Rage is blindness. Gibson whispered in my ear, admonishing. Grief is deep water. But I was beyond rage. Past grief. I stood upon a mountaintop in the Rage is blindness. Gibson whispered in my ear, admonishing. Grief is deep water. But I was beyond rage. Past grief. I stood upon a mountaintop in the grip of a fury cold and clear as ice, but the grip was itself my own.
Reviewing this book is hard. I might write another review if I ever re-read it. The thing is : I took a huge pause in the middle of it, which of course altered my experience of it. It was mostly a "me problem" : I'm a mood reader and sometimes what I'm in the mood for changes in the middle of a book, which is very problematic when it's long books. But it was also in part an issue with the book itself : I got a bit bored in the middle section because it felt so repetitive to moments from previous books to me... So yeah : I begun this book in August, but finished it in November, because for several months I just stopped reading it and read other books instead. As I said ; reviewing it is tricky now !
But I ended up quite enjoying this book actually ! I'll say it's my third favorite of the series so far. Once I got through the repetitive sections I mentioned, I actually really loved the last section of the book. My favorite thing in the series is the politics and the dynamic with the Emperor and his family VS Hadrian and here we had that once more. These were by far the stronguest sections of the book for me. We also see a more human side of the Emperor and I ended up actually begining to like him, even if with that human side comes some stupid decisions too. We also have more of Jadd in this book and I LOVED it !! They are so interesting and badass, and it just adds to the complexity of the worldbuilding. The characters themselves keep getting better : Hadrian is more and more reliable in his flaws. I'm finally enjoying his "abilities" now that they have clear limits (which was my big complaint before).
I'm really excited to read the next book but I won't read it immediately. Indeed until now I've never read the side stories but as you may know : Lorian is my favorite character so this time I WILL read the short story before Quiet Gods ! In the meantime Wind and Truth might also be out, so I might not get to Quiet Gods until next year, we'll see !...more
I loved the beginning and the end. The culture we discover in the beginning was really inte3.75 stars
Reviewing this book is tricky so I'll be brief !
I loved the beginning and the end. The culture we discover in the beginning was really interesting (if a bit on the nose sometimes) and the last 30% were great even if they didn't hit me as hard as they should have. The big thing that happens in the middle was too stretched out to for me. I can see why Ruocchio wrote it that way, but it had the opposite effect on me.
Overall it's still a great book, I like it less than Howling Dark and Demon in White but it's way above Empire of Silence for me. Ruocchio's took risks with this book and I respect it, it's not an easy book to write or read but a necessary one. It did make me want to continue the series and see where we go from here. ...more
The first half of this book was everything I was expecting when I begun this series : politics, war, found family, revenge, House war, epic protagonisThe first half of this book was everything I was expecting when I begun this series : politics, war, found family, revenge, House war, epic protagonist moments... It was everything I wanted and I LOVED it ! We have more of the romance between Valka and Hadrian and it fully worked for me in this book : it is a complex but real relationship and I'm totally on board ! We spend more time with side characters in general, some we already knew : Palino for instance is still awesome !, and new ones : Lorian might be my favorite !! The Imperial family was everything I hoped it would be. The main character himself is at his best : I LOVED Hadrian in this book, I didn't get the hype around him in the first book, I began liking him in the second one, but now I truly LOVE him !
All that being said, as you can see : no this still wasn't a 5 stars... There were some reveals in the second part of this book that I really don't like. One of those was a continuation of the issue I had with the end of book 2 : we learn more about the Halfmortal thing and I really don't like it. there's some concept around it that are cool and that bring some really great moments but it's still not worth it in my opinion.... There's also some reveal about the bigger conflict that makes it manichean and so much less interesting in my opinion... I wish we could have kept the dynamic of the first 50/70% of the book, the things added after that feel really cheap sometimes and makes the stakes so much lower for me.
Demon in White was a great book but some of the decisions made don't work for me and make me worried for the rest ; I fear because of it none of the books of this series will be a 5 stars for me unfortunatly. ...more
I'm glad I persevered ! Howling Dark was so much better than Empire of Silence, I finally get the hype !
"Sad is like a big ocean, and you can’t breatI'm glad I persevered ! Howling Dark was so much better than Empire of Silence, I finally get the hype !
"Sad is like a big ocean, and you can’t breathe deep down. You can float on it, you can swim a little, but be careful. Grief is drowning. Grief is deep water."
Basically all the complaints I had in the first book were resolved :
-The pacing was great here : no weird time skipping and it slowed down where it needed. Although there is a time skip in between the books, and it didn't bother me in terms of time but something important happened in that time, the characters kept refering to that episode, it clearly had an impact on Hadrian so I wish it was included in the book.
"Rarely does the universe match my capacity for drama. Rarely is not never."
-The character work was great ! I finally I'm completly compelled by Hadrian ! He's much interesting character now and less annoying. The thing is : he's more self aware now, he knows he's not the best, and he really isn't believe me ! You can already see the first glimpses of his slow corruption. The other characters also had a better development and some of the dynamics were great ! There was betrayals and tensions between the characters that I loved ! One of my favorite things about this book was the dynamic between Hadrian and Bassander : the rivalry mixed with mutual respect, really complex and well done ! Both sides had their rights and wrongs and I felt myself balancing between the two through the book.
"I lie less than people believe"
"Red and black. My colors."
-The world extended and it was great ! We learn more about the Cielcin and the themes regarding that are so interesting ! How do you make peace with another species with the language and cultural clash ? It's already difficult between men but here... So interesting ! And again : there's no good side, just maybe one side that might be a bit less horrible and then again, your opinion sways and it's all a matter of perspective at the end of the day. All the things introduced with the character in the cover where also GREAT !
"Man’s inhumanity. What could be more human?"
"The idea that pain is evil is the basis for all morality. Ours. Theirs. Everything’s. But was I evil, then? Or had I only done evil?"
I thought this book might be a five stars at some point but then there was a trope in the end that I really really HATE ! Sometimes some authors make me accept it but here I really didn't like how it was handled and it felt unecessary. Maybe I'll change my mind with the next books will see.
I did enjoy this book A LOT ! I'm exited to see where it goes and if like me you didn't like the first one : please give this one a chance ! It's so much better in my opinion....more
We can't say Brown didn't warn us with that title but wow... this book is really the death of all hope.
We see violence in all its scales, from the biWe can't say Brown didn't warn us with that title but wow... this book is really the death of all hope.
We see violence in all its scales, from the big casualties of wars to the more personal deaths, Brown has no mercy. And like our characters we end up in total despair : Brown gives us little scrumbs of hope and lightness just to snatch it all away. Even the small victories don't feel like victories because of all that it costs.
The war and the politics were my favorite parts. Brown does a fenomenal job writing the military aspects, showing us the horrors of war, the strategies, the chaos, the despair... I was spoiled certain things but not all so I still ended being quite shocked by some twists and turns. The dual POV of the ennemies in the war worked so well ! I love seeing Darrow through other perspectives ! I did at some point question the amount of violence present, but I think this feeling is the purpose : it's but a reflect of our world and sadly there is this senseless violence that Brown communicated to us through this book. And through all this, he does an amazing work with his characters. I think one of my favorite things about this sequel series is the character work, and how we spend more time with our characters : we keep learning more things about the old ones, while discovering the new ones and I was amazed at how fast I grew attached to those new characters and to how many of them. There was a moment in part 3 were I thought that maybe this would end up being a four stars because there were just too many concepts and villains introduce and I thought it was all too much. But part 4 was such a masterpiece that I couldn't not give it 5 stars. There's some concepts that I ended up being ok with but not all, and I still believe at that point that there is too many villains.
I don't know if it is my favorite or second favorite after GS right now. I think I'll need to see the big picture with the last books and re-read them to know, but it really was an experience....more
So I haven't re-read this book (yet!) but I've been rating two books 5 stars in a row just now, and I realized : yes I've had my complaint04/06/2024 :
So I haven't re-read this book (yet!) but I've been rating two books 5 stars in a row just now, and I realized : yes I've had my complaints with this book, but I'm still thinking about it months later and yeah... it wasn't perfect, I prefer Dark Age, but it definetely gave me that 5 stars feeling so I'm rising my rating to a 5 stars, we'll see if it changes on re-read or not !
And now I have to wait for Red God... Please let it not be 4 years !
I think the main reason this book isn't a 5 stars is because I've read it just after Dark Age, and DA was such a high for me that it couldn't compete. This book was great though mind you ! It made me cry at least three times in the last 10% (Pierce Brown does love to twist the knife !) but it didn't make me feel as much as Dark Age did overall, not as many "I've got chills moments" and some parts of the plot (part 3 mainly) didn't work well for me. It's something that was introduced in DA and that I was already skeptical about but I was waiting to see how it would turn out to be and... some of it I liked, but there are still some things that don't make sense and it's still a part of the plot that doesn't work for me. There's also a tone shift in my opinion : the tone of the original trilogy is back and mixed with the new one and it translates into Darrow's character too. I have mixed feelings about this because I loved the new darker tone, but I recognize that a change was needed after DA. It just felt a bit abrupt at times. Again I think I might feel this way mainly because I've read it immediatly after DA too. I believe it's a book I'll appreciate more on re-read and after getting the full picture with Red God.
That being said I loved the plot of part 1, 2 and the second half of part 4. Those last 15% were gut wrentching ! There were also a lot of call backs to the original series, some things circling back, and also an interesting symetry between the character's situation and roles in this book and in DA in the second part that I found interesting. I also loved the main theme of this book, for me it's really about redemption for several characters and that's always a win.
But let's be honest : what made the book was a 100% Darrow and Cassius ! What a reunion ! I think I might love their relationship more than I love Sevro and Darrow's ... Here I said it ! Sorry not sorry... If we stay on the friendships theme I also loved a certain surprising but great friendship that emerges in this book, it was so sweet and brought out the best of both characters. I also love more and more the Mustang/Holliday and Mustang/Victra duos were EPIC and Mustang's POVs in general were my favorites ex aequo with Darrow's. Coming back to Cassius : what a character ! It was so good having him back ! His character arc through all the series is one of the best, and he's definetly earned his place in my favorite characters of the series. Plus : he brought the comedic relief we needed, his exchanges with Darrow were amazing ! Other characters also have quite an interesting arc but I don't want to spoil anything so I won't say more. I think we could have had one more POV : Pax or Volga maybe, but I can understand why we didn't. I also felt that Lyria's POV was less useful in this book, even if I love her more than ever !
In terms of action, although it was not on the same level as DA, nor was it meant to be, there were still some great moments and two/three epic confrontations in particular come to me.
I can't wait for Red God to come ! I have many theories and I love where we left off in this book : we're going to focus on the part of the plot that interests me the most and I can't wait ! I'm going to have a massive book hangover now... part of me wants to immediatly re-read the whole series ! Yes... that's how addicted to it I am and how good it is !...more
I think the fact that it took me more than a month to read this book speaks for itself ?
The pacing didn't do it for me at all. It's not just 2.5 stars
I think the fact that it took me more than a month to read this book speaks for itself ?
The pacing didn't do it for me at all. It's not just that it's slow, it often is, but it's also very uneven : there's actually some parts where it felt rushed and where I wanted things to slow down because I thought there were important parts for the character. The time skipping was also very confusing at times. The other thing that didn't work for me : the characters. I understand that the protagonist is supposed to be flawed and that's what a lot of people appreciate in this book but I still need to have something for me to be invested with him and I just wasn't. As I said, some parts that were said to be important for his character development were rushed so when the author then uses those supposed defining moments for you to connect with Hadrian it didn't work at all for me. It's all the more problematic when the secondary characters are barely developed too and Hadrian is the only POV. What he's supposed to become is really interesting though, that type of narration worked wonders for me in Blood Song and that's one of the main thing that drew me to this book. I do hope the character's arc is handled better in the next books though because here I feel like Hadrian didn't learn from his mistakes at all and again ; I couldn't really believe how his trauma affected him since we didn't spend anytime on it. I had a love/hate relationship with the writing too : I loved it in the begining, but it ended up tiring for me. Sometimes there were philosophical interludes in the middle of important scenes and it got me out of it. It also felt really repetitive at times with a lot of "tell and no show". For instance I lost count of the number of times when Hadrian is said to be melodramatic. If it's said once or twice in a book it's funny but here it was said A LOT, as if to remind us that he was... Just show me that he is, no need to tell me every ten pages ! (I exagerate a bit of course but still...) The plot... well it's kind of the same : I loved the prelude, what was promised to me but then we went ways that were suprising but also disappointing for my tastes. It just took the underwhelming turn almost each time. That being said, the ending hooked me again. The Cielcin are definitely the most interesting part for me and that's what makes me want to still give the next books a try. That and the excellent reviews from a lot of the bookreviewers I follow.
This book wasn't really for me but I'm intrigued enough to give the next books a try (maybe not now though !)....more
4.25 stars : I'm so glad I'm finally reading the sequel tetralogy : it's so good ! It's my second favorite of the series so far after Golden Son.
One o4.25 stars : I'm so glad I'm finally reading the sequel tetralogy : it's so good ! It's my second favorite of the series so far after Golden Son.
One of the reason I didn't love Morning Star as much as anybody else was because I thought the happy ending was too fast, too simple and not realistic. The problematic of the after is discussed since Golden Son, but the solution proposed in Morning Star never convinced me. So I'm happy that we get to see more of it now : the first trilogy was the dream and now we meet reality.
The book tares you appart because like the heroes you don't know what is the right path. In my opinion everyone was right and wrong at the same time which again feels very much real.
Darrow is more than ever my favorite : we see the man and his flaws. He is trying to do his best, I don't fully agree with the people calling him a warmonger, but he is lost. After 10 years of war, following 6 years of rebellion for him, he's exhausted. I love his arc, it makes perfect sense in continuation with the trilogy for me. As I said I love the series opener "I would have lived in peace. But my ennemies brought me war." it tells us since the begining where his stories go : he might not be a warmonger but he is a man of war, the "god of war" they created, and after all this time it makes perfect sense and he doesn't know how to even appreciate the little moments of peace he has, his family. I loved the call back to that first sentence : "She would have lived in peace Darrow, but you have brought her nothing but war." I won't tell you who said that and about who as to not spoil you but he doesn't matter anyway because at the end of the day Darrow has become that person, the Villain, to a lot of people and we got to explore that too. I don't think he made worse decisions than he did before, he had his back against the all and with the information he had his decision made some sense, especially because I don't think the alternatives were better, everyone is the book makes mistakes at some point and those mistakes block the others actions causing even more chaos. Darrow has made stupid choices before but most of the times through some cheer luck, it ended up ok, but now he pays the bill, he faces the consequences of every bad decision and, again : I loved it ! We also get new villains and the interactions between those and Darrow are still as good as in the first trilogy ! They respect him and understand him more than his people which reminded me of what the Jackal said in MS about himself.
"War eats the victors last."
The other POVs allowed us to see that too : we had another perspective on our heroes and we could see their failures. It showed that building a world after a rebellion is the hardest part, even more so when the war continues, and at the end of the day people keep suffering. I went on quite a journey with Lyria and Ephraim. I loved Lyria in the begining, then I found her annoying and by the end I liked her again because she finally had a bit more agency. For Ephraim : it took some time to get into is POV, then I began to like him but immediately after I hated him but by the end he had some great scenes, especially some interactions with two other characters (can't tell you who) that I loved, it was hilarious and the book doesn't have a lot funny moments so I couldn't help but to love Ephraim again for that.
The Lysander POV was so good ! I didn't connect with Lysander, he thinks a bit to highly of himself, but I loved what his POV brought ! We got to see more of Cassius, who is becoming one of my favorite characters !, and I loved the complexity of their relationship ! It was through that relationship that I could connect a bit with Lysander. And his POV allowed us to see the Rim which I wanted to explore since it was introduce to us in MS and it didn't disapoint ! Their culture is so interesting, I loved the characters too and the dynamic of it all !
There were a lot new secondary characters introduced that were great with great interactions with the main ones. This book takes the time to develop the characters which was another big plus for me.
Finally but not least ; the writing ! There's a big improvement in the writing ! It was great, I was hooked since the very first pages nad it stayed consistent.
I LOVED this book, and totally recommend it if you're interested in the "what happens after the rebellion", if you want reality and turmoil, go ! But, if you want to stay in the happy ending of MS maybe wait for the saga to conclude to know if it has an happy ending here too because right now I'm not sure !...more
I stand with my first read thoughts : it's at best a 4 stars, if not even less on re-read if I'm honest. The thing is : thisRe-read review (12/2023):
I stand with my first read thoughts : it's at best a 4 stars, if not even less on re-read if I'm honest. The thing is : this book still has me really conflicted.... There are some parts I LOVE (one thing I didn't stress enough on my first read is all the conversations between Darrow and his ennemies or friennemies, they were my favorite part on re-read) but there are also parts I hate : the way the "twist" at the end was handled was my main complaint but it's not the only part that didn't work for me. On this re-read I also found that the writing didn't always work for me, it's really inconsistant in my opinion, but that's true for the all trilogy not just MS.
The more I think about it, the more I feel like unlike most people MS is my least favorite of the first trilogy actually ... Golden Son is by far my number one, no doubt about that !, but then I might actually put Red Rising in second and Morning star at the third place... Again, it's hard to say because MS is just very inconsistant but right now I feel like overall I enjoyed RR more so yeah :
1. Golden Son 2. Red Rising 3. Morning Star
I'm really excited for the rest of the series, I find the "what do we do after a rebellion" theme soooo interesting now, especially after reading and falling in love with The Aurelian Cycle series. I'm a bit scared too because of what I've heard but we'll see ! _____________________________________________________________First read review (11/2021) :
It was more a 4.5 stars than a 5 really : I don't know if it's not even a 4 stars, I might change my rating later. Somethings were amiss for me, I struggled through some parts of it and I was not a big fan of some elements in the end. But, I highlighted so much quotes, I had a lot of cheer up (Darrow does know how to make a good speech, the battles are epic and Sevro and Victra are really dramatic x) ) and emotional moments which elevates the all for me so I'm conflicted.
Anyway, rather it's a 4 or 5 stars book, it's still a really great book that I recommend !...more
I couldn't wait to re-read that one ! It's my favorite of the trilogy and it's still holds its five stars ! HereThis is a spoiler free re-read review.
I couldn't wait to re-read that one ! It's my favorite of the trilogy and it's still holds its five stars ! Here are some of my thoughts :
-It starts and ends with a bang ! (and there's bangs in between too don't worry !)
-The plot expands, everything expands, and it's AWESOME ! Plus there are turns and twists that will keep you up and make your heart pound ... (even on re-read, it was almost worse ! my poor little heart !)
- It gives way to some amazing action, EPIIIIC scenes !! I said the action was good in book 1 ? Well it's NOTHING compared to the action here !
-There's also always more drama, with stories of old family feud and revenge that I eat up ! Plus... Darrow wins the crown in this one in terms of dramatic flair : I LOVE HIM !
-The characters continue to be devellopped. We explore Darrow's identity : is he a Red, is he a Gold, is he not both and neither ? Is he going to continue to fight for other's dream or begin to fight for his own ideas ? Will/can he ever know peace ? All interesting themes in my opinion !
-We also get introduced to some of my favorite side characters : Ragnar and Victra and continue to learn more about others, they're all awesome. I think Brown does a much better job with it than he did in the first book although the Howler's problem remained : they still lack individuality.
-The Villains are still great : I'm spoiled really because my 2 favorite types of villains are the genius sociopaths and the cold "the end justify the means, I'm doing this for the greater good" kind of villains and here we have both with Nero and the Jackal sooo... what could I ask more ? Oh I know : for them to have an interesting relationship with our hero ? Well bing bing bing we have it too !! PERFECTION ! My only complaint would be that I wanted even more of Nero but hey that's just me being greedy...
- Okay now I do have to let something out though because I've seen some people continue to say they love him after this book and the third, so here it is : ROQUE IS THE WORST !!! I HAAAATE him, he's such an hypocrite and that's the thing I can't stand in people. He's a cry baby piece of shit, whose only redeemable quality is that he has greaaat quotes, but other than that : burn in hell !! Like I see where Cassius comes from at this point so I don't hate him at all, but Roque ??? No fuck that guy ! I won't dive into it because it's spoiler free but basically as I said the root of my hatred is his hypocrisy... That being said with this re-read I could really appreciate how well Brown did plant his characters from the begining : the first scene we have between Roque and Darrow after the Passage you can actually see Roque's true face but he says what Darrow needs in this moment and then like Darrow you're biased because of their friendship and you forget. Like in real life we're blinded and we idealize those we love. That happens with several Gold characters (Cassius too for instance) and in this aspect I think Brown used the first person narration masterfully !
Go read this book !!! If you weren't convinced by Red Rising, this is so different in so many ways, give it a chance you won't regret it !!...more
I've read the first three books of this series 2 years ago and LOVED it ! I was waiting for more books to come out before reading the "second part" ofI've read the first three books of this series 2 years ago and LOVED it ! I was waiting for more books to come out before reading the "second part" of this series (I was also a bit intimidated by the change I confess, I did read the very begining of Iron Gold) but after the hype that Lightbringer got I cannot wait any longer even if the last book isn't out yet. So I'm re-reading the first three books before jumping into the ones I haven't read yet and I'm glad I did because there are somethings I forgot, somethings I remembered wrong : but most of all it's a great series to re-read because of all the foreshadowing and how well Pierce introduces his characters and plants the seeds of their arcs from the begining.
"I would have lived in peace. But my ennemies brought me war."
I've said it and I'll say it again : this is a GREAT opening in itself but also perfect for this series.
I'm going to keep this review spoiler free as usual. But boy this one is not going to be an easy re-read review ! Because when you've read the series your feelings towards certain moments and characters completely changes ! Which is actually great because it gives you a really different experience on re-read but it makes this review challenging ! So I'm going to use the bullet points tactic I used on my re-read reviews of Kate Daniels. Here's what I love about this book :
- First and foremost : the dramaaaa ! I remembered vividly how dramatic these characters were and I was glad to jump back into it !
“This is a blood feud,[...] If ever again we meet, you are mine or I am yours. If ever again we draw breath in the same room, one breath shall cease. Hear me now, you wretched worm. We are devils to one another till one rots in hell.”
-I always LOVE a revenge plot !
-The main characters and their relationship : they are epic and some of the relationships are so complex, real and interesting (even more when you know how it goes from there but I'll not say more). Darrow is one of my favorite main character.
“I am the Reaper and death is my shadow.”
“Personally, I do not want to make you a man. Men are so very frail. Men break. Men die. No, I’ve always wished to make a god.”
-The Villains : if you know me you know Villains are as important to me as heroes and this series has GREAT Villains -The world, the Roman/Greek influence
"On Mars there is not much gravity. So you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it."
-The action
-Very memorable quotes
“We come as princes and this school is supposed to teach us to become beasts. But you came a beast.”
What I didn't like : -Some of the side characters weren't used well, some were really interchangeable -There's some plot facilities that really bothered me on this re-read
I totally recommend this series : if you love epic dramatic stories with complex characters go for it !!...more
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