And on it goes. The exciting, but unbelievable final battle scene has put an end to the evil empress! However, what does the hero do now that everything has been destroyed? A few pages of winning the girl, but living happily ever after is not to be. I, however, can no longer accompanying him on his journey. I admit, I read these books quickly, but I feel guilty about it. Of course, if you like to binge on the Marvel universe, they might be what you are looking for. I prefer Dune. ( )

This was just very very good, if you're into that kind of thing, which I am. ( )

Okay. Morning Star. Many spoilers here, so don't read this if you haven't read the book/series.

To start, I really enjoyed Golden Son. Red Rising was good, but Golden Son was amazing. Instead of the Hunger-Games-esque fighting with medieval tools mixed with advanced weaponry, it was a space-opera that I was not expecting.

And to have the protagonist lose so badly, on top of that. It was reminiscent of Empire Strikes Back.

So I was expecting, or at least hoping for, great things out of Morning Star. And it delivered, for most of the book. I was bummed when Ragnar died, and actually felt my heart beat quicker when I thought that either Sevro or Darrow would make a mistake that would end up costing them their lives. Roque was dealt with, and Darrow got some closure with Cassius when they watched their Red Rising videos.

But the ending really soured my take on the book. To this point, I don't remember Darrow ever having been an unreliable narrator. He tells the story as he sees it, so admittedly we don't get all of the details about the world-building until he finds them out, i.e., that Mars is truly terraformed and the citizens don't all live underground.

However, he knows the plan to join with Cassius, knows that Cassius will "betray" them, and knows Sevro didn't actually die. So he suddenly becomes an unreliable narrator when he thinks about Sevro's blood dripping on him, or when he regrets giving Orion the command to let the shuttle leave with full clearance.

For a reveal, it worked well. There was the tension of how he would salvage the situation. But once the reveal happened, the whole unreliable narrator bit felt cheap. Had we known the plan along with him, we could have seen it go off the rails when Cassius cuts off Darrow's hand. They could have sprung the trap early to avoid the amputation, but then they wouldn't get near the Sovereign, so it would have added an element of sacrifice that we would see him make.

All in all, I enjoyed the book a great deal, but the ending was such a let down for me that could have been fixed with a few simple tweaks. Also, it was odd how little was spent on Darrow's torture. Torture like that would mess a person up, but Brown didn't spend much time on his recovery or PTSD. I actually preferred it the way Brown wrote it instead of portraying it realistically, because it allowed for a refreshing pace instead of dragging through recovery.

This one started out a bit slow for me - and stayed in that spot somewhere between awesome and get on with it already until the last 50 pages or so. That said - I love the world-building and an incredible depth of character that continues to dive into the minds we love most. There is a lot of violence in this series, but in this installment, we come to understand a little more what all the fighting is for, and what's at stake. I think this is more of a setup for what comes after the original goal of the series is realized... and it feels like that. A little incomplete. Like an ellipses in the overall story.

Read it. And be glad there's more to come. If you needed a pause from all that grimdark, read something cheeky and come back for round four! ( )

Wow, get ready for a rollercoaster ride of emotions, political power plays, and just some awesome surprises.
I know that there are a few more titles (so far) in this series, but this one feels like the end of a trilogy. ( )