Light Bringer: A Red Rising Novel

Brown renders a space opera of gargantuan dimensions in terms of martial detail and cast of characters. His world building falls short. Closely tied to Roman myth, his Society has few unique features aside from a genetically engineered caste system. Only one of fourteen castes has a unique language, aside from Latin which is used by the ruling caste for family mottos. Brown's science fiction is a rehash of ideas and structures created by early greats of the genre. The worlds are feudal throughout with no attempt by author or characters to diverge from feudalism in any meaningful way despite the war for freedom. Perhaps the final book in this expensive series will reach for a higher objective, provide a spark of hope or a message other than "war is bad" for those of us who have endured the horrors of war at Brown's behest. His fan page indicates that this series is based on Herbert's 'Dune', but I don't see that, and feel that the claim is disrespectful of Herbert's genius.

Very good, now if you dont want spoilers stop reading this. My main fault which brought it down a star is how rushed the start felt, sure it was detailed and lots of convo's happened but it felt empty to me. Overall some things from dark age were ignored (oculus) and all the various battle parts in the end are quick and basically ends with I was useless my men killed them. Main characters drastically changed not necessarily for the worse but how they changed felt rushed, for most the book they are peaceful then one dude shows up and now he is planning genocide (told you to stop for spoilers) the changed felt rushed and the ending seemed like it was going 1000 mph to avoid it being 1000 pages long. Otherwise, I adore this series and will probably read through a few time before the next one is out and might change this.

Pierce Brown has evolved to be one of the best character writers in sci fi. Objectively the best written book in the series, continues the grim dark theme of actualizing every character being grey while still maintaining hope. The side characters are amazingly fleshed out in Lysander's POV and so is he. This book has a lot to do with the Rim and the quality of story the Rim provides smashes as hard as it did in Iron Gold. Amazing twists, best duel in the series, holds onto his spectacular space fight/warring while also developing characters with the most complexity yet. Brilliant book and the best in the series for me. Can't comment on other reviews apparently but the 4 star spoiler review takes off a star because the book didn't go the way of a popular fan theory, and because he misunderstood the ending. Funny.