Light Bringer by Pierce Brown

Blurb:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age.

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.

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.

The worlds once needed the Reaper. But now they need Darrow, and Darrow needs the people he loves—Virginia, Cassius, Sevro—in order to defend the Republic.

So begins Darrow’s long voyage home, an interplanetary adventure where old friends will reunite, new alliances will be forged, and rivals will clash on the battlefield.

Because Eo’s dream is still alive—and after the dark age will come a new age: of light, of victory, of hope.

Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga:
RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER

Review:

***Spoiler Alert***

“Per aspera, ad astra.”

Light Bringer is a testament to Pierce Brown’s epic worldbuilding, masterful orchestration of mood and tension, and diabolical need to emotionally crush his innocent readership. To say that this was my favorite installment in the Red Rising saga is to severely understate the beauty that is Light Bringer. I am a vocal advocate of the fact that the first trilogy was near perfection. It was a fantastic sci-fi, space opera with a surprising amount of depth and character texture. But the second installment of novels, where Pierce drops us into an imperfect, flailing government after the Rising that is attempting to find its fledgling footing is what elevates Red Rising to the masterpiece that it is. The second half deals with the consequences of the first half. Light Bringer is the crowning jewel in this grittier, more mature encore of novels. 

Dark Age leaves us with a defeated, injured Darrow who has been bested by an equestrian Lysander au Lune. He’s lost his razor. He’s abandoned the Free Legions in Mercury, leaving them to the mercy of Atlas au Raa, the Fear Knight, who creates a trail of impaled bodies to live up to his gruesome moniker. Volsung Fá has literally ripped apart Sefi and Ephraim. Sevro has been captured by the Abomination and is currently for sale as a playpiece slave. The Republic that Darrow and Mustang and Sevro have fought and bled for is in ruinous tatters. The lone ray of hope is the appearance of Cassius who acts as savior for Darrow and helps him begin to regain his strength for the next campaign in this Solar War. 

“War requires monstrous deeds! If you cannot be a monster, then get out of the way!”

At this point, there are so many plot lines weaving through the stars that an attempt at a summary of the story would be foolhardy on my part. So I want to highlight a few reasons why Light Bringer is such a phenomenal addition to the Red Rising Saga.

Brown starts throwing hooks and jabs at the reader’s emotional reserves from the beginning, allowing us to glimpse the dismal state that Sevro is in. He’s beaten and pathetic (and he doesn’t even know that his newborn son was nailed to a tree by a former ally in Dark Age!) and being sold to the highest bidder, who happens to be Apollonius au Valii-Rath, The Minotaur of Mars. Through a series of harrowing and near deadly maneuvers and battles, Darrow and Sevro are able to escape the clutches of their foes. But their relationship isn’t what it used to be, it’s strained and fraught with anger from Sevro to Darrow for preventing him from being the father that he wants to be. The interplay between Darrow, Sevro, Cassius, Lyria, and Aurae during this section of the book is fantastic. Importantly, during this time on the Archimedes we start to see the budding, playfully sweet brother/sister relationship between Cassius and Lyria. Cassius has matured and is the consummate mentor, developing deep relationships with those around him. At the same time, Aurae has begun to help Darrow to discover himself as he reads and ponders on the meditative work: The Path to the Vale. She is the catalyst that Darrow needs to emotionally heal and emerge from the ash of Dark Age with fiery resolve in his wings. 

The middle third of this book is an epic, bloody massacre as Lysander storms and successfully overruns Phobos in an initial step towards his conquest Mars to gain the Morning Chair. Mustang and Victra (“Do not fear for me. Instead, pity them”) amass a valiant effort to hold off the brutal forces of Lysander, Apollonius, Cicero, and Ajax. Unfortunately, after a heroic effort, Mustang is forced to surrender to Lysander and retreat back to Mars for a final confrontation. 

“They will complete against one another to get me. We are not them. We are a pride. We kill together, we work together, we survive together. They came for a hunt, but they forgot: his sunt leones.”

One of the best parts of this book is the maturing and growth of so many of our favorite characters. Sevro is forced to face his inner demons with the knowledge of the tragic, horrific fate of Ulysses and forgive Darrow for keeping him from his son’s side. While he initially protects himself by assuming the mantel of the Goblin, shedding his core of Sevro, Darrow brings him back from the brink.

“But Sevro Barca? Hades. He’s the stage on which the Goblin sometimes comes out for a guest appearance. He’s the man who made the Howlers. He’s the one who keeps the Reaper in check. Keeps everyone in check. He was Ragnar’s brother. Sevro’s a leader, a father, a friend. He’s the one Athena sent this message to. Not the Goblin. Not me. We need Sevro to realize how tall he stands. Because if the Golds can beat him into believing he is small, what hope do the rest of us have?”

By the end of this book, Darrow has become the zen Reaper of Mars. The scene of him fighting and utterly dismantling and destroying Volsung Fá was one of my favorites from the series. It was fast paced and brutal and had me on the edge of my seat. The creation of the Breath of Stone was perfect. The consummate capstone to his development and self-discovery throughout the book. Clang. Clang. Clang. This is indelibly imprinted on me. So intense, so brutal, so centered and calm.

“Volsung Fá! King of All Liars! I am Darrow of Mars, ArchImperator of the Republic, Tyr Morga of the Volk, and I have been wronged! You have waged war on my planet. You have enslaved my Red people. You have sullied the name of my brother Ragner. You have killed my sister Sefi. You have taken my army like a thief in the night to corrupt their honor. I claim holy vendetta against YOU! I claim ashvar!”

“The wind is oblivious to the obstacles though her path would not be the same without them.”

But the true show stealer in Light Bringer is Cassius. His interactions and growth with Lyria as his foil is truly amazing to watch. I’ve always been a Cassius fan, don’t get me wrong. But he became one of my all-time favorite characters throughout this book. Which is why I should have known that Pierce was going to screw with him. Cassius vouches for Lysander. He knows the boy’s honor and is confident he can make him understand and bring peace with a triumvirate agreement between Lysander, Darrow, and Diomedes. After fearlessly battling and defeating the Fear Knight, he turns to Lysander only to find that Lysander has recovered a weapon capable of genocidal murder. He calls him brother. He pleads with him to see reason. Lysander makes it obvious that he is not going to choose the path of peace.

“I am Cassius Bellona, son of Tiberius, son of Julia, brother of Darrow, Morning Knight of the Solar Republic, and my honor remains.”

With the declaration that he is the brother of Darrow and that his honor remains, Cassius sacrifices his life trying to stop Lysander from acquiring this doomsday weapon. And the man that he helped raise as a father and brother for 10 years shoots him down and then hung his naked body from the ceiling while spouting lies and raining destruction down on the Rim’s main source of food production. Pierce had raised Cassius up so high throughout this book, I should have anticipated that to mud he would bring him. The emotional devastation of this betrayal was heart-stopping for me, especially when coupled with Darrow’s reaction when he saw Cassius dangling from the rafters and Aurae’s words of comfort.

“But he didn’t need a woman’s love. He needed a brother’s. The way he talked about you. Well…Lysander was an obligation. You were an aspiration. He was so afraid on our journey to the Core. So nervous to see you and be rejected. But when he saw you respected him, valued him, he shined like a star. His path led back to you, because you made him feel loved. That is all that matters, Darrow. When he died, he knew he was loved.”

I still get chills when I read those lines. Because they’re so true. Cassius shined in his book. He shined like the Morning Knight that he was. And at the end of the day, all we can ask for is that we know that we are loved when we die. And because of their brotherhood, Cassius had that. Pierce played this storyline so beautifully from Red Rising when Darrow was forced to kill Cassius’ twin, Julien, to these final moments of Light Bringer. It hurts. But if I’m honest, it hurts in a good way.

Also, this line freaks me out and makes me terrified for Red God.

“When I die, whenever that day comes, I will hear the wind that howls like a wolf and know I am home.”

Light Bringer is about as good as it gets. Honestly. There are amazing characters and those characters grow in fantastic and diabolic ways. The action is cleanly written and so gruesome. Consider the middle book phenomenon: the middle book is often the weakest because you’ve already experienced the excitement of learning a new world in the first book but you still need to move all the chess pieces into the right places for the coup de grâce of the final book. To any author struggling with middle book phenomenon, they need to sit down and read Light Bringer. This is peak Red Rising and I thank Pierce for taking the time and multiple revisions that were necessary to bring the Howlers this gem. 

And as always:

“My pleasure, Good Reaper.”

“Hail Reaper.”