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A review by yevolem
Morning Star by Pierce Brown
3.0
This wasn't as enjoyable as the second, but I liked it more than the first. Darrow was relatively better this time, though that was mostly through the lessening of everyone else. The highlights for me were the space battle for being fun and neat, and the ending, which was absurd and ridiculous. The ending makes it clear that you can stop reading here as it provides suitable resolution. I understand why many would think this concludes everything that needs to have been written.
After I read this book I read two interviews, one that came out the month before the second book was released and another around a year later. I found them to be very revealing of Brown's thoughts on the series. He talks about his inspirations, one of which was The Count of Monte Cristo, and that's quite evident for this book. Once again what happens through the story has changed a lot and I liked it less if only for that. There's a heist, some special operations, and a space battle. Mostly though it's going from place to place recruiting allies to their cause. That's an odd choice of narrative pace to me for what was originally intended to only be three books.
As Brown says in the acknowledgements of this book, this one was far harder than the previous two to write. Considering that he says in the interview that he wrote Red Rising in less than two months without any outlines or structure, that's entirely understandable. It shows his growth as a writer and how he's transitioning styles, as discussed in the latter interview. A few years and a few books can really make a difference. The unfortunate truth though is changing as an author may make the author less popular even if they've become more proficient, or perhaps because they have. It may just be aging as well.
When Brown talks about greek plays, Plato, Dune, Book of the New Sun, and literary classics as what he sees as comparisons rather than YA, I have to wonder what he thinks he's writing. It's also telling when he says "Young Adult is simply a book that is interesting in every chapter." In the latter interview Brown pushes back even more on the YA label. When he said that Darrow is an unreliable narrator like Severian I was baffled. It showed that he had quite the different perspective on Darrow. He also emphasizes plot over everything else because as he says he's not trying to write a literary novel.
It makes me wonder what his current thoughts are, but that'll have to wait until I read more into the series, which probably won't be until considerably later in the year. Overall this trilogy can be a worthwhile read if you don't mind that it's all about entertainment and little else. If this is where it had ended I wouldn't believe it to be a notable series aside from its popularity.
Rating: 3.5/5
After I read this book I read two interviews, one that came out the month before the second book was released and another around a year later. I found them to be very revealing of Brown's thoughts on the series. He talks about his inspirations, one of which was The Count of Monte Cristo, and that's quite evident for this book. Once again what happens through the story has changed a lot and I liked it less if only for that. There's a heist, some special operations, and a space battle. Mostly though it's going from place to place recruiting allies to their cause. That's an odd choice of narrative pace to me for what was originally intended to only be three books.
As Brown says in the acknowledgements of this book, this one was far harder than the previous two to write. Considering that he says in the interview that he wrote Red Rising in less than two months without any outlines or structure, that's entirely understandable. It shows his growth as a writer and how he's transitioning styles, as discussed in the latter interview. A few years and a few books can really make a difference. The unfortunate truth though is changing as an author may make the author less popular even if they've become more proficient, or perhaps because they have. It may just be aging as well.
When Brown talks about greek plays, Plato, Dune, Book of the New Sun, and literary classics as what he sees as comparisons rather than YA, I have to wonder what he thinks he's writing. It's also telling when he says "Young Adult is simply a book that is interesting in every chapter." In the latter interview Brown pushes back even more on the YA label. When he said that Darrow is an unreliable narrator like Severian I was baffled. It showed that he had quite the different perspective on Darrow. He also emphasizes plot over everything else because as he says he's not trying to write a literary novel.
It makes me wonder what his current thoughts are, but that'll have to wait until I read more into the series, which probably won't be until considerably later in the year. Overall this trilogy can be a worthwhile read if you don't mind that it's all about entertainment and little else. If this is where it had ended I wouldn't believe it to be a notable series aside from its popularity.
Rating: 3.5/5