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Book: Lightbringer by Pierce Brown

Published: 2023

ISBN: 978-0425285978

Website: https://www.piercebrown.com/redrisingsaga

Lightbringer is book 5 of the Red Rising series, or book 3 of the tetralogy following the first trilogy, or something like that. Although this post is mainly about Lightbringer, I'm also gonna use it to share thoughts about the series as a whole. There might be some spoilers.

The first Red Rising trilogy, to me, started out as yet another dystopian teen sci-fi novel. Society divided into distinct groups? Check. Protagonist at the bottom? Check. Tragic romantic backstory? Check. Decadent capital and ruling class? Check. Violent battle royale? Check. I was on the verge of putting the first book down until Darrow reached the Institute. Even though this plot still rhymed very much with The Hunger Games, it was executed so well that I couldn't put it down. The 2nd and 3rd books of the first trilogy cemented the series in my mind as top-flight violent sci-fi/fantasy space opera melodrama. Unlike The Hunger Games, this series found new conflicts and new challenges for the protagonists instead of contriving new excuses to put them back into the same situation over and over again. Somewhere in here the series lost most of its teen sci-fi flavor and picked up notes of grimdark instead. Overall: Lovable characters. Lots of brutal action. Devious political machinations. Plenty of heart.

Although the first trilogy ended on a high note and brief moment of kumbaya, such carefree notions were quickly dispelled with Iron Gold and the beginning of the 2nd part of the series. I appreciated the realism in showing that overthrowing the evil empire is really the easy part, and that governing the mess that's left over is much harder.

Skipping ahead a bit to the actual topic of this post, Lightbringer was a breath of fresh air for me after the brutality of the preceding book, Dark Age. Dark Age had a lot of important plot events, a lot of action, and a lot of setup for future payoffs, but overall it was a pretty depressing read because basically nothing good happened. The protagonists spent their time losing, failing, and suffering against a backdrop of solar system-wide war and genocide. Arguably, Lyria had a somewhat happy ending, having avenged herself on the terrorist sect that killed her family in Iron Gold. But otherwise, pretty much every character sinks further into peril and badness (note to self: find thesaurus). Dark Age feels like The Odyssey if it ended half way through with Odysseus trapped on an island far from home, his crew having all been killed. It starts low and ends mostly lower.

Lightbringer takes those same characters and gives them a more traditional upward trajectory. There's still a lot of bad stuff happening, but the good guys are getting some wins again and it feels nice. In terms of narrative structure, it makes sense, because if there is only to be one more book after Lightbringer, some plot threads definitely needed pruning. This book does that with aplomb, with several big bad antagonists being dispatched. True to usual Pierce Brown form, their deaths are exciting and violent.

One good thing about all the horrible stuff that happens in Dark Age is that the reader comes into Lightbringer fully aware that Pierce Brown is willing to make beloved characters die or suffer terribly (if you needed a reminder from the first trilogy). As a result, Lightbringer features some scenes that were nearly unbearable for me because the tension was dialed up to 11.

Favorite scenes in particular (SPOILERS AHOY)

Mustang and the battle for Phobos

Mustang spent Dark Age losing the seat of her power to a violent coup and then narrowly escaping, leaving friends behind to be horribly tortured. Now here she is having fallen back to her home turf, defending it against implacable and wily enemies, and nothing seems to be going well. Can this woman catch a break? No, she cannot. The chapters in this section of the book switch POV back and forth between Mustang and her foe in the battle, Lysander, and were so full of tension that it was hard for me to stop myself from skipping ahead to find out the outcome. I really appreciate how Pierce Brown showed Mustang's leadership in making the tough decisions. Sacrificing some soldiers to save others, knowingly sending technicians to die to get vital systems back online to save thousands of lives, etc. She really burnished her credentials as a formidable leader here, managing a tactical retreat that prevented a defeat from becoming a rout. The scenes of her escape and near capture of (and by) Apollonious were incredibly tense. Great stuff.

Darrow and Sevro's fight against Fá

I went into this pretty sure that Darrow would survive. I think if he's going to die it'll probably be in the last book, ya know? But the duel between Darrow and Fá was still immensely exciting and satisfying. Every time Darrow got a hit in on this heretofore invincible-seeming monster, my brain dispensed dopamine. I enjoyed how they snuck into Fá's presence. I didn't guess the plan until shortly before the trap was sprung, and it was a really rewarding realization.

I didn't love some of what Pierce Brown did with Volga in this book, but the scene with Volga and Lyria right before the Darrow/Fá duel was pretty intense. I was pretty sure that Brown wouldn't have Volga use an evil mechanical bone-saw glove thing to rip the beating heart from Lyria's chest in a ritual of mass human sacrifice, but this is Pierce Brown we're talking about, so I was still worried. With most other authors, this scene wouldn't have had the same tension because of plot armor.

Lysander and Atlas and Cassius

By this point in the story, Atlas has been built up as a terrifying antagonist. Always three steps ahead, willing to stop at nothing. Lysander and Cassius taking him down was epic. What happened afterwards was heartbreaking but cemented Lysander firmly beyond the moral event horizon as a bad dude. There was a lot of “will he or won't he” be a bad guy, but I think it's safe to say now that Lysander will be the main antagonist in the final book.

Conclusion

This was my favorite book of the tetralogy so far, with Iron Gold in 2nd place. Tons of tense action, and finally some good things happening for our protagonists. I hope that the final book can continue to provide the action and tension we crave with a good payoff at the end. And with luck, a happy ending for at least some of the protagonists and the Society at large.