It doesn't get much better than this!

This series broke my heart a million times. It made me forget what I was doing and tune out the world. It made me hold my breath and laugh out loud. This is some seriously good writing. I'm normally not a Sci Fi girl but I'm so glad I tried this out. The world is expertly crafted and I fell in love with the characters. I feel like they are my friends and I'm sad that it's over.

I highly recommend this to anyone who loves an excellent story with believable characters who are flawed and imperfect but make you love them, forgive them, cheer for them and cry for them.

Tim Gerard Reynolds is also one of my favorite readers (why I got this book in the first place actually, along with a good review from someone I follow) and he did an amazing job, as always.

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58 people found this helpful

SciFi bread and circuses

Split the atom's heart, and lo!
Within it thou wilt find a sun.
-Persian Mystic Poem

Not great, but good enough. Finished the series. It was popcorn with butter. And, sometimes, what you want is popcorn with butter. This isn't Isaac Asimov or Philip K Dick. Pierce Brown isn't aiming for great SciFi lit. He's aiming for movie rights, readers, and finds an unplowed row between Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, Divergent, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones. It is a steroid Space Opera with the subtlety of a freight train filled with frat boys.

I think the strength of Brown is his characters and his occasionally artful phrase. His weaknesses is he sometimes runs into SciFi cliche, his plots are fairly predictable, and the whole set-up is far too clean. It was written to be a large-budget movie more than a novel. It was written to sell, too option, and yes read, but not to feed or inspire.

When I remember they are written more for my teenage kids, I am more forgiving. Not everyone can write with the messy heart of Philip K Dick or the control of Dan Simmons. Brown can write about death and suffering and still make it feel warm and sunny. His prose lacks the gravitas to REALLY pull off suffering. When Brown writes about death, it feels like a teenager writing about sex or a white man writing about racism. I know I'm probably taking this review and the whole series way more serious than I need too. I don't think it breaks any new ground. I don't think the stakes are huge. It is entertainment for the masses. It is SciFi bread and circuses, and I guess that is fine for a couple days. Watching gladiators battle in space is always good for a bit of blood and even made me forget Trump for a couple minutes every day. And that IS a good thing.

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38 people found this helpful

Gory damn magnificent!

Morning Star, Pierce Brown's thrilling conclusion to the Red Rising trilogy more than lives up to expectations based on the the first two volumes. What begins from the low point with Darrow's capture at the end of volume 2, proceeds through a series of two steps forward and one step back as Darrow must constantly second guess both his friends and enemies while he continues to excel at doing the unexpected. The core of the resolution of the multiple eight balls Darrow finds himself behind is to methodically pick apart the societal hold by exploiting the weaknesses and animosities among the outer worlds, Mars (meaning the jackal) and the core. Rather than a systematic, well executed take-down, the denouement morphs into one potential catastrophe after another until even in the face of eventual victory Brown still manages to surprise with left field turn of events.

The sci-fi elements are muted with no new elements relative to earlier installments and stay well in the background as a supporting role. Beyond the thriller aspects of the storytelling, Brown explores relationships along with differing attitudes and beliefs that drive the main characters around Darrow. Each supporting character, Mustang, Cassius, Sevro, Victra, Roque, Quicksilver, etc. have different, but equally valid perspectives on their drives and ambitions. The intimacy of their various interactions is poignant and moving and is a compelling component of the appeal of the tale. At the same time, Darrow is continually making tough, less than ideal choices that completely satisfy few and leave many worse off than before. In this way, the tale is closer to "real life" than expected, especially in utilizing the "fog of war". Finally, while Darrow succeeds in achieving his overarching goal, Brown leaves the reluctant revolutionist with the unenviable task of remolding society while bracketed by potential enemies and the disillusioned,leaving plenty of fodder for future installments. One glaring omission was the noticeable absence of Harmony.

The narration is simply outstanding with sheer mastery of the range of voices of both genders. Tone, pace, and mood are expertly handled to render a nonstop can't put down attraction that dovetails nicely with the author's "seat of the pants" writing pace.

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36 people found this helpful

The narration and content = outstanding

If I would have known how great a series I was about to get into, I would have waited for a weekend where I was not so busy. I blew through these books in 4 days. The feeling of satisfaction I had after reading the last page was sublime. Anyone who has a great imagination pick this book up.

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32 people found this helpful

Inside an insecure hero's head

The first 2 books were very good, that made Morning Star a sore disappointment. The story is no longer appealing to a mature audience, as if takes a sharp turn to YA at its worst. The story starts in the crazed head of the main protagonist being tortured and in delirium, and it seems like it never gets out of it!
You have to bear listening to the constant mood swings and insecurities twirling in his head. This moment's cunningly clever hero, is just an adolescent boy 20 seconds later. Also, there are constant reflections about the past events and characters long gone and forgotten "after academy".
The performance is good but slow, I had to speed Audible's speed to 1.25x to avoid the boring storyline.

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29 people found this helpful

A trilogy that ends on a high note

I usually have 2 audiobooks going at once since I listen to one book while commuting and another while running. For the most part, the two books stay in their assigned places but occasionally one of the two books will grab my attention and cause me to listen to it continuously across both activities. Morning Star was such a book.

As this series has gone on I have found myself more and more invested in it. Red Rising was good but I felt that it contained a few standard YA tropes that forced me to keep my distance. Golden Son was better but as the middle story of the trilogy it was a bridge that went nowhere ending with a cliffhanger. That left Morning Star with a built in obligation to build upon the unfinished foundation laid before it and it does not fail to deliver. For me it was the best book of the series.

Darrow's exploits in this one contain highs and lows alike and he finds that he must make a final determination of the trustworthiness of almost every person in his life. From the dead who helped shape him to the living who still try to manipulate him, Darrow melds all of their influences together with his own opinions to finally become himself. He no longer fights for Eo's vision or Ares' cause but rather for his own reasons. He has all sigils removed from his hands and transforms himself into a simple human that is neither red nor gold. He has no color at all and represents the future that he desires to create for all of humanity.

Pierce Brown takes you a non-stop wild adventure ride in this one and he keeps you guessing. Sometimes you are in on the plans, and sometimes you are not, but you never lose interest in the outcome. The events build to a final showdown with the Sovereign and every character is eventually forced to pick a side to stand on. Loyalties are up in the air until the very end but this one is no cliffhanger.

Tim Gerard Reynolds is brilliant once again and without a doubt enhances the written word with his narration. Is this book perfect? No it isn't but I am not going to dwell on any negatives as they are easy to overlook. It grabbed my attention from the start and didn't let go until it was over which makes this the best book of the series.

Break the chains!

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24 people found this helpful

I wanted to love it....but

I really wanted to like this series...... but oh my I just wanted to slap them, so predictable , lower class people find hero, he rises in the ranks to become top Hero, he makes friends, lose his friends, always has a positive attitude always thinks the best of everyone gets stabbed in the back over and over and over again all three books same situation , he gets one step forward and he get knocked back two steps , it was everything I could do to get through book 3 .

I do believe the narration was one of the best I've heard lately but the story I can only give two stars, just wasn't my cup of tea .

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22 people found this helpful

Nobody left to root for

I loved the first book. I liked the second book. Will not finish the third book. I’m done at the end of chapter 57. Brown’s propensity to kill off main characters bothered me but I kept slogging through. Not anymore. Reality in this world is too depressing to want to escape to this one where every once of compassion and friendship is met with a knife in the back. When you kill off all the lovable sidekicks you destroy the story. On a positive note, Tim Gerard Reynolds is great as usual and the reason I stumbled upon this series.

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20 people found this helpful

Very poor story but a great narrator.

The quality of the trilogy goes steadily down from the first book to this one. I am a huge fan of fantasy and scifi and I am usually a forgiving audience, but here the book feel off my hands in the last 10 chapters. The author seems to repeat multiple times completely artificial crises in the flow of the story. I felt multiple times that the mental process was "I feel the tension is going down and I don't know what to do next, let create a crisis out of the blue and kill one of the main characters, maybe it will mask the weakness in the script". These artificial twists kept kicking me out of the story and wiping out the suspension of disbelief, until I stopped listening 7 chapters from the end.
The narrator on the other hand is really good, he was just not able to salvage the disastrous flaws in the stories.

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20 people found this helpful

A series of idiotic decisions.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I think the author just ran out of ideas at the end. I wanted to like this book. But when the protagonist keeps falling into the same idiotic traps making the same wrong decisions with SOMETIMES THE SAME F******** people.

Which character – as performed by Tim Gerard Reynolds – was your favorite?

the narrator was flawless!

What character would you cut from Morning Star?

All the stupid decisions. Make bad hard to overcome circumstances. And make it hard to overcome. Not seemingly hard to overcome situations that are somehow easily done. Then a huge debacle of juvenile decisions

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19 people found this helpful