Review: Morning Star by Pierce Brown

Morning Star

Pierce Brown

(Red Rising Saga #3)

Publication Date: February 9, 2016

Hardcover, 524 pages, Del Rey

Genres: Adult, Sci-Fi

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating conclusion to the Red Rising Trilogy: Morning Star.

Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.

Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.

My Review

I’m one of the lucky ones. I got to read Morning Star right after reading Golden Son. I couldn’t imagine waiting an entire year after Golden Son’s cliffhanger for the third book to finally be released. I could barely stand waiting the five days it took for my library copy to get into my hands. This series is like an emotional rollercoaster that deserves to be devoured in as few sittings as possible.

Okay, so first off, if you haven’t read at least the first two books in this series, there might be some SPOILAGE about to happen. I can’t make any promises. There’s a lot that happens in these books that must be talked about.

Morning Star starts out a year after the events of Golden Son, which means things have been going haywire. Darrow is now an emotional wreck, and everyone else is acting crazy. Since I started this series, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Darrow. I love him and all of his impossible schemes, but I hate him for being so full of himself. In this book, he’s definitely not as full of himself. However, I was hoping it would take him more time than it did for him to recover from what happened during his year-long absence. I wanted a longer and more angsty recovery.

Oh, and there’s one decision Darrow made that I don’t know if I can ever really forgive his character for making. If you’ve read the book, you probably know what it is, but if you haven’t, I’ll just say that it was really crappy of him to make such an awful deal. My stomach turned when I read that scene.

As for the rest of the cast of characters, everyone mostly stayed the same, minus Sevro. His personality took an odd turn to me. I just didn’t expect him to go there. I guess it made sense in the grand scheme of things for Sevro to step up, but I hadn’t really thought of him as any sort of leader beyond his own Howlers. It was a surprising turn of events. Pierce Brown is good at those.

The plot of the book, like the other two in the trilogy, is phenomenal. There’s so much happening and the world building is insane. Yet, I found myself wanting things to slow down a little. At some points, events were rushed, and I would have loved to see them pan out slower. Additionally, I’m still iffy on all the jargon used during battle sequences. I guess I should watch more sci-fi shows, though. Maybe that would help…

I may be nit-picking, but there’s really nothing more that I can do. This series is great! There’s so much about it that I love, so it’s just easier to talk about what I remember disliking.

All in all, this book was an awesome end to a fantastic series! Yes, there are a few hiccups, but nothing that compares to the insane journey Pierce Brown takes his readers on. I can’t wait to see what happens in Iron Gold.

*Note: I borrowed a copy of this book from my local library. This in no way affected my opinion/review.