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Morning Star by Pierce Brown
The second volume of the Red Rising trilogy saw Red rebel Darrow captured by The Jackal. Now, this third volume begins with Darrow in solitary confinement in The Jackal’s headquarters. As you can no doubt guess, he doesn’t stay a prisoner for long, and the action soon moves into space, where the rebels seek an alliance with the Moon Lords, who rule the moons of the outer planets, in order to fight the Sword Armada — the Sovereign’s battle fleet on the Rim of the Society’s territory. The rebels then move on Luna for a final showdown with the Sovereign, leading to some shocking and unexpected twists in the final few chapters of the novel.
This final volume of the trilogy sees the body count rack up even further than in the second volume, with massive space battles and nuclear weapons used on inhabited cities. Major characters are also done away with — not everyone’s favourite character will make it to the end. The above-average writing of the first two novels continues in this third volume, although I thought Darrow’s internal monologue could have done with editing down a bit — it seemed to me to slow down the pace of the novel in places. The shocking death and major twist near the end of the novel was well done — I for one didn’t see it coming. An excellent end to a highly readable trilogy, with the scope for more in the same universe if the author wishes to continue the saga. Recommended. |
SciFiMike Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆