Morning Star

Book III of the Red Rising Trilogy

By: Pierce Brown

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

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.

©2016 Pierce Brown (P)2016 Recorded Books

I'm actually depressed the story ended.

I have NEVER immediately restarted a trilogy after finishing until now. This book can compete with Tolkien. unbelievable story telling. Never a dull moment, I laughed, cried, yelled out loud in anger, and cheered! My new favorite.

Great Trilogy, Big Plot Holes for the Grand Finale

I enjoyed this trilogy, but I have to include a large caveat in that you really MUST NOT THINK TOO MUCH or the whole thing will fall apart. There are plot holes a-plenty, especially in the "grand finale" in book three, which has several holes big enough to drive a bloodydamn Mack truck through.

BUT.

If you are a reader that is fine shrugging your shoulders and just “going with it”, then these books are an action packed good time.

THE GOOD

Characters: The nuanced characters – mostly the supporting and minor characters – are actually quite good. Everyone gets surprisingly nuanced motivations, even for characters that last less than a full book. In fact, the supporting character are far more interesting than the main character himself. More on that later.

Pacing: Other than the really depressing begging of the first book, which nearly put me off the whole series, the pacing in excellent. There is literally something happening in every chapter, which makes the books fly by. Once you get past the bleak beginning of book 1, you’re in for a roller-coaster ride thereafter.

THE NOT SO GOOD

Mary Sue: Darrow is a Mary Sue. I mean, there’s no denying it, he just is. When he’s not just better/smarter/stronger/cleverer than everyone else, he’s also luckier. If that’s something you can’t deal with, you’ll want to skip this series.

Death/Betrayal is EVERY Plot Twist: The plot twists are rapid fire in this series, but they nearly always follow the same pattern: a betrayal of a friend that results in the death of a different friend. It’s actually pretty impressive how dumb Darrow’s friends are. He’s nearly as deadly to hang around as Jessica Flethcer, you’d think they’d run like hell to stay away from the guy.

No Space Warfare: In a SciFi series with spaceships aplently, somehow all of the battles are hand-to-hand. Seriously, without fail all of the battles end up hand-to-hand. I love me some Ender’s Games style tactical space combat, and it was disappointing to have the few space battles that do happen end up being described in a few sentences like “my fleet destroyed his fleet” or “my ships outmaneuvered his ships and we destroyed his ships”. It left something to be desired.

THE BAD:

The Names: good god, there are SO MANY bloodydamn names to keep track of!

THE UGLY:

Plot Holes: As I mentioned, if you can just roll with it and not think about things too deeply, you’ll be fine. But even so, the grand finale of the series has some really big, obvious plot holes, even if you aren’t trying particularly hard to pick the plot apart.

THE VERDICT:

This is a fun, mostly well written, dark but exciting series with a Mary Sue main character, great character work, and giant plot holes. If you feel like you can roll with that, you’ll have a lot of fun.

I'd give the trilogy 4 1/2 stars overall, just for being good at what it is, but I had to give this particular book 4 stars because of the really glaring plot holes in the "grand finale" ending.

Amazing books, super talented author!

Have re read them many times love them even more. Have given lots of copies to friends who all loved them. Fantastic story and narration nails it

grandiose and moving

In red rising we are introduced to the Reaper.. Darrow the Reaper of Mars, the helldiver of lycos, a red reborn as a gold, a Daredevil maniac that threatens to shake the very foundations of the Gold's power hierarchy and still... just a man.
In Golden son, he rises as the iron gold with the power to match the ancients but still stumbles and falls due to the politics of the elite and the powerful. He becomes a martyr. a myth.
In morning star, Darrow of lycos- with the red rising behind him, with the sons of ares with him and the power of vengeance to drive him comes back from the dungeons to become Darrow the morning star. The Reaper, the helldiver and the morning star all in one.. the Breaker of chains .. the red gold.

and the bloody damn, err gory damn song.. Persephone's song. it still sends chills through my spine..

what a gory damn story.

Speed it up!

Great book, great narration. The only advice I have is to listen to it at 1.4x speed. The narrator reads pretty slowly.