Scan barcode
A review by pagesplotsandpints
Light Bringer by Pierce Brown
4.0
Read Completed 7/28/23 | 4 - 4.25 stars
Spoilers for previous books in this review. Any major spoilers for LIGHT BRINGER will be in a spoiler tag. Please be mindful of minor conversation points about plot, character appearances, and more.
After being wholly obsessed with this series in general and the journey I had with DARK AGE, not to mention not having many 5 star books anymore, LIGHT BRINGER had big shoes to fill. I might have hyped it up a little more in my head than I should have, but I don't regret a minute of the 30 hours I listened to on audio.
LIGHT BRINGER didn't quite hit for me like DARK AGE did. It felt more like a bridge from DARK AGE to the finale of the series, which I guess it was since the first era in the series ended in three books while this era got extended to four. I felt like it suffered a little bit in terms of pacing and plot and while I loved being on this journey again, spending more time with these characters, I didn't think it was as smooth as previous books.
My first thoughts was that it suffered a bit from the lack of other character POVs. I sorely missed Ephraim's voice and even other characters like Virginia and Lyria were barely in LIGHT BRINGER. Virginia was barely a part of it at all and that was disappointing. I didn't even like Lyria's voice much but I found myself missing her side of the story as well. She did end up getting more POV time later on, but I wanted so much more, making things come together from different sides. I feel like part of her time in DARK AGE was wasted having immediately nullified some things that happened to her there.
The majority of this book is Darrow and Lysander, and that means it's basically all war, all the time. While that's pretty much the whole series and I don't think a lot of people will be surprised or disappointed, I very much missed some of the bromance, comic relief, and even balance of personalities. Darrow and Lysander were actually very like-minded in this book, just on opposite sides. Especially with Tim Gerard Reynolds, who I love, doing all of the voices for this book and NOT including different narrators like we got in IRON GOLD and DARK AGE, they really sort of blended together in terms of voicing style, intensity, and general perspective on everything.
I actually had kind of a hard time with Lysander's POV. He was a little all over the place for a while, with so many new people, new plans hatching... I didn't do a reread before this book though I have already read IRON GOLD three times and DARK AGE twice, and I had a little bit of a time remembering who everyone was and more importantly, what their motives were. I think things started clicking a bit more towards the second half, and Pierce Brown really put a nail in the coffin in the end to show you Lysander's character and what he wants from this long war.
I also feel like Darrow actually grew a lot in this book. I didn't feel that way in the beginning, but especially in the last 50% - 75% of the book, he starts to really balance his personal relationships with his importance as a leader of this rebellion. We got a bit more friendship, some introspection, and some darn good Darrow speeches.
While I enjoyed this book from start to finish, I just missed the balance of so many of the characters that we grew to love in the first two books. Some barely had any presence, some weren't brought on screen, and some died in previous books. I really missed characters who brought levity, characters who challenged Darrow, characters who still had some innocence... Mustang, Vitra, Pax, Kavax, Volga, Alexandar, Rhona, Ephraim. Even characters who were antagonists who ended up blending into the background for other baddies to show up. We got more people involved here in more important ways, which I liked, but I also missed the relationships that we built in DARK AGE. We got so invested in these other characters that I wanted to keep spending time with them, or introduce another similar person in their place.
I actually would have loved one more POV in this book. Not having Ephraim's anymore, there was room for one more. Virginia wasn't able to contribute much in this book, and I wanted more from Lyria, but another POV could have been great to break up the Lysander/Darrow tension. I thought Lyria could have gone off and done more things on her end before uniting with Darrow & Co and maybe another female POV somehow... I'm assuming we'll get Virginia back in the game in RED GOD but I was just missing that pull from the characters to really hook me this time.
The ending was wild and heartbreaking as it always is. I was definitely moved, furious, curious, and of course, left waiting for the next book. I can't wait to see how it all ends.
Spoilers for previous books in this review. Any major spoilers for LIGHT BRINGER will be in a spoiler tag. Please be mindful of minor conversation points about plot, character appearances, and more.
After being wholly obsessed with this series in general and the journey I had with DARK AGE, not to mention not having many 5 star books anymore, LIGHT BRINGER had big shoes to fill. I might have hyped it up a little more in my head than I should have, but I don't regret a minute of the 30 hours I listened to on audio.
LIGHT BRINGER didn't quite hit for me like DARK AGE did. It felt more like a bridge from DARK AGE to the finale of the series, which I guess it was since the first era in the series ended in three books while this era got extended to four. I felt like it suffered a little bit in terms of pacing and plot and while I loved being on this journey again, spending more time with these characters, I didn't think it was as smooth as previous books.
My first thoughts was that it suffered a bit from the lack of other character POVs. I sorely missed Ephraim's voice and even other characters like Virginia and Lyria were barely in LIGHT BRINGER. Virginia was barely a part of it at all and that was disappointing. I didn't even like Lyria's voice much but I found myself missing her side of the story as well. She did end up getting more POV time later on, but I wanted so much more, making things come together from different sides. I feel like part of her time in DARK AGE was wasted having immediately nullified some things that happened to her there.
The majority of this book is Darrow and Lysander, and that means it's basically all war, all the time. While that's pretty much the whole series and I don't think a lot of people will be surprised or disappointed, I very much missed some of the bromance, comic relief, and even balance of personalities. Darrow and Lysander were actually very like-minded in this book, just on opposite sides. Especially with Tim Gerard Reynolds, who I love, doing all of the voices for this book and NOT including different narrators like we got in IRON GOLD and DARK AGE, they really sort of blended together in terms of voicing style, intensity, and general perspective on everything.
I actually had kind of a hard time with Lysander's POV. He was a little all over the place for a while, with so many new people, new plans hatching... I didn't do a reread before this book though I have already read IRON GOLD three times and DARK AGE twice, and I had a little bit of a time remembering who everyone was and more importantly, what their motives were. I think things started clicking a bit more towards the second half, and Pierce Brown really put a nail in the coffin in the end to show you Lysander's character and what he wants from this long war.
I also feel like Darrow actually grew a lot in this book. I didn't feel that way in the beginning, but especially in the last 50% - 75% of the book, he starts to really balance his personal relationships with his importance as a leader of this rebellion. We got a bit more friendship, some introspection, and some darn good Darrow speeches.
While I enjoyed this book from start to finish, I just missed the balance of so many of the characters that we grew to love in the first two books. Some barely had any presence, some weren't brought on screen, and some died in previous books. I really missed characters who brought levity, characters who challenged Darrow, characters who still had some innocence... Mustang, Vitra, Pax, Kavax, Volga, Alexandar, Rhona, Ephraim. Even characters who were antagonists who ended up blending into the background for other baddies to show up. We got more people involved here in more important ways, which I liked, but I also missed the relationships that we built in DARK AGE. We got so invested in these other characters that I wanted to keep spending time with them, or introduce another similar person in their place.
I actually would have loved one more POV in this book. Not having Ephraim's anymore, there was room for one more. Virginia wasn't able to contribute much in this book, and I wanted more from Lyria, but another POV could have been great to break up the Lysander/Darrow tension. I thought Lyria could have gone off and done more things on her end before uniting with Darrow & Co and maybe another female POV somehow... I'm assuming we'll get Virginia back in the game in RED GOD but I was just missing that pull from the characters to really hook me this time.
The ending was wild and heartbreaking as it always is. I was definitely moved, furious, curious, and of course, left waiting for the next book. I can't wait to see how it all ends.