#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating next chapter in the Red Rising Saga: Morning Star.
ITW THRILLER AWARD FINALIST • “[Brown’s] achievement is in creating an uncomfortably familiar world of flaw, fear, and promise.”—Entertainment Weekly
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.
Praise for Morning Star “There is no one writing today who does shameless, Michael Bay–style action set pieces the way Brown does. The battle scenes are kinetic, bloody, breathless, crazy. Everything is on fire all the time.”—NPR
“Morning Star is this trilogy’s Return of the Jedi. . . . The impactful battles that make up most of Morning Star are damn near operatic. . . . It absolutely satisfies.”—Tordotcom
“Excellent . . . Brown’s vivid, first-person prose puts the reader right at the forefront of impassioned speeches, broken families, and engaging battle scenes . . . as this interstellar civil war comes to a most satisfying conclusion.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A page-turning epic filled with twists and turns . . . The conclusion to Brown’s saga is simply stellar.”—Booklist (starred review)
Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga: RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER
So, the thing is: I had really high expectations for this book. I loved Red Rising and Golden Son, they were among my favorite books of 2015, so of course I was really excited to read this one. I was also really afraid that it wouldn't have lived up to my expectations. Now I know I didn't have anything to be worried about: this book is pure perfection. I laughed, I cried (A LOT), I was completely into the story from page 1 till the very end. The best thing of all is that everything here happens for a reason, nothing occurs just because the author says so or because the story requires it. I especially loved how villains were written: everyone has his or her motive, no one is bad just to be bad. Every character knows exactly what to do, in what to believe, even when they are full of doubts. No single action is out of character and that is the thing that I valued the most in this book and it's also the reason why the characters are so well done: they feel complete, like real people and it is so easy to feel for them, to ache when something awful happens to them and to be overwhelmed when they are in pain. I especially liked also the fact that Red Rising portrays a society at war and nothing is sugarcoated: a lot of bad things happens to a lot of people, regardless of their being good or evil. Lastly, the thing that I will always remember the most vividly about this trilogy is how it portrays friendship: it warmed my heart and I was on the verge of tears several times because it felt real and important. This is my favorite book of the year so far and it will forever stay with me. (I feel so overwhelmed right now)
