'Dark Age' by Pierce Brown
'Dark Age' by Pierce Brown

The good

  • All the great characters from the previous books return.

  • This book is not afraid to (a) develop the “bad guys”, so they are interesting characters who feel like real people and make realistic, plausible decisions, rather than cartoony villains, and (b) to let the bad guys win from time to time.

  • The book is also not afraid to kill off some of the characters you know and love. I won’t say who, so this spoiler won’t spoil all that much, but I appreciate it when a book is OK taking a risk like this. It can be painful to see characters you like get wiped out, but it makes the book far more exciting and gripping: if you know the good guys won’t always win, then ever battle has you on the edge of your seat, as you know that everything is at stake!

  • Plenty of great action scenes, political intrigue, military tactics, betrayal, etc.

  • A handful of cool new technologies and sci fi concepts.

The not so good

  • Somewhat like the Harry Potter series, every book in the Red Rising saga is longer than the previous one. I think the first book was around 360 pages; this book, the 5th one in the series, is over 700 pages! And to be honest, it can be a bit much at times. It has been a while since I read the first 4 books, and at this point in the series, there are just so many characters, so many plot lines, so many twists and turns, that I occasionally found myself a bit lost. Who is this character? Where are they now? What are they fighting about? I found the first 3 books far easier to follow, but book 4, and especially this 5th book, are getting fairly convoluted.

Rating: 4 stars