Morning Star

by Pierce Brown
524 pgs  (Red Rising series #3)

As Morning Star begins, Darrow has been imprisoned for a year in an underground cell, one so small the only way he can fit is curled up into a ball. He was betrayed at the end of Golden Son, his identity as a Red, genetically and physically modified to become a Gold revealed. He successfully shattered the color caste system, but now his followers have had to continue to fight his war across the entire solar system without him.

Eventually they liberate him, but he's broken and weak, in no position to lead the uprising he himself began. The stakes have gotten higher in his absence as well. The Jackal, the man responsible for imprisoning and torturing Darrow has stolen Sovereign's stockpile of hundreds of planet-destroying atomic weapons. If he's able to discover the location of Darrow and his rebel army, he'll waste no time in using those weapons to destroy them, with no concern for the collateral damage he would cause.

As the story progresses, the level of action grows. Brown packs it in to an impressive degree. If this trilogy is ever made into a movie, it will most likely be directed by Michael Bay. That's the type and level of action we're talking about here. But while Michael Bay films are all action and no substance, Brown's story isn't. The action is just a byproduct of the scope of the story Brown has written.

Brown also excels at developing his characters. As the trilogy began, Darrow was the only character that seemed to have much depth, but by the time the last book finished, he was almost more of a supporting character. the others had become so interesting that for me, they were the ones that seemed to be driving the story forward.

I was excited to learn that Brown is now planning a new trilogy of books. One that will take place in the same universe he created with Red Rising, but years later, when the effects of what Darrow and his army did have been fully realized. Hopefully those books will be coming soon.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆