Review – Morning Star (Red Rising, Book 3) by Pierce Brown (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 544 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: February 9, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-0345539847
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Red Rising Trilogy
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

“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.”

This was a decent conclusion to this series, things play out in a pretty predictable way. The whole book reads like an action-packed space opera of sorts; with billions of people dying and our characters catapulting from one battle to the next.

Some of the issues I had with the last two books were worse in this book. The book is very very wordy. This is one of those books where you can skip pages (then feel guilty and go back and read them) and not miss anything vital….I am talking like you can skip 20 pages here and not miss a darn thing. Darrow spends a lot of time talking about his emotions and feelings in something strange parts of the story (like the middle of battle). I got to the point where I was like “Oh, Darrow is being all emo again…we can skip those 15 pages”. The same with characters rehashing discussions over so and so’s loyalty again and again and again. There was just so much fluff here. I don’t mind some fluff but the dialogue is flat and dry and not at all witty and entertaining.

There is a ton of action which was very engaging…some of the time. Again some of the action scenes get very wordy and repetitive. The overall plot suffers from the same issue. I really liked the beginning of the book but the middle and end were repetitive. Basically this is plot: Darrow comes up with something ridiculously daring and crazy, they try it, they almost die, they win the day…rinse and repeat in battle after battle.

If this book had been about 200 pages shorter it would have been absolutely stunning…this book had a serious case of book bloat.

All the bitching aside….a lot of the charactersdo change and mature throughout this series. You see a lot of how they have grown in this book. Darrow has realized that this isn’t about his revenge for his wife; this is about so much more. There is also a good in-depth look at war and how every side thinks they are right; there is no black and white in war…only grey.

Overall this was a good read though and I thought it tied up the series nicely. If you liked the first two books you will enjoy this one. If you thought the first two books were wordy, overly dramatic, dry, and a bit repetitive…well this one is worse than the first two for that.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge