Light Bringer: 6 (Red Rising)

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Brown's characters evolved in this installment, yet they stayed true to themselves. It all felt very natural and I truly enjoyed reading it. Kudos to the author, his writing style has evolved too. In the cold prison of our minds, we are alone with our self-hatred, our doubts, and guilt… A friend may reach through the bars and hold our hand, but they cannot open the door for us. Only the prisoner has the key. All I can do is remind him we’re waiting for him when he gets out.” i have too many things to say and some of them could be considered spoilers, so i'll keep it brief and spoilers free. may include some thoughts in a couple weeks. Marooned far from home after a devastating defeat on the battlefields of Mercury, Darrow longs to return to his wife and sovereign, Virginia, to defend Mars from its bloodthirsty would-be conqueror - Lysander. Lysander longs to destroy the Rising and restore the supremacy of Gold, and will raze the worlds to realize his ambitions. It is official! Book #6 LIGHT BRINGER will be out on July 25th 2023! And afterwards we will get book #7 RED GOD (goosebumps!), which means that two novels are needed to finish this saga.

One thing that I found in both Iron Gold and Dark Age was that I didn’t love Lyria’s POV. It was more interesting in Dark Age than in Iron Gold, but there was still something missing. Brown found his stride with Lyria’s POV in Light Bringer in large part due to her having a more interesting part of the story to tell. In the previous two books, Lyria’s POV almost always felt kind of like a side quest. However, in Light Bringer Lyria is finally brought to the forefront of one part of the overarching conflict and I loved that. After 4 years of waiting, I truly wanted to savour this book and read it slowly. However, once I reached 30% mark, the tempo of the story sped up rapidly and it was unable to put it down. I can’t say too much about Lysander because of spoilers. What I will say is that Brown writes him magnificently and he is one of those characters that elicits a lot of emotion out of me. Whether those emotions are positive or negative you will have to read the book to find out. In this book, all the pieces started coming together and you can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. This book didn't have me constantly at the edge of my seat and full of stress like Dark Age, maybe because I wasn't fearing for people's lives as much (my mistake). That said, I never knew where this story was going to go. Pierce Brown has a talent for having everything that could go wrong always go horribly wrong so no one's plans ever worked as expected.

Success!

I was fortunate enough to meet Pierce Brown not too long ago, before reading this book. He was a really cool guy. I liked his vibe. He laughed when I told him my favorite character was Sevro (who deserves more love than he gets and I will defend him to the end!) That said, Pierce Brown better hope we don't meet again, because if we do, it's on sight. I'm sorry Pierce but we have to fight. Marooned far from home after a devastating defeat on the battlefields of Mercury, Darrow longs to return to his wife and sovereign, Virginia, to defend Mars from its bloodthirsty would-be conqueror Lysander.

Please, Mr. Brown. I can't wait four more years for Red God. But also, I don't want this story to end. So...do with that what you will. The Reaper is a legend, more myth than man: the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains. But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of Mars: a husband, a father, a friend.We delve deeper into the psyches of the characters as they change from age and trauma. Seeing Cassius’ and Darrow’s relationship heal and as they helped each other grow stronger was absolute perfection. That’s the sound of blades clashing announcing the arrival of Light Bringer as the biggest contender for the best book of 2023. Pierce Brown has done it. I have been a diehard fan of Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga for almost seven years. My admiration and passion for this series has pushed me to willingly read the series from the beginning again—despite how busy I am—in preparation for the arrival of Light Bringer, the sixth and penultimate volume in the series. Although I have unbridled fondness for the series, I am not afraid to admit my favorite book in the entire series prior to the existence of Light Bringer has always been one of the books in the first Red Rising trilogy. On my first read-through up to Dark Age, Golden Son was my favorite installment. On my second read, Morning Star received an escalation to my favorite instead. And I did have a blast in my second read of Iron Gold and Dark Age as well. Dark Age, in particular, received a significant reading experience upgrade for me. But now that I've read my most anticipated release of the year, Light Bringer, I can say with a shattered and mended heart that is filled with contentment and satisfaction, Light Bringer is my favorite book in the entire series so far. I have no idea how Pierce Brown can top this book in Red God. Light Bringer was just that sublime.

The path is made of many stones that look all the same. When you trod upon evil, do not rest or look down because goodness is only a step away. The next may bring ruin, the next joy, but these stones are not your destination, they are but your journey to the path’s end.” Pierce stated that there's one particular death that he wrote in this book that he "bawled [his] eyes out." [4] This made for an even more amazing reading experience because I realised that I did still love this series and that this book may well be my favourite book of the year. However, those of us who have read through Dark Age know that some of the relationships that we’ve come to love so much are in dire straits, potentially broken forever. I was really happy to see that the few relationships that are focused on in Light Bringer are written in such a way that feels true to the characters involved and also to the trauma of what they’ve been through, whatever the outcome. There is also a new friendship formed that I really enjoyed. How the author writes his characters is one of my favorite things about this series and that didn’t change in Lightbringer. Some of the very best moments were intimate, emotional scenes between characters with deeply meaningful relationships. That is where I will stop with that discussion though because I can’t say more without spoilers.

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Light Bringer combines Brown’s trademark character work and action sequences with the grimness of Dark Age, and the hopefulness of the original trilogy, to create a truly unique entry in the Red Rising Saga. I cannot wait for book 7, Red God!