Morning Star

Third book in the Red Rising saga and conclusion to the trilogy, although I see there are three more books continuing after this one. Fortunately, this one at least concludes the story we started with, as Darrow finally brings his revolution to the Sovereign and vengeance is wreaked on the various bad guys who remain.

Things I liked about the book: by book 3, Darrow has actually realized that Eo was really just a self-absorbed, idealistic girl who he's outgrown. This is a nice development from book 1 where she was just another woman in a fridge to motivate a male hero. I also like that he's realized that friendship and supporting others is more important than the fight itself, and that he gives people opportunities to change, rather than treating everyone as uniformly bad (even though he's sometimes disappointed).

I did not like how very, very tediously long and brutal the book was. So much fighting, and people hurting each other, and being generally horrible, over and over. It was a bit like watching a very violent MMA fight. I guess some people enjoy watching people cause each other pain for hours on end, but I sure don't. It was a struggle to finish the last half of the book because it was just fight after fight after fight and I really lost track and started to not care any more. I'm reminded of how very refreshing I found The Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy, because there's a scene in the third book where the entire plot has been building and building up to an epic war... which the author skips entirely past, going from the lead-in to battle straight to the aftermath. I must have read that book more than 20 years ago but it still sticks with me because it was done so differently to normal, and in doing so made it clear how unnecessary it actually is to describe every little thrown punch and swung blade.

Overall it was a decent trilogy, but very, very clearly written by a male author and very much focused on violence and pain and male heroism. Since this third book ended on a satisfying conclusion I don't think I'm going to read any further.

But life is the present and the future, not the past.

My rating of the book is based on the quality of Morning Star but also how it completes the Red Rising trilogy. Each installment in this series is excellent and actions from previous books are noted and have repercussions in the finale. I find that a trilogy may have a stumble in quality along the line, but each book for Red Rising was excellent and this five star rating is based on the sum of its parts.

I faulted the first book for having too narrow of a scope. Yet it did an excellent job of laying the foundation for friendships and beliefs. The decisions made then have consequences now and they feel that much more significant because they were set in motion at the first book. The friendships and betrayals from the Institute were more significant than I expected and the students weren't able to brush off what happened as just being a part of a simple game.

I feel like a prisoner who spent his whole life digging through the wall, only to break through and find he's dug into another cell. Except there will always be another cell. And another. And another.

There was a pleasant amount of twists and turns but I also thought to myself "how is that person still alive?!", and at times it felt slightly comical. Morning Star had some wonderful emotional moments but if characters had a true death there may have been more of an impact. Even though I was trying to predict the next deception I wasn't really. To use a quote from The Prestige: "You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled." and each time I was and pleased for the feint.

Morning Star continues to juggle action and plot around topics of social rights, prejudices and racism. This put me on my own journey as I struggled with the main concept of the stories: can people change.

We all have nature and nurture to shape us. She can watch other people's opinions when she has opinions of her own, and no sooner. We're not digital creatures. We're flesh and blood. Better she learns that before the world finds her.

You wanted to believe that a character would redeem themselves and look beyond Color, but at the same time you were also rooting for them to remain evil monsters and abandon friendships and trust. Pierce Brown had to walk a fine line to satisfy both moods and he did an excellent job.

Government is never the solution, but it is almost always the problem.

The inter planetary setting was a great location but with planets and moons terraformed and populated there wasn't much diversity between locations. I realize that science and technology advanced to a point where our current solar system is unrecognizable but it would have been great if orbital mechanics were accounted for in strategies. However, when you fly a "MoonBreaker" or a ship 7KM in length then the minutia of gravity isn't something you need to account for.

Forget a man's name and he'll forgive you. Remember it, and he'll defend you forever.

I can understand how some readers may find the caste system and racism a bit heavy handed at times but it's wrapped around a really fun and engaging story. I am glad to have stumbled across this series and I will read the second trilogy once it's completed.

In the afterword Pierce Brown wrote about his writing process for Morning Star and found this quote about Darrow to be insightful as the focus of the story did seem to shift in this book.

I began to understand that Darrow wasn't the focus anymore. It was the people around him. It was his family, his friends, his loves, the voices...

I had more quote highlights than usual in this book and when looking back at them now they are as applicable in today's world as they are in Darrow's but the most striking and significant would be this one:

We must save ourselves from ourselves before the inheritance of humanity is ash.

Either it was at book three that I started to get in the mood for this series. Or it's at book three that Pierce Brown started to get better at writing and plot. There are quite a few bits I liked.

Crabs skittering over the corpses, making meals of the dead, as a lone ribbon of smoke twirled and twirled up to the stars, the old soundless echo of war.

When the assault forces land to take back the military spire and the Needles, they’ll leave their shuttles behind in those hangars. Sevro will descend from his hiding place, hijack the shuttles, and return them home to their ships, packed with all the Sons we have left.

Justice isn’t about fixing the past, it’s about fixing the future.

*** warning: very minor non-specific spoilers to follow***

It's not really that uncommon for me to put a book down and just not pick it up again. Usually it's out of boredom or sometimes disgust. Generally it's because the characters do things I disagree with, or maybe that something is too unbelievable. Far more often it's the boredom thing.

I can't remember ever having rage-quit a book before this one.

Okay, in a series as bloody and full of depravity as this one, I should hardly have been surprised when the author kills off one of my favorite characters toward the end, but in this case it caught me totally by surprise. And it was getting late. And I did have about a hundred pages left.

But boy was I pissed.

There was no question whether I'd finish it out. But for at least 50 pages, I was NOT enjoying it. The author had lost all my respect.

Then it gets redeemed. And I don't know how to feel about it. I mean, on one hand, it ended "well" (certainly a relative term here, as the death toll in this book was likely in the billions), but on the other hand, I can't help but feel like the author's emotional roller coaster was the equivalent of a dog trainer who beats the animal and then gives it treats and tells it he loves it.

(Yes, I feel like an abused dog after reading this book.)

It was well written though. From a lyrical and prose perspective especially. The plot twists (and there were many) felt a bit off to me, but I mostly couldn't see them coming, so... win?

I'd probably only recommend this with a boat-load of caveats, but I did really enjoy it. And I'll probably read the next one.

I had to begin this immediately upon finishing the prior book. I don't know how fans could have stood the year between novels. I'm impressed this was pushed out in a year regardless. We have so little time to do so much and it is done and done well.

Brown has created some real good characters here. They're not as deep as one could go but they are deep enough to build really well-modeled people after. Ones you like, you hate, you despise, and you adore. Many things in between those shades as well. I could easily see this becoming its own movie series but I think a lot of great moments and internal dialog would end up on the cutting room floor.

I get hung every once in a while on space. After reading anything from [b:Old Man's War|51964|Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)|John Scalzi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402867788s/51964.jpg|50700] to [b:Leviathan Wakes|8855321|Leviathan Wakes (Expanse, #1)|James S.A. Corey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411013134s/8855321.jpg|13730452] (and many others.) You learn to fear space. It's empty, dangerous, and the technology to exist takes a lot of work. All of Maslov's pyramid for existing in space is really really lightly touched--here is a world that makes food, everything runs on Helium-3, space ships have artificial gravity, and it just works. There's a lot of space magic. That's fine. I can suspend disbelief and let this roll, but it tickles the back of my mind wondering the hows. The might of technology (from space to weapons) is here, but we know nothing of how they work (how the hell does a razor power itself..AHH--see I'm doing it again.)

Back to the story. This finale is a rollercoaster of a ride. As a reader you want things to succeed. As an author of an adventure Brown has to throw us curve ball after curve ball to get us there. The last few chapters were so shocking I almost passed out at work. Reading in between customers at one moment, my heart broke for a while... later at home when I was able to continue, my mind kept wanting to find the ruse.. Maybe it was there, maybe it wasn't.. Spoil you later.

The ending is satisfying, this phase in our visit to Brown's world is closing. Always room for more but I'm glad everything found its niche and even with the sorrowful loss of many great people this book earns its wings.