I can't help but love and root for Darrow, but we see here all his flaws in gory detail. This is a grim, dark story that shows the flaws in every character. I am so glad this sequel series is being written, showing that the ending we saw at the end of Morning Star isn't the happy ending we thought it was after all. By the end, you might hate Darrow a little bit, but only because you realize that his ending was really a return to his beginning. That is the true conflict of the story, and its a conflict the other characters feel the effects of. Darrow included.ĭarrow in this book is different because this is the story of a man who is torn between the man he wants to be, and the man he is. However, I loved loved LOVED how each of these characters hated or had lost faith in The Reaper for their own personal reasons. I liked the new characters but I found the multiple perspectives took away from the story: with such a slow plot, I had already forgotten what X character was up to by the time we returned to their chapter again. Yet, you can see the tensions building and you KNOW the story is only just getting started. There was no 'oh my god, I have to read the last 100 pages all at once' feeling because even the ending feels slow. I didn't feel the urgency, or the desire to continue reading that I felt for the other books. The story is a good one, but it's mellow and kind of slow. Most of the twists are things I saw coming, or could imagine happening in a political scifi story like this one, yet when they happen, I feel like the ground is shaking beneath me. I'm amazed at how cliched elements are turned around and used in ways that make them feel surprising and fresh. It's quite possible that the story to come is going to be even better than the one that proceeded. I find the story gets weaker with each book Brown writes, but there's so much potential here. This is a great book, but it is nothing compared to the ones that came before.

This is a novel about the death of a hero. There is one question that haunts this novel: what happens to a man after he's become a legend?

Pierce brown golden sun