Morning Star

The Conservative Mask Slipped

This book broke me.

I adored Red Rising, looking past the sexism, homophobia, and downplay of the seriousness of sexual assault and torture. This love continued through Golden Son, which continued with alarm bells starting to ring, but the quality of writing and my emotional hook to the characters pulled me through.

I made the mistake of believing there might actually be something to this series and the message the author was trying to get across, but the mask slipped badly here. The sexism and homophobia continued throughout this series, hitting new highs with a confrontation that vaguely implied that noone is out as Queer in the Society without any kind of thought or discussion, the reversal of nostalgia show more into misogynistic denigration of Eo, and the 'pro-life' discussion of her pregnancy. Revealing a founding member of the Sons of Aeries as an 'ethical' capitalist who soliloquies about how capitalism is the only way for innovation and exploration, without any questioning or exploration is disgusting, false, and propaganda.

I long had concerns about the 'great man' approach of Darrow and authoritarian organisation of the resistance, but him as figurehead and those with the knowledge and skills to lead in the consuming war was one thing, but the utter callousness with which abhorrent decisions are made that effect hundreds of millions of innocent people and the 'acceptable' civilian casualties that are given no emotional weight in a series that has stood out because of the strength of inner conflict and emotion, especially when juxtaposed with the reverence with which a fascist former friend is lovingly laid to rest made me sick.

This book left me uncontrollably sobbing, but not for the right reasons. I cried because a series I had become so invested in and an author I thought I could have at least a little trust in their political message truly showed centre right, liberal conservative hand, disregard for human life, and a seeming lack of understanding of their own characters and their motivations. People and characters can do awful things, but when shown to have emotional intelligence and capability to wrestle with difficult emotions and situations, but when they don't seem to care and the author clearly doesn't care enough to discuss them, that's vile. There's also a difference between being unable to feel and discuss, and just not including it.

I tried to come back and push through that last quarter, but funeral for a fascist and not a thought for those left in bondage and needlessly murdered in what was never addressed to be a monumental atrocity of a war crime left me in tears of rage again.

I had no expectations of this series actually aligning with my anarchist communist leanings, but I didn't expect this to be the literature equivalent of 'soft boys' using progressive language to manipulate and abuse, but honestly that's what this is.

I'm beyond disappointed. show less

I have never felt this way before about a series… just wow. I literally love everything about this. It genuinely went from calm to insane with some genuinely heartbreaking plottwists. Like literally, parts of this book ripped my heart out. But somehow the ending felt like it was trying to stitch it back together kind of. This was the best ending to a trilogy I have ever read and I don’t think I will be able to forget it anytime soon. Imma read this again whenever I can. Because oh how I wish to give this book 6 stars.

A phenomenal 5 stars. Morningstar was a rollercoaster. More betrayals, more heartbreaking moments, more humor and more action.

The action scenes were out of this world (no pun intended). This is my first space opera and while I was intimidated by it for the longest time, I’m surprised to say it was quite easy to follow. The space battles were incredible. The ingenuity, creativity and ability to paint a clear image of the battle is a true talent. I just kept picture star-trek / Star Wars type ships going head to head. I was in awe the entire time.

There are so many heartbreaking moments throughout this book. Torture, death, hopelessness… but it all has a purpose. I never felt like a scene was dragging or pointless. I truly believe show more that all of these moments fed into each character arc and helped the story progress.

The pacing was *chefs kiss*. I’m a fast- paced girly and I LOVE action which Morningstar (the entire trilogy) has an abundance of.

Is this a love story? No. But I loved that it’s a driving factor throughout the entire series. It all comes back to love and loss of that great love. How it challenges us, haunts us, pushes us to do and be better.

I love Pierce Brown’s humor. The unhinged comments throughout the series were perfectly timed and really helped to lighten the mood. In a story built around devastation and rebellion, the humor really helped cut the tension.

I truly feel this is a series everyone should read and I especially think the graphic audio is a must. The cast, sound effects, music truly elevated the series and made me feel as if I was there throughout it. They did an absolutely fabulous job with the production and I will definitely need to listen again in the future. show less

A phenomenal 5 stars. Morningstar was a rollercoaster. More betrayals, more heartbreaking moments, more humor and more action.

The action scenes were out of this world (no pun intended). This is my first space opera and while I was intimidated by it for the longest time, I’m surprised to say it was quite easy to follow. The space battles were incredible. The ingenuity, creativity and ability to paint a clear image of the battle is a true talent. I just kept picture star-trek / Star Wars type ships going head to head. I was in awe the entire time.

There are so many heartbreaking moments throughout this book. Torture, death, hopelessness… but it all has a purpose. I never felt like a scene was dragging or pointless. I truly believe show more that all of these moments fed into each character arc and helped the story progress.

The pacing was *chefs kiss*. I’m a fast- paced girly and I LOVE action which Morningstar (the entire trilogy) has an abundance of.

Is this a love story? No. But I loved that it’s a driving factor throughout the entire series. It all comes back to love and loss of that great love. How it challenges us, haunts us, pushes us to do and be better.

I love Pierce Brown’s humor. The unhinged comments throughout the series were perfectly timed and really helped to lighten the mood. In a story built around devastation and rebellion, the humor really helped cut the tension.

I truly feel this is a series everyone should read and I especially think the graphic audio is a must. The cast, sound effects, music truly elevated the series and made me feel as if I was there throughout it. They did an absolutely fabulous job with the production and I will definitely need to listen again in the future. show less

*4.25 stars*

Morning Star is technically an end to an arc in the Red Rising series. It ends with a semi happy ending (besides the deaths that occur in the book and in previous books). So, if I wanted to enjoy a happy ending, I could stop here, but I love these characters. So, I'll put myself through more pain by reading the rest of the series.

So far out of all the books in the series, this one was my second favorite. I felt like the first part of the book was to slow. It took me until almost 50% in to really be invested. Once the battle started, I was captivated. As usual, Pierce writes in plot twists that I didn't see coming. This book also made me cry a lot more than the last two did. The death of Ragnar was the saddest part. I like show more how Pierce is slowly taking the focus off of solely Darrow. I believe the next books in the series actually have other POVs besides Darrow.

Another thing I didn't like in this book was all of the descriptions. I feel like there were too many, and some times it felt like it was skimming through faster whenever he started describing certain things.

My favorite parts were the continued growth of the characters and their relationships. I love Mustang and Darrow together, and I love Sevro and Victra together. I'm also so happy that Mustang named her and Darrow's son after Pax. show less

Read from February 25 to March 01, 2016

Pierce Brown! How did you trick me into reading a space opera?! This series starts out as a readalike for The Hunger Games/Ender's Game/Lord of the Flies with the whole Institute battle stuff, but after that...BAM! Space battles. Iron rain. Spaceships. The man takes these super complex battles and the society's complicated caste system and makes it so darn interesting. Plus he writes characters with depth and flaws and emotions and it's just great.

I don't want to give anything away about this last story, but there are twists and turns the entire time. A bloodydamn good series.

So, now that I've just finished reading this great novel, I've lined up a whole bunch of spoilers for you. Are you ready?

Just kidding.

This is easily one of the most satisfying pure SF space-opera-ish revolutionary high-tech adventures I've ever read. I've mentioned before that I love the pacing, the story is strong as hell, and the characters are all pretty much awesome.

Well this time, I can also say that any of my previous concerns about the culture, such as the Reds and how they actually fit into the revolution or the question about why they'd have to keep mining if there's so many robots around to do the work for them, are both answered almost as if the author had taken me aside and given me exactly what I had asked for. (So show more obviously I'm tickled pink.)

I only had one tiny quibble that showed up at the very end that kinda pissed me off, but every single thing else about this novel was delightful fun, full of exciting action, perfect character development, and a shameless pandering to my deep-down desire to have things work out wonderfully. What more could I ask for? The story was excellent and believable, from making me love those damn siblings at the open, through making me freak out about Mustang, making me cry for the bromance with Sevro, all the way to the moment when the Kwisatz Haderach walked into the throne room... oh... wait... wrong book. :)

This book was simply so much unabashed fun, full of clever, full of excellent storytelling, full of life and love and strive, strive, strive. I can't imagine there being a better capstone to this trilogy. It fully succeeds with everything we were promised at book one, and that's impressive mainly because we were promised a damn lot.

*giddy dance*

I am a FAN. :) :)

This is what good SF is!

That is, if you're looking for the pure revolutionary high-tech splendor, of course. :)
Woot!

So all you other authors... Why don't we have more of this stuff? Eh? I want more wonder and less dystopia, please. I think it's time for the wheel to turn. :) show less