Pierce Brown: Dark Age (Review)

Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for his cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating college in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate Campaign.
Now he lives in Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre.

 

He broke the chains. Then he broke the world… .

A decade ago Darrow led a revolution, and laid the foundations for a new world. Now he’s an outlaw.

Cast out of the very Republic he founded, with half his fleet destroyed, he wages a rogue war on Mercury. Outnumbered and outgunned, is he still the hero who broke the chains? Or will he become the very evil he fought to destroy?

In his darkening shadow, a new hero rises.

Lysander au Lune, the displaced heir to the old empire, has returned to bridge the divide between the Golds of the Rim and Core. If united, their combined might may prove fatal to the fledgling Republic.

On Luna, the embattled Sovereign of the Republic, Virginia au Augustus, fights to preserve her precious demokracy and her exiled husband. But one may cost her the other, and her son is not yet returned.

Abducted by enemy agents, Pax au Augustus must trust in a Gray thief, Ephraim, for his salvation.

Far across the void, Lyria, a Red refugee accused of treason, makes a desperate bid for freedom with the help of two unlikely new allies.

Fear dims the hopes of the Rising, and as power is seized, lost, and reclaimed, the worlds spin on and on toward a new Dark Age.

Review

I hate reading Sci-Fi, always have…. yet since book one this series has totally captivated me, it may be set in space, but this is (to quote the author) a tale of Hi-Tech Romans and Space Vikings…. that’s me sold immediately. Its all the passions, intrigue, back stabbing, political maneuvering and bloody violence of the great Empires of earth, thrown into space with the most imaginative weapons, alliances and more, mixed with the age old failings of mankind, a society built on history but always doomed to not learn its lessons.

Each  book in the series has been packed with intrigue and surprises, but they all pale into insignificance to Dark Age, every time you thought you had a handle on what was going to happen, the whole world of possibility and salvation was blown up in your face, no characters is safe, all can die, and most only cling to life due to the imaginative medical advances that are needed in this galactic pit of violence and Machiavellian politics.

So i still hate Sci-Fi, but i utterly love this series and its characters, i’ve lost sleep, i’ve lost patience, i’ve been astounded and amazed. This is a series that i will simply never forget and sits proudly on my shelf of all time greats.

I can give this no higher recommendation than, DO NOT MISS THIS, put down what ever you are reading and pick up book one and enjoy the ride, because its amazing.

(Parm)

Bibliography

Red Rising
0. Sons of Ares (2018) (with Rik Hoskin)
1. Red Rising (2014)
2. Golden Son (2015)
3. Morning Star (2016)
4. Iron Gold (2018)
5. Dark Age (2019)

Pierce Brown: Iron Gold (Review)

 Pierce Brown  

Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for his cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating college in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate Campaign.
Now he lives in Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre.

Buy signed copy (UK)

Iron Gold (2018): Jan 16th 2018
(The first book in the Iron Gold series)

Honor and betrayal fuel a caste-shattering revolution in the action-packed new novel from the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Red Rising Trilogy.

Ten years after the events of Morning Star, Darrow and the Rising are battling the remaining Gold loyalist forces and are closer than ever to abolishing the color-coded caste system of Society for good. But new foes will emerge from the shadows to threaten the imperfect victory Darrow and his friends have earned. Pierce Brown expands the size and scope of his impressive Red Rising universe with new characters, enemies, and conflicts among the stars.

Review

Iron Gold was a much anticipated read, i have been an unashamed advocate for this new series and its excellent predecessor. Pierce Brown has always made life hard for himself, Red Rising was such an extreme and powerful debut that creating a better second book was such a hard ask, yet he smashed it with Golden Son, and once again with Morning Star.

How on earth do you top such a stella series? well apparently you take a leaf right out of the J K Rowling playbook, Harry Potter as a series grew with its audience, it matured, the language grew, the plot became more complex and mature and the subtext became deeper. That’s where Iron Gold takes the story of Darrow, this time with a multi POV expose on what happens when you shatter an empire…. the fall out and the impacts across many walks of life.

Featuring all the surviving key characters from the first series, but 10 years on, 10 years of bloody conflict for the Utopian republic that Darrow dreamed of,  reality is a long way from the hopes and dreams of the young idealist. Has Darrow become all he despised? is the new republic rotten at its core? What machinations abound across the galaxy, There are many golds left alive many grouping around the Ash Lord, can the Golds once more retake power, can the golds within the new empire work with the other colours? and where are the big players, the enemies of Darrow’s past? Golds that powerful may need to run and hide but they are too big to fade from history.

Once again Pierce Brown manages to surpass all my expectations, i thought this would be another all action novel, a full on action packed thrill ride (no bad thing), but whilst there are strong sections of this still and the pace is at times electric, the growth and depth of plot is a huge lift, we see and learn so much more of the empire and its complexity and history. I still hold with my view that i don’t like Sci-Fi, yet this series screams from the gorydamn void to be read, no matter your genre preference.

So Buy the book, Out Jan 16th

(Parm)

Red Rising
1. Red Rising (2012)
2. Golden Son (2015)
3. Morning Star (2016)

Iron Gold
1. Iron Gold (2018)

Pierce Brown: Morning Star (Review)

Pierce Brown 

Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for his cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating college in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate Campaign.
Now he lives in Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre.

https://www.goldsborobooks.com/product/morning-star-red-rising-trilogy-3-the-red-rising-trilogy/

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.

Review

How how how do i like these books? I really do not like SCIFI, for some reason its one of the few genres i struggle to read (love the films, but the books leave me cold). Yet since i first started this series i have been captivated.

Pierce Brown: Red Rising (Review)

was my initial taste of this book, and i left readers of this site in no doubt as to my feeling for this series, a year later after the most teasing PR campaign for some time 

Pierce Brown Golden Son (Review)

followed and as follow up books go, it blew book one away.

Morning star once more takes new leaps, with all the power and pace of Red Rising, and all the depth of Golden Son, it introduces a new depth a darker Darrow and a darker storyline. everything is gritty, edgy and literally a life or death decision. Once again Pierce Brown does a Derren Brown, we spend plenty of time looking at whats in front of us in the book while the misdirect pulls the rug from under the reader and yanks the story into a new direction, a new darkness an new danger, a new death.

MorningStar will be one of my top books for the year without a doubt, as a series its been an impressive and immersive debut series, everbook highly anticipated. And now the man himself drops the teaser “IRON GOLD. Aka. Shit escalates. Howlers, on me.”

Read for yourself about what comes next…(Spoilers)

This series has epic movie franchise written all over it, i honestly don’t see that it will be long before this hits the big screen.

(Parm)

Series

Red Rising
1. Red Rising (2014)
2. Golden Son (2015)
3. Morning Star (2016)

Pierce Brown Golden Son (Review)

Pierce Brown

Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for his cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating college in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate Campaign.
Now he lives in Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre.

Book Description

Buy the Books from Amazon UK

Buy a signed copy from the USA

Ender’s Game meets The Hunger Games in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.

‘I’m still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.’

Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind’s last hope. Until Darrow discovered that it was all a lie, and that the Red were nothing more than unwitting slaves to an elitist ruling class, the Golds, who had been living on Mars in luxury for generations.

In RED RISING, Darrow infiltrated Gold society, to fight in secret for a better future for his people. Now fully embedded amongst the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his dangerous work to bring them down from within. It’s a journey that will take him further than he’s ever been before – but is Darrow truly willing to pay the price that rebellion demands?

A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.

Review

When i started reading the first book in this series it was because i had been told by some very reliable people “Its amazing”, the reason i needed convincing was due to the fact that i simply never ever read space books, i love to watch SCIFI but i cannot read it.

It takes something very rare to capture me and make me break that rule and i expected to ditch Red Rising after a couple of chapters, only to find myself utterly absorbed in this heroic tale of flawed human beings in a deeply flawed society. Red Rising was a total triumph, and yet still a Young Adult novel and held back slightly.

Golden Son doesn’t, it pushes every boundary, friendships are made and lost, alliances or created and broken, worlds and the whole of human society is in flux, all because Darrow has been raised, carved into Gold to cause waves, to put the whole of the current status quo into question, to challenge the rule of gold, to save the other colours of humanity, to save mankind/ society from its own entropy, from the evil arrogance and entitlement that has become the golds lot in life, bred for war, bred to be the cream of society, both physically and mentally.

I really don’t want to delve into the plot too much because i don’t want to spoil anything for anyone else, but know that there is so much covered, Darrow must face the sovereign the leader of the Golds, he must confront his former friend Cassius and his family, he will meet Are’s and find out who his real friends are and who will betray him. This book astounded me, when i finished it last night i was utterly elated, deflated, battered exhausted and full of longing for book 3… its simply a brilliant book, written by such a talented writer.

As its Dec 2014 i have no issue saying that not only will this make my Top 10 for 2014 this will be joining one other title as joint book of the year for Parmenion Books in 2014, my top 10 to be announced in the next couple of weeks.

I cannot recommend this book/ series highly enough

(Parm)

Series

 

Red Rising
1. Red Rising (2014)
2. Golden Son (2015)

Pierce Brown: Red Rising (Review)

Author

Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for his cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating college in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate Campaign.

Now he lives in Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre

Book Description

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”

“I live for you,” I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”

Darrow is a miner and a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he digs all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of the planet livable for future generations. Darrow has never seen the sky.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better future for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow and Reds like him are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow joins a resistance group in order to infiltrate the ruling class and destroy society from within. He will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

Review

Red Rising by Pierce Brown: This book was a foray into something different for me, which is my personal challenge this year “To Read as many books as i can that take me out of my comfort zone”.

Right from the start i had to hang on to the book covers to stop from being swept up into the maelstrom of this plot and transported to Mars. I was amazed to discover its being billed as a Young Adult novel. Its complex world building and multi-layered society is leaps ahead in style and depth of almost any other YA book i have ever read. It very much put me in mind of Julian May and the Many Coloured land series (this being one of my all time fav series, gives you an idea of the compliment here).

Taking place on Mars, introducing the Red, the bottom of society, the worker slaves, in a society led by the elite Golds. One red is destined to rise from his station, to learn adapt and grow. It is this adaptation and growth that allows the reader to experience all the levels of emotion. through failure, victory, death, love, friendship, comradeship and so much more.

Inevitable comparisons will be made to Hunger Games, but this blows that series away. For me this is right up there with the quality of Wool by Hugh Howey A book that transported me to another time another place and other reality. For those that read you will understand the phrase : Book hangover, this is what i have now, i don’t know what to read next as my hair of the dog… but it will need to be damn good.

READ THIS BOOK
(Parm)