Reading: Morning Star by Pierce Brown

"Maybe that's just the nature of us, ever wishing for things that were and couuld be rather than things that are and will be." - Pierce Brown, Morning Star

Title: Morning Star

Series: Red Rising Trilogy

Author: Pierce Brown

Publisher: Del Rey Books

Rating: 5 Stars

Pierce Brown is a literary genius. The universe that he set up in Red Rising and explored in Golden Son is imaginative in its beauty and cruelty. Having built such a large universe and explored its many flaws, it was very hard to imagine, going into the final installment, how Pierce could tie everything up.

He did a skillful job.

I absolutely loved the first two books in this series. I read them as though I was breathing, unable to put them down or think of anything else. I did very little critical reading of them because there just wasn't the time. I needed to see what happened next and he didn't leave time for breaks.

Morning Star felt very different from the first two. There was more politics, more dialog, more battle scenes. It was on a bigger scale than the first two books, but that left more time for thinking.

The character development was spot on. You can tell when he crafts his characters that Pierce knows them so well and creates these beautiful protagonists and antagonists that leave you no choice but to empathize with them. This book further developed the characters we loved and hated in ways that felt very human.

The end of the book felt rushed. This is understandable considering how much needed to be accomplished, but I definietly felt like he could've done wonders with 100 more pages. ((minor spoiler))

Then there's the twist. He left some clues leading to it which helped me predict the twist, however, he then spent the next several pages convincing me that I was wrong. This left two options: either Pierce had turned Darrow into an untrustworthy narrator, or he had performed a character assassination against my personal (guily pleasure) character. In the end it was the lesser evil of the two, but I wonder if I re-read, will I feel the same.

All in all, I'm mostly sad it's over. 5 stars!

#book #scifi #recommendation #nerd