TL;DR Intrigue-stuffed Rome in Space follow-up to Hunger Games in the Middle Ages. If you enjoyed [b: Red Rising|15839976|Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy, #1)|Pierce Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1369153188s/15839976.jpg|21580644] and speak Latin, this book is for you.

Some time has passed since the first book. Darrow has been to the 'Academy' and learned to fight space battles. Augustus is his mentor or sponsor or whatever-you-want-to-call-it while the Sons of Ares seem to have vanished. Darrow is a rising star about to win the final fight of the Academy tests with his coterie of friends and ascend to be an Imperator of the fleet. Of course nothing ever turns out the way it is planned. And the old saying still holds: the higher you rise, the deeper you fall, especially when your grav-boots give out.

This book is full of treachery, intrigue and missed connections. I believe there are several characters that change their allegiance so often it becomes hard to keep track whose side they are on. Add to that Darrow's countless attempts to make things right with his friends by resolving to talk to them, and then not following through ... it makes for a rather stressful read.

There are a few exciting reveals, but most of this book consists of extremely long action sequences that cost me two good nights of sleep because I don't put down a book in the middle of a fight scene. Those sequences are too bloodydamn long. Too many fight scenes with too much description of "he moved there and hit him here" drown out the characters and sometimes even the plot.

And then there's the nearly satisfying climax which had just the right note of bitterness, until it turns Red Wedding and half the cast dies ... again..

Minus 2 stars because (a) this book could and should have been shorter, (b) too much confusion in the plot, and (c) I still don't like Darrow. This is a purely subjective rating based on how much I personally liked this book. The actual book is better than my rating.