Reviews

This last book solidified the Red Rising series as one of my all time favs. Pierce does it again with a book full of action, twists, turns and truly unpredictable happenings. Every second of this book was fast-paced and gripping - I flew through it.

I only have one gripe actually about this one and it was mainly about one of my favorite characters, Sevro. I think in this book, he was almost a little bit character-murdered in the sense that his dialogue almost became caricature-esque. He was kind of whacky in book 1 and 2 but I think Pierce definitely took it too far in this book so much so that some of his actions/ the things he said weren’t really that believable. Sometimes I found myself rolling my eyes at Sevro.

However, on the flip side, the rest of the development of the characters in this book was absolutely stellar. We got to see and hear from everyone and complex and interesting relationships between characters were explored, justice was served here and there and tragedy struck too. There were call-backs in beautiful ways to the previous two books and moments between characters that were gratifying beyond compare!

Overall, I’d recommend this series to any sci-fi reader and as an aspiring sci-fi writer I can honestly say I’d be proud of work that’s even half as enthralling as this series was!

The one other note I have is that the series kind of continues but the next three books are like a mixture of a continuation and a spin off so not entirely still part of the original three (the way I see it the three could be standalone and you could end here and be happy). I might take a break before I read the rest because I’m really happy with where it’s at but I’ll be back for them for sure!!!!

tmporter's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

rossbm's review against another edition

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2.0

(read as audiobook)
What's it about?
It the conclusion to the Red Rising trilogy.

Spoiler

It start about a year after the end of the second book. Surprise, surprise, Darrow isn't dead. He has in fact been imprisoned and tortured. The book starts with him being freed, joining up with his friends and the Sons of Ares in a full scale resurrection. Darrow pulls some of his old tricks and ends up killing the Imperator and having is GF take the throne. The book ends with a surprise child! The best kind, no need to wait for pregancy, just find out at end that you have a child!

What's did I think?
I'm glad that this is the end of the trilogy. Started getting pretty tired of things. Too maudlin. Darrow weeping over friends lost. But not actually weeping, just narrating his feelings. I want showing, not telling! Really liked first book, second was soso, this one dragged.

Darrow's obsession with his "friends" is kind of callous and toxic. Near beginning of book, he insist on deviating from a mission's objective in order to rescue a friend, causing everything to go haywire and needing a big rescue for what was supposed to be a stealthy affair. As a result, many (hundreds?) of people died, including the brother of new minor character. The fact that Darrow's actions resulted in all these deaths was never acknowledged. Weird.

Prologue to first book was great. Darrow saying that not one of his classmates will survive, because he will take his revenge. And now he keeps on giving these people third and fourth chances? Lame.

chinburgmitch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

petersimpson's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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