Morning Star (Red Rising Series)
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating next chapter in the Red Rising Saga: Morning Star.
ITW THRILLER AWARD FINALIST • “[Brown’s] achievement is in creating an uncomfortably familiar world of flaw, fear, and promise.”—Entertainment Weekly
Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.
Finally, the time has come.
But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.
Praise for Morning Star
“There is no one writing today who does shameless, Michael Bay–style action set pieces the way Brown does. The battle scenes are kinetic, bloody, breathless, crazy. Everything is on fire all the time.”—NPR
“Morning Star is this trilogy’s Return of the Jedi. . . . The impactful battles that make up most of Morning Star are damn near operatic. . . . It absolutely satisfies.”—Tordotcom
“Excellent . . . Brown’s vivid, first-person prose puts the reader right at the forefront of impassioned speeches, broken families, and engaging battle scenes . . . as this interstellar civil war comes to a most satisfying conclusion.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A page-turning epic filled with twists and turns . . . The conclusion to Brown’s saga is simply stellar.”—Booklist (starred review)
Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga:
RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER
ITW THRILLER AWARD FINALIST • “[Brown’s] achievement is in creating an uncomfortably familiar world of flaw, fear, and promise.”—Entertainment Weekly
Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.
Finally, the time has come.
But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.
Praise for Morning Star
“There is no one writing today who does shameless, Michael Bay–style action set pieces the way Brown does. The battle scenes are kinetic, bloody, breathless, crazy. Everything is on fire all the time.”—NPR
“Morning Star is this trilogy’s Return of the Jedi. . . . The impactful battles that make up most of Morning Star are damn near operatic. . . . It absolutely satisfies.”—Tordotcom
“Excellent . . . Brown’s vivid, first-person prose puts the reader right at the forefront of impassioned speeches, broken families, and engaging battle scenes . . . as this interstellar civil war comes to a most satisfying conclusion.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A page-turning epic filled with twists and turns . . . The conclusion to Brown’s saga is simply stellar.”—Booklist (starred review)
Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga:
RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Morning Star is another excellent episode in Darrow's journey that raises the stakes while grounding the story in the characters we've come to love (and occasionally curse).
One of the strongest aspects of this book is the sheer amount of growth the characters undergo. Darrow, Sevro, Mustang, and even those on the fringes- everyone evolves in natural and hard-earned ways.
Then there are the plot twists. Brutal, shocking, and perfectly timed. They're not just there for shock value but also feel integral to the narrative, pushing the characters into new and unexpected territory.
It's rare to finish a book of this scale and feel that the conclusion was thrilling and deliberate, rather than rushed or patched together. It's not neat in the sense of being clean, but it's complete.
I'm glad I took the ride, and although I want to pause the series here, maybe I'll consider reading the rest of the books in this series at another time.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
bloodydamn. morning star broke me and rebuilt me like five different times. i don’t even know how to function after this. pierce brown went crazy with this one. ripping hearts out, serving betrayal, dropping speeches that made me weep, and then throwing hands emotionally. this was a finale that delivered everything and left nothing behind.
darrow is a legend. a weapon. a wreck. watching him rise, fall, and rise again felt like being dragged through war right alongside him. the love, the guilt, the weight of leadership and every moment with him was so heavy and so human. his pain felt real. his hope felt earned. i would march behind him blindfolded.
the plot was chaos and pacing was ruthless. the betrayals cut deep and the reunions fully had me in tears. every relationship meant something, every loss hurt, and the hope that somehow still clung to the edges of all that darkness was gut-wrenching in the best way. i finished this book and just sat there, completely wrecked.
and now… i’m starting the second saga. emotionally unstable, but ready to suffer all over again. let’s go howlers!
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