtaking. I love this book.
Ending Golden Son yg tidak terduga, menggantung & berdarah-darah membuatku penasaran dengan buku terakhirnya, Morning Star. Buku dibuka dengan Darrow berada di penjara Jackal, disiksa secara perlahan selama hamper 1 tahun. Ketika akan ditranfer Darrow diselamatkan oleh Putra Ares.
Maka peperangan pun berlanjut. Darrow bertemu kembali dengan teman-teman setianya di Putra Ares. Namun dalam kelanjutan kebangkitan besar menentang penguasa Klan Emas ini Darrow bertemu kembali dengan wanita yg dicintainya, Mustang, dan juga temannya di institut yang berbalik melawannya, Roque & Cassius.
Buku ini sangat membuatku jatuh cinta, Karena kompleksnya strategi peperangan, politik, juga hubungan Darrow dengan orang-orang di sekitarnya, termasuk teman-teman, keluarga bahkan musuh-musuhnya. Sayang di Goodreads hanya sampai 5 bintang, Karena sebenarnya buku ini bernilai lebih dari itu. Sedih harus mengucapkan Selamat Tinggal pada sebuah seri yang bagus. Semoga GPU juga menerbitkan penerus seri ini, Iron Gold.
Epic finale to an epic trilogy! This book was satisfying. Character development is on-point and the universe stays consistent. No further comments due to spoilers.
Except, I cracked up at this joke quote: “What do you say when a seven-and-a-half-foot-tall woman walks into a room with a battle axe and tongues on a hook? Absolutely nothing.”