Morning Star / Pierce Brown / 518 pgs.

The Red Rising trilogy ends with a huge bang. Darrow must complete what he set out to do seven years before, to "Break the Chains" of oppression that his people have lived under for seven hundred years. However, some of his friends have become his enemies while some of his enemies have become his friends. While he wages war against the Golds, a question remains, what will become of the worlds he conquers and can he lead the rebuilding after the ashes have settled?

Of the three books, Morning Star definitely my least favorite. That said, the whole trilogy was so unique that it deserves to be given as many stars as I can possibly deign to give it. What makes Morning Star difficult is that it gets a bit boring in the middle. Not from a lack of action. Far from it! But, honestly, from TOO MUCH action. I got bored from all of the fights, all of the razors and slingBlades and Olympic Knights and blood. So much bleeding! It really started to bore me and that was kind of scary when you think about it.

The heart of the series is the camaraderie between Darrow and his true friends like Sevro, Mustang, Ragnar, Victra, et cetera. When the Mr. Brown remembers that, the book is good. When it got far more gory than was necessary, it faltered. Pierce Brown did continue to do a bang up job with the dialogue, especially my favorite, Sevro. He's the master of getting different voices down and it's a shame that I've yet to get to listen to any of the audio book versions. I'll have to rectify it once I can stomach the brutality again.