Del Rey Dark Age

Fifth novel in the ‘Red Rising’ series of science fiction books. A story of conflict in the solar system of the far future, when it’s all modelled on ancient Rome.This is not a jumping on point. New readers should start with Red Rising. Regular readers, read on.This book runs for seven hundred and fifty two pages. It has four parts and is further divided into ninety six chapters.It does not end the story. There’s clearly more to come.There’s copious violence, some adult moments, and a handful of bits of strong language. So it’s just for the grown ups.There is a cast of characters at the front. And a map of one key location.Picking up from the end of the last book, Darrow is now an outlaw. And is at the centre of conflict on Mercury. Can he win again, or is his time done?Oh dear.This is a middle book. And then some. Letting things happen. Setting a lot more up. But it serves no more purpose than that.In addition to Darrow, there are four other viewpoint characters. It will tell you at the start of each chapter who it is in the one you are reading.Everyone narrates in first person present tense.I can see what this is trying to do. It’s cool to be epic, which it has to be in showing the sheer scope of the narrative. But you can get a little too epic for your own good. Which this alas is guilty of.The big problem is the prose. And the print. All the viewpoint characters do talk and think in the same way, so if not for the name at the start of each chapter, you could easily get confused as to whose chapter it is. I actually did on one occasion.The way it’s all written, the present tense and lots of short descriptive sentences, coupled with small print size, means this becomes a complete slog at points. The prose really didn’t hold me at all, and I had to take it very slowly to try and make it keep my attention. But that was a chore at times, not a pleasure.When the focus is on Darrow, it’s okay. The first part does actually come very close to clicking towards it’s end.But then he rather vanishes from the tale in the middle. Far too much time is given over to two other characters, whose stories don’t really go as far as you would hope and seem like diversions from the central story at times, so it’s easy to lose your focus there.It does slightly come back together in the final part where all plot points do converge and some things develop. But that’s where the middle book problem comes in. Because all this has done is be grim gritty and depressing for hundreds of pages, and leave so much up in the air.There are a few too many miraculous bits of tech just happening to come into play at key points, as well.As seems to be a common problem these days, you really wonder how much editing was done on this. If at all.Just gets two stars because of it’s ambition and occasional moments of clicking, but I am afraid this series has rather lost it’s way for me. I will consider reading any future one, but it needs to be a bit shorter and much less indulgent to make me want to.

Right, criticisms: language seems a lot fouler this time around - not just because of the vulgar words, which at times feel odd coming from the mouth of a Gold , but also because they at times sound like, uh... 'Twitter-speak'. While the characters retain their depth and their actions feel authentic, the way they talk can sometimes feel out of place and bring me out of the immersion. I didn't see a single 'prime' until several dozen pages in. Tsc, tsc.Also, there is a character named Xenophon who performs the role of a logos whose actions were described with the pronoun 'they', which I thought was in reference to the role since Xenophon is also referred to as a 'he'. I thought that would be an awesome idea, to assign a role another separate pronoun like a royal 'they' or some such. Except that Xenophon himself (and not the logos role) is referred to later as 'them'. So either I missed something or Pierce has not only managed to confuse the sh*t out of me but also himself. Moving on.Those are my main criticisms so far. Just as I think a character is about to become predictable or that there is some sort of real-world moralising on the author's part, he consistently impresses me with his incredible knack for making character and plot development feel believable. His commitment to throwing these rich characters into their own universe and chronicling what feels like the natural outcome of their actions continues to grip me. I can only hope that he upholds this standard of work going forward.

Really enjoying so far, another good story from Brown. Bit harder to get through than the previous titles due to sheer size alone, but otherwise very much in the same vein.

When I first read Iron Gold when it came out, I didn't like it as much as the first trilogy but having read Dark Age, I went back and read it again and it's actually a fantastic setup for one of the most fantastic books of the series. Dark Age is a thrilling ride from beginning to end. Hail Reaper and Hail Pierce Brown.Spoilers ahead.I found the cloning storyline a bit weak but overall fantastic.

Riveting, exciting, surprising, complex, meaty, bloody. Brilliant.