Genre: Sci-fi
Series: Red Rising Saga #5
Page Count: 757
Publication Year: 2019
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Summary: Fighting, politics, death, and more death. And fighting. And politics.
Keep this in mind: I read Iron Gold two years ago and the original trilogy two years before that. I know I’ve forgotten things in the interim and that may have prevented me from liking this book more. So to prevent that from happening in the future, I’m including a full recap.
I read books to hear a good story. I don’t hope to see myself in the characters (in fact, I could not care less about seeing myself in characters) and I don’t even do it for the escapism. By doing reviews and really analyzing things, I’ve learned that even if the characters are desperately flat and unlikable, I can continue reading if the story captures my interest. If done well, the story can make me care about someone’s well-being and carry me through the whole book. That’s what I found here. But before that happened…
I considered not reading this book. Facing all the jargon and fifty million names and overwhelming space stuff after two years of not thinking about it was daunting. But I pressed onwards because no matter how much the characters frustrate me, I have to know what happens to them. Was it worth the struggle? Let’s find out.
Where do I start? Well, let’s try and start how I always do: with the story.
Man…how do I dissect it all? I’m unconvinced that it required so many pages since it doesn’t seem like all that much happened, as far as big plot points are concerned.
This feels like a middle book. Information and revelations appear equally but it’s all just to get everyone to their final positions so the real battle can commence. I don’t know how to talk about the plot because it’s so piecemeal and fragmented and really long. Really long. I’d say there is no definite plot.
Since I can’t go into details without spoiling it, I’ll answer if I liked what happened. Ummm. How much can a sane person like bloody war? There’s a lot to process, pretty much none of it “good.” As with any Pierce book, the body count is high. But the problem with expanding on a trilogy like Red Rising is that you have to up the stakes and scope. Red Rising already had massive moments and battles, so where do you go from there? Here, everything does become bigger but it loses the intimacy and emotion of before. I see the cataclysmic destruction but most of the deaths happen in the midst of battle and since no one takes/is given time to mourn, I can’t really care either. Because so many people die and at such short notice, it’s futile for me to form attachments when I know it can be taken from me. The whole thing is more statistical than personal.
This is hopefully unique to me, but I’m a little lost regarding the politics. I don’t think I’m stupid, it just felt like I was being purposefully talked over and a smidge belittled. At this point there are several different groups of bad guys and it’s hard for me to clearly draw lines and keep track of the information they’re revealing. And it really doesn’t help that some people have multiple names. I know a big story like this requires menacing baddies, but I don’t think it needs quite so many factions, especially the new ones introduced here.
This story is divided among five perspectives. Darrow and Lysander are the main ones, but Ephraim and Lyria return, and now we have Virginia. I still don’t like Lyria. I’m surprised by how much I didn’t mind Virginia. In Iron Gold I liked Lysander and disliked Ephraim; now it’s been reversed. And Darrow…
He is tired. He has to be. All the battles, exhaustion, planning, fear, loss, pain, anger, it is so much for him to handle and no matter how many small or big victories he has, there’s always one more hurdle. He’s barely given a moment’s rest and he’s gotten to the point where it’s time to just see it to the end. I liked him in the original trilogy but watching him here is rough. The weight on his shoulders has crushed most of his foundations and implanted in him the need to mow down anyone standing in his path toward achieving that mythical peace he wanted. I doubt he could set aside everything and live with his family. I don’t think he’s even the good guy I’m supposed to see him as. But the alternative…
What happened to Lysander? He used to be an innocent boy and now he’s becoming his grandmother. He gets his first taste of real war and basically decides that if he can’t beat ‘em, might as well join ‘em. And you know, I’m not sure I understand his motive. He sees Darrow as the enemy but is perfectly willing to do the exact same things. He knows the Golds aren’t the best option and yet he thinks they’re a better choice than Darrow. Does he want everything to go back to the way it was? He keeps saying he doesn’t want to rule and yet people in power are seeing him as a threat and then he sorta decides that he does want to rule? Am I just not paying enough attention? I could accept that. I’ll get to this in a moment but some of his dialogue went right over my head. I must not be seeing the whole picture. Pierce is very thorough so I’m sure the picture is there. I guess I’ll see his plan in the end.
Oddly enough, Ephraim is pretty much the only person willing to have a good time. Aside from Sevro’s brief appearances, he’s the one person who made me smile in humor (not grim satisfaction). No; he’s not a good person or stable or anyone I’d ever want to hang with, but he’s got something to fight for that isn’t going to involve killing half the population. He’s okay.
I thought Virginia’s bits would be boring. I was wrong. She deals with some hot stuff and MINOR SPOILER is the only perspective who sees Sevro. I still don’t like her all that much and she thinks very highly of her intelligence but it’s not too annoying.
Speaking of annoying…I don’t imagine I’ll ever like Lyria. It’s her attitude. She’s bratty, bitter, reckless, and vindictive (she kicks a girl’s jaw until it breaks so she can’t rat on her. Then she’s annoyed when the girl sobs “like she’s dying.” Gee Lyria, I wonder why she’s in pain?). She thinks she’s so capable and can handle the big guns like everyone else. And the thing is, there is no way she’d physically be able to endure half the pain she faces. All the characters get walloped repeatedly with excruciating trials. Lyria is miles behind everyone else since her body is not enhanced or conditioned to the rigors of war. But she gets concussed, fingers smashed, skin boiled, teeth pulled, nails ripped off, mental and physical exhaustion, but she is fine. The hell she is! Does she secretly not feel pain or something? In the grand scheme of this book those injuries are minor, but no regular person could withstand all that in roughly one week and be upright and clearheaded. Especially not a scrappy nineteen-year-old.
Which brings me to my next issue. All the pain doesn’t have a real impact. In this world you can get new limbs and eyes and saved from near death via extremely convenient technology/medicine. The danger is more for shock value than real consequence since I know it’s easy for people to walk away. Unless they get minced or decapitated, don’t count on any lasting repercussions from fights.
Should I be worried about Pierce? What kind of mind could devise such horrors? Every battle provides some fresh hell I know I could never think of and I’m concerned for his sanity. I shudder to think how he’ll close this series.
As for the other characters…wow! There are so many! That Dramatis Personae frequently saved my crispy bacon. Left, right, and center, I was like, “Who’s that?” and, “Am I supposed to care about you?” and, “Oh, look; they died.” Many can be defined as stuck-up, evil, “noble,” country bumpkin, or canon fodder. And I don’t want to exert any kind feelings on them, so I don’t have much else to say. For me, they’re just there without meaning anything. I know that sounds harsh, but this book isn’t here to focus on character growth, so everyone ends up falling into a category to save time.
The dialogue is not my favorite. When the Golds, the elite part of society with access to every luxury, are talking it can sound like they have a dictionary stuck up their butt. There are conversations where I literally had no clue what was being said. I just had to hope the meaning became clear in their actions, ‘cause I’m lost. The rest of it sounds like typical Pierce. This dialogue isn’t there to color the characters but to give information and orders and twists. And it does that fine, but I’m not going to look back on many talks fondly or eagerly await new stellar conversations. Except when Sevro’s involved; he’s got good lines.
The jargon is a problem. Muddling through spaceships, weapons, locations, factions, and on and on is a real killer. That’s why I almost chucked this book out the window (I didn’t; it was a library book). I’ve forgotten what a lot of the commoner spaceships/weapons look like, and what the people look like. Pierce doesn’t like to remind readers of those types of things. By reading some other reviews I rediscovered that Orion is black and Ephraim is Asian. Who knew? But back to the inanimate objects…I think this would make a great tv show. One of the reasons I don’t read a lot of sci-fi is that I prefer to see space and high-tech stuff than read about them. A lot of time is devoted to describing everything and it’d be much nicer if I didn’t have to trudge through entire battles and celestial cities.
An issue I had with Iron Gold was how all the architecture had to be completely described. It never ended and at a certain point I stopped trying to picture it. That happens here too. His world is huge and all the scenery has to match it and I’m tired of reading his long paragraphs of grand structures. And it’s not helped by the use of the metric system. Even after finding out how many miles a spaceship translates to, I can’t quantify it into reality. It means nothing to me and I took to creating my own vaguely correct images rather than trying to see all his ideas.
It also needed a final edit. One person got the right side of their face burned, but later it was the left, then the right, and it kept going back and forth. And Pierce doesn’t know what the word ‘prodigal’ actually means. So much so, he misused it twice.
I don’t know if the space/science stuff he says is remotely true, but it certainly sounds highbrow enough. Again, this is why it needs to be a tv show. Cut the endless lingo and show me the world.
One last thing about the world. Why is the Gold’s society based off the Romans, when Rome fell in under 500 years? Shouldn’t they have wanted to pick a lengthier civilization?
I know this is gonna sound strange, but this book is almost a feel-good story. Especially right now (with the virus currently going around) it puts things in serious perspective. Seeing all these characters face the absolute worst scenarios has made me feel pretty good about life. I’m not being tortured, starved, irradiated, decapitated, squashed, raped, kidnapped, eviscerated, poisoned, or in general, killed. This is great! I feel great compared to everybody in this story and blessed to not be in their situations. Thank you, Pierce, for making me feel so alive and healthy.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d give this book a…five? Four? If it were about two hundred pages shorter it’d get a six. The main drawbacks are the length, too much description, meandering story, and meh characterization. Which, when put like that, makes it sound like I didn’t like any of it.
Why did I stick with it if so much of it fails to impress? I know what Pierce can do and I know not every book in a series can stand tall. Unfortunately, Pierce’s stumble happened to be his longest book to date. I pushed through it all because at the end of the day, I want to hear his stories.
Check out my rating here.
Let’s get to that recap!
COMPLETE SPOILERS AHEAD
Darrow and his crew of crazies attack a ship carrying the recently imprisoned Orion. After a brief encounter with Ajax and Kalindora, they escape to Mercury.
With Atalantia’s forces about to attack the planet, Darrow lays out his strategy, part of which involves some ships equipped with jumbo fans that can whip up sandstorms and wreak chaos on the enemy’s ships. (Just to clarify, they’re not ships with industrial fans strapped to their undersides. Although, that would be hilarious.) But they aren't supposed to be left on too long.
Lysandar goes with a delegation from the Rim to Atalantia’s ship in hopes of forging alliances and reconnecting with her since she’s his aunt. Despite being old friends, his cousin, Ajax, isn’t entirely enthused by Lys’ return. Atalantia orders an Iron Rain on Mercury which Lys and Seraphina (from the Rim) join, and a secret assault on Heliopolis. Darrow’s special ships are turned on and the sand begins pummeling Lys and his “allies.” Knowing they’re an old failsafe made by his grandmother, Lys and Seraphina volunteer to turn it off. She is killed once they reach it.
Darrow arrives at a Mercury city and sees that his ships have been left on too long and as a result, the city is being flooded. Realizing Orion seeks to kill those who imprisoned her, he activates her kill switch. That's right: two previously important people are dead in the first hundred pages.
Screwface, the mole Darrow sent amongst his enemies, returns and Darrow orders his niece to find Thraxa and head for Heliopolis. Alexandar volunteers to stay in the city and assist people in escaping. Darrow heads for Heliopolis.
Lys and his men take down the ship and discover Ajax isn’t sending ships to evac them. Darrow’s entourage catches up with him and the scuffle leaves him trapped under a body with his face being melted. Ouch.
Darrow runs into Atlas the Fear Knight and almost gets killed, but Thraxa arrives and they blast toward Heliopolis. After an intense battle and just as exhaustion is setting in, Darrow gets the news that they have secured the city.
Back on Luna, Virginia hasn’t convinced the Senate to lend aid to Darrow, but she does manage to send him supplies.
Ephraim wakes from his near death to find he’s gone through a drug withdrawal and been fitted with a prosthetic leg. He’s with the Obsidians on Mars and is taken to their queen, Sefi. Pax and Electra are also there. Sefi wants Ephraim to teach her warriors his tricks. He also meets the shaman, Ozgard.
Virginia sets about gaining votes. Sevro is found after killing the Syndicate’s chief assassin. Using her scary tech, Virginia dives into the Syndicate’s chief thief’s mind and sees Dancer in the memories. (It’s revealed that she’s “met” the thief several times. So, someone could use this machine, get or erase information, and the memory holder would never know. Tell me that won’t come in handy in the next book.) Sevro and Virginia confront Dancer together. Dancer didn’t know who the thief was and agrees to vote in favor of Virginia. They deduce that Publius is working with the Syndicate’s Queen. Confused by the names yet? Sevro sets off for Earth to capture the Queen.
On the day of the vote, Dancer starts giving a speech. He hiccups and a moment later vomits a clump of blood and lung tissue. Others start dropping and Publius directs the blame at Virginia. Rioting ensues and soon the whole place is awash with fighting and killing. Virginia attempts to escape but is taken down and mutilated. Daxo is killed. The Queen is revealed to be Lilath. Don’t remember her? Me neither, but apparently she was the Jackal’s “dog of war.”
On Mercury, Darrow thinks Alexandar is dead. Heliopolis is struggling to right itself after the battle and shortages are causing an uproar. Atalantia contacts him and shows the footage of Virginia’s unfortunate vote. She orders him to surrender or she’ll drop atomics. Darrow leaves the decision with his people.
Side note: Sefi is blackmailing Victra into giving up the mines of helium on Mars in exchange for Pax and Electra’s safe return.
Lysander and his crew wander in the desert, slowly losing supplies.
Virginia’s supplies arrive on Mercury and Darrow’s men have decided to decline Atalantia’s offer of surrender.
And now we come to Lyria. She’s imprisoned and begins clandestine communications with Volga. I just want to point out that there are too many names that start with ‘a’ or ‘v.’
Pax tells Ephraim about the mythical Ascomanni, a group of Obsidians who live in deep space. Legend says their history began when the Obsidians almost toppled the Gold regime hundreds of years ago. The Golds re-engineered the Obsidians to make them more predictable. When the Ascomanni started causing trouble, the Fear Knight (Atlas) was sent to deal with them and almost didn’t return. With his reappearance came the rumor that the Ascomanni had united under one leader, Volsung Fá. I’m pretty sure that’s how the myth goes, but feel free to correct me.
They hear of Virginia’s fall and Sefi asks Ephraim if her troops are ready to take the mines by force. They are.
Lysander gets separated from his group and has an encounter with one of Ajax’s lackeys. But not before Apollonius a.k.a. The Minotaur briefly shows up and asks Lys to teach him the Mind’s Eye. The Mind’s Eye is some voodoo state of mind that allows him to use intense focus and basically see actions with more clarity. Very handy in a fight, as Lys demonstrates when he kills Ajax’s men. Knowing Ajax is definitely an enemy, he sets out into the desert once more.
Ephraim joins Sefi in taking the mines and they succeed.
Lys somehow survives the harsh desert and gets captured by Gorgons. He wakes in a cave and finds Alexandar is also a prisoner.
After the success of the battle, Sefi gives Ephraim his own ship. The Obsidians go on a hunt and Sefi is almost killed when she fails to draw her bow back. Ephraim saves her. He talks with Valdir (Sefi’s sorta husband) and mentions that Sefi knows about Valdir’s dalliance with one of her warriors, Freihild.
Away from the hunt’s celebration Ephraim talks with Freihild about her dilemma and she says she knows what to do. She goes off to pick a plant for Ozgard. Ephraim and Ozgard bond as the shaman tells his tale. I promise this is going somewhere. Ephraim goes to find Freihild and sees the plant she was after. He brings Ozgard to the spot and ba-BLAM! Freihild is hanging, dead. Sensing an ambush, they attempt to run but are caught. Their enemies? The Ascomanni. Fá has come for Sefi’s throne.
At the funeral Valdir blames Sefi for Freihild’s death. Oz and Eph’s tale of the returning Ascomanni isn’t going down so hot. Valdir goes into a rage and kills one of Sefi’s prized animals and mentions Volga being queen. Conversations happen, Sefi is sick and that’s why she couldn’t draw the bow back, and Volga is revealed to be Ragnar’s daughter. You still with me?
Lyria and Volga are released from prison and prepped for delivery to Ephraim. Their ship is attacked and we find out that it’s our old pals the Ascomanni. Fighting ensues and Volga and Lyria flee further into the ship. Fá arrives and addresses Volga by name. They escape the ship with Victra and another freelancer. When they crash on Mars, Lyria gets a weird mechanical parasite shot up her nose, compliments of the dead freelancer. The three survivors head off into the wilderness when the Red Hand arrives at the crash site. FYI, Victra is nine months pregnant.
Ephraim finds out Volga’s ship went down and he escapes Sefi with Pax and Electra.
Virginia is alive and she’s forced to watch some of her supporters die. Sevro and some of Howlers are there too. Publius’ reward is being chained by Lilath to present to her leader. Now, this is the biggest “what the fudge?” moment in this book. Lilath’s leader is the Jackal. You remember him, don’t you? Virginia’s brother and one of the most important deaths in the original trilogy? But he isn’t alive per se. No no no. This Jackal is a clone. Let that sink in a moment. A clone. WHY!? That makes his original death completely flat and un-gratifying. And the fact that anyone could potentially return is a huge pile of desperately lazy writing. I understand that new villains need to establish a new terror and that might take longer than you have, but that does not justify bringing in a clone. It’s so dumb and bad. While we’re at it, why don’t we bring back Octavia and a whole lot of other DEAD villains? When death could be impermanent, you have unleashed innumerable problems. A part of me died (and didn’t become a clone) when I read that. But Sevro’s reaction is great.
Anyway, cloning was apparently a part of the Jackal’s original plan. Because CLONES. I’m sorry; I’ll calm down. So this clone has the knowledge and some memories of Jackal Sr. and his new plan is to rule the galaxy. Of course. Oh, and this clone looks like a child. That’s not creepy at all.
Virginia starts driving a wedge between Jackal Jr. and Lilath. She reminds him of the puzzles he made for her when they were kids and asks if he’d like to see them. They go to Virginia’s room and she uses her toxic flower failsafe to make her escape. She makes it to Kavax and is forced to leave Sevro and his Howlers behind. As they head for Mars she finds out that the Rim has allied with the Core.
Kavax says he’s sent a man to free Darrow. As soon as I heard that, I knew it was my boy Cassius. I predicted his undeadness in Iron Gold after they never showed a body. It's fun to be right sometimes.
Back on Mercury Darrow is having Glirastes, the Master Maker, create a giant EMP to hit Atalantia’s ships.
After days of torture, Lys is about to reveal his real identity to Alexandar, when he’s brought to…Atlas. The upshot of the meeting is that Lys will “defeat” Atlas, escape with the others, and become a saboteur in Heliopolis, otherwise Atalantia will release a chemical that’ll kill everyone. They escape, but Atlas is also brought to the city. No one recognizes Lys in Heliopolis, but Darrow is suspicious. At least Alexandar is alive.
Lys convinces Glirastes to alter the EMP.
Victra, Volga and Lyria find a Red camp and Victra gives birth to a son. It’d be a shame if something were to happen to him. Turns out their hosts are Red Hand and capture Volga and Victra. Lyria escapes and what do you know? Baby Ulysses has been nailed to a tree. It’s times like this when I worry about Pierce.
Lyria infiltrates the Red Hand base hidden among the child brides being brought forth. She enlists their help and using tech from that dead freelancer, they start enough trouble to free Volga and Victra. Surrounded by enemies, Lyria sends out a distress signal.
Ephraim hears it. And a bunch of other enemies of the Red Hand.
Harmony, the leader of the Red Hand and the person responsible for the deaths of Lyria’s family, is killed. The battle happens and all the ships come to the rescue and everyone’s reunited and temporarily okay.
Ephraim returns to Sefi when he finds out that her adviser is the baddie. He gets caught and brought before Sefi, who is convinced he’s the baddie. Before he can set the record straight, Fá returns and challenges Sefi for the throne. She dies. Gruesomely. And I don’t think this was intentional, but Pierce sorta made a case for why women shouldn’t be leaders.
Ephraim is offered a job by the adviser. He refuses. Fá orders him killed but Ephraim has a trick up his sleeve and he kills the adviser, a bunch of others and almost himself. Thinking he’s won, he’s very much wrong when Fá steps out of the ruin, cuts out his heart and eats it. Just when I was starting to like Ephraim.
I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book where a perspective dies. I’m sure Pierce’ll use that again.
Lys is prepared to enact the final stage of his plan when Alexandar and Darrow’s niece come for a visit. (Darrow’s niece likes Alexandar.)
Darrow visits Atlas and finally finds out Lys' true identity.
Suspecting his guests know something, Lys knocks out the niece and shoots Alexandar in the head. Are you having fun yet?
The EMP goes off and Heliopolis is definitely not having fun. More than a little chaos ensues and Lys suddenly has so many allies. I guess they forgot who Lys’ grandmother was and what she did to the worlds. Seems like a foolish oversight, but whatever.
Rallies, routs, murder and mayhem fill the city. Darrow and Lys have a brief fight that ends with Darrow’s slingBlade being broken. Let’s hope that comes back to bite Lys in the face.
Darrow and his few allies wait for the end. But then my boy Cassius arrives and busts them out. Time for a victory dance. Okay, that’s all the time we’ve got.
Lys sees Cassius standing in the back of the ship as it flies away and I was grinning like a fool. Ha! For the whole book Lys kept remarking on how Cassius was dead and he’s so sad. And now he sees Cassius flying off with Darrow and it makes me so happy. Suck it, Lysander!
Lyria and Co. find out that Heliopolis has fallen, Ephraim is dead, and Lysander, the Heir of Silenius, is back. They also think Darrow is dead. They get a message from Fá saying he’ll leave Mars in exchange for Volga. She goes and then Fá goes. Pax talks to Lyria about her broken parasite and asks if she’s ever heard of a city called Oculus. I assume that’s gonna make a reappearance.
Lys marries Atalantia—his aunt, so gross—to show that he has no aspirations of undermining her. Ajax is very unhappy.
Kalindora is dying and on her deathbed she tells Lys that she and Atalantia planted the bomb that killed his mother because she helped plan a coup against Octavia. Kalindora also expresses her distaste for Octavia and that the device Virginia used to get memories was used on Lys and altered his memories of his mother. Kalindora tells him Atalantia cannot rule.
Virginia arrives on Mars and sees that they have her back. She reunites with Pax. He says that he’s sent Lyria after Volga, and her parasite is fully operational. Virginia talks with Victra and she’s not happy Virginia abandoned Sevro. Her part ends with the news that Earth has been taken by the combined forces of Lune/Core and the Rim.
Lys waits out in the desert until the Minotaur comes. He asks the Minotaur to help him destroy all the a’s and Darrow. He agrees. They set their sights on Mars.
Phew! I made it. It’s hard to know what seemingly minor detail may be incredibly important, but this’ll really help when the final book arrives.
Let’s do some predictions for that final book.
Lysander has to die. If he does not I will consider this series a failure.
Obviously, Atalantia, Atlas and Ajax have to die. Oh, and the Minotaur. I’m confident Pierce can create some horrid end for them.
Darrow, Virginia or Sevro will probably die. With a finale like this, only the biggest names could properly send it off. I think there needs to be intense closure and one (or all) of their deaths is a sure way of achieving that.
Cassius must live. I think I didn’t like him by the end of Morning Star but all is forgiven since I have forgotten any bad thing he did then. He seems like he could be the only sane person left and therefore deserves to live.
I don’t care what happens to Lyria. Maybe she and Volga will be freelancers together.
Who could kill Fá? Maybe Volga? Either that or he’ll get jettisoned into the sun.
The Jackal and whatever clonies he has can also get jettisoned.
Ooo, Pax and Electra will get married.
I don’t think Pierce’ll end it in complete annihilation. It should be something similar to Morning Star where you’re left with the sentiment of “Now we rebuild.”
What about the title? I’m guessing the word ‘night’ or ‘knight’ will be used. So…Night Time. Knight Kill. Nighty Knight. I don’t know about you, but all those sound great.