Morning Star (Red Rising #3)

Slavery is not peace. Freedom is peace. And until we have that , it is our duty to make war.

Summary
Tortured. Trapped in the darkness. Alone. Abandoned. Defeated. Darrow is nothing but a ghost of his former self.
But he doesn’t have the comfort of breaking. Not now, when the Rising needs its Reaper more than ever. It’s time for a new order, it’s time for a new world.

Writing
Pierce Brown’s writing style is very poetic, poignant and humorous at the same time. It’s filled to the brim with beautiful quotes.

I have to give kudos to the author, because throughout this series I noticed significant improvement in his writing. My main complaint was that his descriptions of landscapes and battle scenes were a little bit too chaotic, which made it very easy for me to get lost or confused. In this book it almost didn’t happen.

Characters
We were observing Darrow for 7 years of his life. And it feels like in this book he finally grew into the man he was always supposed to be.

Watching him grow was a weirdly personal experience to me. It made me feel connected to him in a way I never expected. I felt his sorrow and his pain very deeply, but he also made me proud and happy more times than I can count.

I feel like this book put even more effort into developing the side characters and I couldn’t be more happy about it. Though I think that the author was a little bit too sloppy and haphazard with creating certain relationships. Still, the friendship between Darrow and Sevro gave me nothing but pure joy and I think it will stay on my top list for a long, long time.

Plot
This novel has caused me a lot of heartache. It’s been a while since a book made me cry. And this one managed to do it multiple times.

The storyline is impeccable. It’s filled with violence, hatred and betrayal, but also with so much love and beauty. It was intense and exciting, though it had moments that felt too stretched out.

It’s definitely not an easy book to read. It’s too dark and violent to be a nice and pleasant summer book. But all of the little (and much, much bigger) twists and turns make it totally worth it.

Overall
I could not imagine a better conclusion to this trilogy. Only that it’s not a trilogy anymore? So yes, I am satisfied with this ending, but that makes me a little scared of Iron Gold. On one hand I am excited that Darrow’s story is not over yet. But on the other, the 4th book feels a little bit… unnecessary.

You can find this book on Goodreads and Book Depository