__________________ "Happiness is a lie. Life is horror. The light is always dying all across the universe. The last star will flicker out someday, when it does, all that remains is shadow. And I will be its king!"'-Amahl Farouk
Just finished Golden Son. Just in time too. The last installment in the series comes out in a couple of days. GS itself was amazing. Unreal ending. I feel bad for anyone who had to wait the full year after finishing it to read the new one coming out.
I'm reading Shadow of the Wind to pass the time until it comes out. It's a fictional gothic historical mystery book set in 1940s-1960s Barcelona. I'm impressed with it so far. It's hard to describe, but it's beautiful to read. Not just the scenes the author describes, but the way he does. He has a gift with words. The characters are all fleshed out, and the plot seems to have an aim fairly quickly. I'll post my final opinion on it when I'm done.
Gender: Male Location: On a rock, floating through space..
Personally, I was disappointed by Morning Star. I loved Red Rising and Golden Son, but it felt like Pierce Brown was in too much of a rush to finish the trilogy and I just didn't enjoy it as much. Still a good book, but now that I'm finished I'm glad I have Brandon Sanderson to go back to.
Unfortunately, I'm actually in the same boat now that I'm done. Still, this book had some of the greatest scenes in the entire series IMO
[SPOILER - highlight to read]: That entire scene where they infiltrated Quicksilvers compound Splinter Cell style only to walk into a meeting with Mustang, Cassius and Ajas sister was great. Cassius slowely stalking towards them between human meat shields, Mustang armoring up in the background, and Sevro ordering the kill was just a good two pages of amazing tension building up. I was thinking "Oh ****..." the entire time as Darrow was begining to freak out knowing what was about to happen.
Darrow getting into a power play struggle with Sevro and them running through the ship and coming to blows was epic. What made this scene even better was the high stakes of it all. Sevro/Ares Jr trying to set off the bombs to wipe out tens of thousands of innocent people in the moon colony with Darrow trying to save lives, secure an army, and funding/supplies. This could have influenced the events for the rest of the book, and it pit the two biggest characters against eachother. Part of me was starting to think that Darrow was going to be forced to kill Sevro.
Darrow, Mustang, Holiday and Ragnar stranded in the antarctic with Cassius and Aja completely cut off from civilization/tech or backup and both sides fighting desperately to survive the subzero temperatures, deadly storms, and cannibal obsidians was probably one of my favorite scenes in any book of the trilogy. The fight between Darrow/Ragnar, and Cassius/Aja (who are the four biggest physical threats in the entire series not counting Lorn) ending in Ragnars death and Cassius getting an arrow through the throat was feels for days. I was actually starting to love Ragnar was much as Pax from the first book too (lets be real, they both served the same purpose).
Darrow and his Sons having a fleet battle with Roque and the way it ended hit me in the feels. The second book made Roque my second favorite character after Cassius, so the two chapters leading up to this and the Imperator chapter itself were absolute gold. I also liked Roques speech to Romulus about how he would bring his moon to ruin and build a peaceful future on the ashes of his family. Holy f*ck at that entire monologue. Roques arc was the best part of the book for me, and possibly the best part of the entire series. It all ending with Darrow and Cassius reminiscing about Roque in a huge bro moment was the cherry on top. This was all done perfectly.
I also liked Cassius being an absolute beast the entire book. I don't like how it ended with him becoming good, basically winning the war for Darrow, and then going into exile to raise a kid thats not even his. I cheered when he betrayed Darrow and 'killed' Sevro since I preferred him as a villain just like Roque. I wanted him to continue his sworn blood fued with Darrow. Despite all that, I'm happy he survived.
The Jackal, on the other hand, was disappointing in the end. He was perfect the first two books. The way they won against him so easily in this one pissed me off. Especially when they hyped him up to be smarter than Mustang and the single biggest threat in the solar system. I'm pretty sure he could have worked out that Cassius was betraying them and bringing Darrow, Sevro, and Mustang in to win the war. Especially since he killed Cassius' family. He should have been much more paranoid when it came to that. I also didn't like how clean the win was. Not one significant casualty to Darrows side besides Ragnar, and that was halfway through the book. Every part of the ending disappointed me. Also not sure how I feel about the child twist at the end.
I will also say that I liked Darrow more in this book than the others. He seemed smarter/wiser and wasn't a rage monster win button. It made each struggle actually feel like a struggle since he couldn't just power through to the end. This was the best change they made.
Despite an awesome first half and everything with Roque, these books ended up being 2 > 1 > 3 for me.
Gender: Male Location: On a rock, floating through space..
My favourite scene was probably [SPOILER - highlight to read]: in Golden Son, where Darrow realises he's screwed and decides he's got nothing to lose, so he jumps on the table and stalks towards Cassius, calling him out for a duel and then handing him a beat-down that will make even Darth Vader wince in sympathy.
Just gave The Colour Out of Space by HP Lovecraft a quick read. The dude knows how to do horror. The substance corrupting everything in the blasted heath starting with vegetation, then livestock, and finally the family in the residence was a great building of dread. I love how much Lovecraft leaves to the imagination in certain scenes. It really lets you construct the worst possible imagery in your head. The discovery and fate of Mrs. Gardner in the attic was my favorite part of the story.
Its no wonder Lovecraft is considered the father of modern horror.
That was my favorite scene in the entire series before Roque in this book. Good choice. You know the author announced a second trilogy taking place years after this one? Its called Iron Gold.
Gender: Male Location: On a rock, floating through space..
I'll check it out, but I'll probably wait for the whole trilogy to be published before I start reading it. The books I'm most excited about still to be published this year are:
War Factory by Neal Asher, my favourite kick-ass sci-fi writer.
(please log in to view the image)
And The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks, the conclusion to the Lightbringer series.
Meanwhile on my To Be Read list are The Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. They were recommended by somebody here on KMC so I thought I'd give them a try. Also, the Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne by Brian Staveley, which have got some mixed reviews but seems like it might be worth a look.
Different entries from the Encylopedia Galactica on Orion's arm
__________________ "Happiness is a lie. Life is horror. The light is always dying all across the universe. The last star will flicker out someday, when it does, all that remains is shadow. And I will be its king!"'-Amahl Farouk
Just finished reading Throneworld, part of the Beast Arises Warhammer 40k series. I've been enjoying these so far, and it is nice that they have been coming out consistently every month. I gave up on the Horus Heresy series for the most part, as it has become little more than filler nonsense, audio books and random side stories about Istvaan survivors no one actually cares about, all in an effort to milk more money out of the series.
__________________ Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
KMC Community Forums
Jan 30th, 2016 01:32 AM
