A world in which humans have broken the DNA mysteries and are able to selectively breed people to enhance certain abilities and hinder others is a terrifying scenario that could very well be true in the distant future. Speaking of the plot, I have to commend on Brown’s idea of the story as a whole, now that I reached the end. Sometimes I laugh during the night, during the day. We need others to tether us to life, to give us a reason to live, to feel. I would have thought there to be worse fates than this, but now I know there are none. For an author that presents a great, epic story, this repetition is a handicap. But, although the world building and epicness factor are present, the plot itself follows a very specific order of events: politics – someone dies – joking around before battle – battle – politics -… and so on. Honestly, this story would have been an excellent video game. Not only in terms of the environmental vastness but also by introducing many well-composed space battles. From moons to asteroids and from one planet to the other, Pierce Brown is finally taking advantage of humanity’s massive advancement as a conquering species of the universe. While in his first novel, Red Rising, we stayed in Mars and specifically at the Institute, here we are taking an interplanetary voyage. Probably the most exciting aspect of the third novel is the element of expansion that Pierce Brown brings to the game. “This is always how the story would end,” he says to me. I was not worried about being disappointed with Morning Star as I was told that this is the best one of the three.

A good series is marked by a great ending novel. This third book starts a few months after Darrow’s capture at the end of Golden Son. The Red Rising trilogy will be followed by the Iron Gold series with the first book coming out in August of 2017.

Morning Star is the third and final volume in the Red Rising trilogy and was recently voted the winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction of 2016. Darrow’s identity is discovered and he finds himself a prisoner of Jackal, naked, afraid and alone. But betrayal is a constant threat that causes many of Darrow’s friends to be killed or captured. Everyone is turned against him and Darrow has only one choice, set the Society in chaos. His star burns bright until a ship-to-ship combat at the Academy proves him unworthy of his legend.

After succeeding at the Institute, Darrow is taken under Nero au Augustuses wing. The Helldiver of Lykos was carved a Gold and thrown into the wolves to take the Society down as an insider. This review contains spoilers for Red Rising and Golden Son

Morning star brown novel