I just finished it and I’m REELING. Loved it. Love how Darrow’s character has evolved. He was amazing to follow in this. But I am CRUSHED by Cassius’ death, and that’s pretty much all I’m feeling in this moment. 🫠 I hate Lysander with such a passion.
@@TheMasterMangosame over here. His death hit me way too hard. I don’t think any of the other characters’ deaths would have hit me this hard. Just so devastated and empty
People calling Lysander a pixie is so funny to me because Lysander is probably the closest we'll ever get to a conquering era gold in terms of ideology and behaviour He considers himself a philosopher king, a benevolent shepherd of humanity, but he's also a ruthless machivellian who will sacrifice everything for power. He's Silenius come again, a predator to the core and he's such a fun character to read, best part of the book imo.
I always liked this series but Lightbringer somehow retroactively made all former books better. Imediately after finishing LB I went back and reread the whole story again and everything hit so much harder this time. Outside of few tropes I’m not a fan of (like villains toying with their prisoners) this is one of my two favourite series and I truly love it. I even love what Pierce did with Lysander, as much as I hate what Lysander did. Hail Reaper!
Cassius has such a fantastic character arc throughout the series. Dark Age is still my favorite but this one was great as well, and definitely worth the wait. It's going to be excruciating waiting for the final book. It was fun seeing more of the Rim. The space stuff is amazing as usual but something I love just as much is seeing the planets and moons explored more. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed Dark Age so much, Mercury was so well developed.
It was said in Lightbringer that the figment in Lyria's head would allow the wielder to control any ship, drone or war machine all at once and give the wielder the powers of a god. I think the 7th book is titled "Red God" because Lyria may have no other choice but to wield another figment in order to save the Republic in a dire situation
My theory was that Darrow was given a figment, because when Lyria first sees him he's in a bed recovering from surgery. Felt like that was glossed over quickly and will be a big reveal moment in Red God when he does in fact become the god
@@jacobrowe5044 maybe. Also, In the scene where Atlas explains to Lysander how he falsely portrayed himself as Helios by stealing his flesh, the book implies that this isn't the first time Atlas has done that
@@jacobrowe5044 This could just be me talking completely out of my ass lol. But, in Dark Age and the beginning of Light Bringer, Darrow mentions Virginia and Pax and longing to reunite with them almost constantly, but I feel like he barely mentioned them the 2nd half of this book. So, if I'm not just completely making that up, I think that very much lends itself to your theory.
Once I got into the second half of the book I could not stop thinking that Cassius would die. Ended up pulling an all-nighter finishing the last quarter of the book in tears. Thought that Hangar 17B would be a stupid place to die in. Literally refused to read on knowing there is no way to take it back. Cried non stop. For 3 hours. Considered writing a revenge horror-fic where a dead character comes back to haunt the author. Went through the 5 stages of grief. Good review. Recommend the audiobooks.
I really loved how Darrow’s new philosophy is based on stoicism- the Path to the Veil made me want to reread Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Makes me also wonder what’s going to happen to the book he (hopes to) leave for Pax! Will it become this universe’s version of Meditations?
Great book and storytelling epic battles. The only thing I don’t get is how so many have battle ships they can retrieve and use. I have listened to all the books on audio. I highly recommend the audio version of this book. Very good narrating, brings the characters to life.
I am, logically, sad that Cassius dies in this one but what makes me even more upset with Lysander is how he also destroys Demeter's Garter.... like dude, that's their life force! Ugh I'm ready for Lysander to be taken out because dude has got to go! And absolutely loved Diomedes in this. Very honorable and I hope we see more of Darrow and Diomedes managing to work together There's so much good in this book. Even though we get that gut punch at the end, there's so much good still. Now the wait for Red God - I'm super curious how Pierce is going to tie up all these loose strings!
It will be interesting to see how he does it all especially with the jackal still out and about. I really hope Lysander doesn't come out on top after this or get some type of redemption. I feel like he ruined all his chances to be redeemed and I just want him gone now
I think I was less upset about Cassius's death because that was the logical conclusion to his arc. He was set up to die throughout the book and dying at the hands of his former ward just makes sense. Demeters Garter though? I think it might be the most abominable thing anyone has done in this series. I was so sure Lysander would come around and be redeemed and be the ultimate hero, but there's no redemption now.
@@loonar7960 When Cassius almost died in MS I remember being mad that he didn't lol And then in IG, I spoiled for myself if that death was real bc I knew there was no way Cassius would get taken out off page. I agree it's logical and makes sense for his arc but I've got a soft spot for Cassius so it hurt my heart and his death and the scenes after made me cry (and the last time I cried while reading was probably 20 years ago when Dobby dies in HP7). All that to say, I agree with you about Demeter's Garter! I too had hope when Lysander enlisted Cassius's help to take out Atlas. I thought that might be a beginning to Lysander turning a corner and hopefully working with them to take out Atalantia. But NO. Goodness. I do love the hint we get with Cicero's reaction to Lysander burning Demeter's Garter though and how it shows there are already seeds of dissent amongst those currently with Lysander. Makes me wonder if he'll be taken down by his own people before Darrow and co get the chance.
As someone that just started reading the Red Rising saga/series in June and finished Light Bringer today. I'm kind of happy so many books were out by the time I started. It feels so crazy how pierce brown’s writing in this saga has left me going through all the feels. I hope I can find something out there that comes close to this. Plz do send recommendations
I would I would have been much cooler with lyria getting the parasite removed had she done something cool with it beforehand. There was even a part where he hinted at residual effects like she could have done something and ponded off as a one time side effect of getting it removed but there was nothing cool that happened with it other than her just getting it removed for character development. The backstabbing scene of lysander calling up the gathering of moonlords was so epically done to tee him up as a bad guy. I love that scene.
Man everyone hates Lysander. hes like my second favorite character. Never knew he was so universally hated till I looked up some reddit stuff and videos about this book and Morning Star
Cassius should have lived to fight that last battle so him and Darrow and Servo could be the victors and rejoiced in it. But now Darrow will be alone essentially to fight and hopefully win at the end. I love to read the many twists and turns but would like to see more winning out of the good guys. And to live!!!🤔😄
My favorite part was Virginia's space battle. It was just so epic. Overall I thought the book was really fun and light except for Cassius' death. That really hit me very hard and I feel like it's so unjust. I wish Lysander would have stood with Darrow and the Rim.
Part of what made Cassius so great is that he embodies self discovery itself. Unlike Darrow, who does everything right and then eventually slips up, Cassius always seems to make the wrong choices for the right reasons… the interplanetary gypsy sailor vibe was also 🤌
That's a great point! Despite his upbringing and having an advantage from the beginning he has to face failure after failure where darrow already started at the bottom and can only go up
Both are right, pierce brown tweeted on Mars it's an arrow sound on luna its pronounced with orrow like sorrow. Link to the tweet twitter.com/Pierce_Brown/status/1302065957871824896?s=20
It’s D-arrow, like arrow. D-orrow clearly not spelled the same but if you want to sound like you went to the Zoolander school for kids who don’t read good by all means.
@@kieranblubaugh7863Well... his and Brown's American accents would probably back the first vowel in the comparable word 'taro' to be nearly identical to the first vowel in 'sorrow'. So, perhaps think of Darrow spelt as 'Daro' and it's not so far-fetched. Other accents exist which are not reflected in spelling, and ultimately, you still understood the alternate pronunciation, so really what's the problem?
From my audiobook-influenced perspective I feel like it should be D [short a as in cat] rrow with the celtic accent but really it makes sense that it is pronounced differently by different people given how important the distinctions between groups are in the books.
Cassius = Jaime Lannister but with fulfilling redemption.
We told Pierce not to kill Sevro and that had a price.
Does he die?
Get off the spoiler video until you finish
Hangar 17B had me in tears
@@arpansaha2111 yes
I just finished it and I’m REELING. Loved it. Love how Darrow’s character has evolved. He was amazing to follow in this.
But I am CRUSHED by Cassius’ death, and that’s pretty much all I’m feeling in this moment. 🫠 I hate Lysander with such a passion.
Same here Lysander is just the worst!
I've been in mourning. I have felt so heavy over Cassius' death. I am so sad.
@@TheMasterMangosame over here. His death hit me way too hard. I don’t think any of the other characters’ deaths would have hit me this hard. Just so devastated and empty
Lysander is banned from Ba Sing Se.
😂 love the reference
Clang! Clang! Clang! Best sequence hands down!
Confess!
Confess
Yes my favorite scene in lightbringer!!!
People calling Lysander a pixie is so funny to me because Lysander is probably the closest we'll ever get to a conquering era gold in terms of ideology and behaviour
He considers himself a philosopher king, a benevolent shepherd of humanity, but he's also a ruthless machivellian who will sacrifice everything for power. He's Silenius come again, a predator to the core and he's such a fun character to read, best part of the book imo.
I always liked this series but Lightbringer somehow retroactively made all former books better.
Imediately after finishing LB I went back and reread the whole story again and everything hit so much harder this time.
Outside of few tropes I’m not a fan of (like villains toying with their prisoners) this is one of my two favourite series and I truly love it. I even love what Pierce did with Lysander, as much as I hate what Lysander did.
Hail Reaper!
I didn't really like Lyria much in Dark Age, but she came in to her own in this book. She had some great lines and moments.
Cassius has such a fantastic character arc throughout the series. Dark Age is still my favorite but this one was great as well, and definitely worth the wait. It's going to be excruciating waiting for the final book.
It was fun seeing more of the Rim. The space stuff is amazing as usual but something I love just as much is seeing the planets and moons explored more. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed Dark Age so much, Mercury was so well developed.
I agree I loved exploring the rim as well, and seeing how these planets are terraformed. The descriptions of the environments were so cool sounding!
Pretty sure Figment is still waiting in Lyria’s head.
That's would be an interesting twist. Or maybe if it had residual effects from being in there
It was said in Lightbringer that the figment in Lyria's head would allow the wielder to control any ship, drone or war machine all at once and give the wielder the powers of a god. I think the 7th book is titled "Red God" because Lyria may have no other choice but to wield another figment in order to save the Republic in a dire situation
My theory was that Darrow was given a figment, because when Lyria first sees him he's in a bed recovering from surgery. Felt like that was glossed over quickly and will be a big reveal moment in Red God when he does in fact become the god
@@jacobrowe5044 maybe. Also, In the scene where Atlas explains to Lysander how he falsely portrayed himself as Helios by stealing his flesh, the book implies that this isn't the first time Atlas has done that
@@jacobrowe5044 This could just be me talking completely out of my ass lol. But, in Dark Age and the beginning of Light Bringer, Darrow mentions Virginia and Pax and longing to reunite with them almost constantly, but I feel like he barely mentioned them the 2nd half of this book. So, if I'm not just completely making that up, I think that very much lends itself to your theory.
Once I got into the second half of the book I could not stop thinking that Cassius would die. Ended up pulling an all-nighter finishing the last quarter of the book in tears. Thought that Hangar 17B would be a stupid place to die in. Literally refused to read on knowing there is no way to take it back. Cried non stop. For 3 hours. Considered writing a revenge horror-fic where a dead character comes back to haunt the author. Went through the 5 stages of grief. Good review. Recommend the audiobooks.
I want Sevro to be the one to cut down Lysander. He is genuinely terrified of the goblin.
I really loved how Darrow’s new philosophy is based on stoicism- the Path to the Veil made me want to reread Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Makes me also wonder what’s going to happen to the book he (hopes to) leave for Pax! Will it become this universe’s version of Meditations?
Great book and storytelling epic battles. The only thing I don’t get is how so many have battle ships they can retrieve and use. I have listened to all the books on audio. I highly recommend the audio version of this book. Very good narrating, brings the characters to life.
I agree with your thoughts here. It was a great book, and I was glad to see so much Darrow in it. Glad to have found your channel. Peace.
I am, logically, sad that Cassius dies in this one but what makes me even more upset with Lysander is how he also destroys Demeter's Garter.... like dude, that's their life force! Ugh I'm ready for Lysander to be taken out because dude has got to go!
And absolutely loved Diomedes in this. Very honorable and I hope we see more of Darrow and Diomedes managing to work together
There's so much good in this book. Even though we get that gut punch at the end, there's so much good still. Now the wait for Red God - I'm super curious how Pierce is going to tie up all these loose strings!
It will be interesting to see how he does it all especially with the jackal still out and about. I really hope Lysander doesn't come out on top after this or get some type of redemption. I feel like he ruined all his chances to be redeemed and I just want him gone now
@marshmanmedia oh agreed - Lysander doesn't deserve redemption. He's shown he'll use others for his gain so it is time for him to go!
I think I was less upset about Cassius's death because that was the logical conclusion to his arc. He was set up to die throughout the book and dying at the hands of his former ward just makes sense.
Demeters Garter though? I think it might be the most abominable thing anyone has done in this series. I was so sure Lysander would come around and be redeemed and be the ultimate hero, but there's no redemption now.
@@loonar7960 When Cassius almost died in MS I remember being mad that he didn't lol And then in IG, I spoiled for myself if that death was real bc I knew there was no way Cassius would get taken out off page. I agree it's logical and makes sense for his arc but I've got a soft spot for Cassius so it hurt my heart and his death and the scenes after made me cry (and the last time I cried while reading was probably 20 years ago when Dobby dies in HP7).
All that to say, I agree with you about Demeter's Garter! I too had hope when Lysander enlisted Cassius's help to take out Atlas. I thought that might be a beginning to Lysander turning a corner and hopefully working with them to take out Atalantia. But NO. Goodness. I do love the hint we get with Cicero's reaction to Lysander burning Demeter's Garter though and how it shows there are already seeds of dissent amongst those currently with Lysander. Makes me wonder if he'll be taken down by his own people before Darrow and co get the chance.
As someone that just started reading the Red Rising saga/series in June and finished Light Bringer today. I'm kind of happy so many books were out by the time I started.
It feels so crazy how pierce brown’s writing in this saga has left me going through all the feels.
I hope I can find something out there that comes close to this.
Plz do send recommendations
The First Law series is pretty good if you haven’t read it, and it’s different enough from RR to make it alright
Just started Will of the Many which was recommended on RR Reddit. Obviously not the same but an interesting start with some parallels so far.
"We really should rethink that slipper policy" :(
Super bummed about a certain character that gets killed off at the end. 😢
Same here! They turned into my favorite character
*CLANG*... *CLANG*... *CLANG*...
I would I would have been much cooler with lyria getting the parasite removed had she done something cool with it beforehand. There was even a part where he hinted at residual effects like she could have done something and ponded off as a one time side effect of getting it removed but there was nothing cool that happened with it other than her just getting it removed for character development.
The backstabbing scene of lysander calling up the gathering of moonlords was so epically done to tee him up as a bad guy. I love that scene.
Man everyone hates Lysander. hes like my second favorite character. Never knew he was so universally hated till I looked up some reddit stuff and videos about this book and Morning Star
Cassius should have lived to fight that last battle so him and Darrow and Servo could be the victors and rejoiced in it. But now Darrow will be alone essentially to fight and hopefully win at the end. I love to read the many twists and turns but would like to see more winning out of the good guys. And to live!!!🤔😄
Just finished it today and Im a broken man 😢
Lightbringer was a good book. Dark age still my favorite. Ephrim still my favorite
I hated him in Iron gold but he won me over in dark age!
My favorite part was Virginia's space battle. It was just so epic. Overall I thought the book was really fun and light except for Cassius' death. That really hit me very hard and I feel like it's so unjust. I wish Lysander would have stood with Darrow and the Rim.
I think my favorite part was the fa fight but the space battle was great too! The relationships really made me love this book though and the team ups
Catamite! Favorite line of the book, I really don't like Lysander.
Part of what made Cassius so great is that he embodies self discovery itself. Unlike Darrow, who does everything right and then eventually slips up, Cassius always seems to make the wrong choices for the right reasons… the interplanetary gypsy sailor vibe was also 🤌
That's a great point! Despite his upbringing and having an advantage from the beginning he has to face failure after failure where darrow already started at the bottom and can only go up
D-air-ooo bro not D-aaah-ro
Both are right, pierce brown tweeted on Mars it's an arrow sound on luna its pronounced with orrow like sorrow.
Link to the tweet
twitter.com/Pierce_Brown/status/1302065957871824896?s=20
It’s D-arrow, like arrow. D-orrow clearly not spelled the same but if you want to sound like you went to the Zoolander school for kids who don’t read good by all means.
Lol get mad at pierce brown not me. He clearly stated both are right. 😂
@@kieranblubaugh7863Well... his and Brown's American accents would probably back the first vowel in the comparable word 'taro' to be nearly identical to the first vowel in 'sorrow'. So, perhaps think of Darrow spelt as 'Daro' and it's not so far-fetched.
Other accents exist which are not reflected in spelling, and ultimately, you still understood the alternate pronunciation, so really what's the problem?
From my audiobook-influenced perspective I feel like it should be D [short a as in cat] rrow with the celtic accent but really it makes sense that it is pronounced differently by different people given how important the distinctions between groups are in the books.
Very good book. I think Lyria will play a key role in the last book. Probably see an all female super team fight at some point too...