"HAIL THE REAPER!" Morning Star Red Rising Book 3 | Deep Themes, Deep Thoughts, and Recap

“Finish the bucket, or get the box!” 

At this point most of you are fully aware of what you’re getting into with this series, so let us officially induct you into our den of Howlers. Just remember two things: “Omnis Vir Lupus 🐺🤘,” and “sh*t escalates.” Because there ain’t nothin’ Pierce Brown has written thus far to indicate that the next four books will bring us anything other than chaos and pain, yet here we stay. Wolf cloaks on, loyal until the end.

We kicked off Sci-Fi Summer with a full-length episode introducing the genre and setting the scene for a closer analysis of science fiction. We discuss who has historically defined and dominated the genre, its subsequent evolution, and how our newest deep dive obsession, the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown fits into it all. Next, we covered books one and two in detail and have officially concluded that this series is indeed, everything you all told us it would be…and MORE. The twists, the turns, the betrayal, the action, the political subterfuge (and everything else!) have fully consumed us and quite frankly, we’re terrified to see what lies in wait. 

Today we’re diving into book three: Morning Star, the official conclusion to the original trilogy. The rebel alliance is growing with the resurrection of the Red’s “messiah” and we find out who truly wants The Society destroyed, and who will fight to the death to maintain it. With big changes and transfers of power who will step in to create order from chaos? And will it be possible to do so in a way that honors revolution and freedom? We can only examine the implications of real or imagined technology and science on society thoroughly, critically, and responsibly through an intersectional lens. Is Pierce Brown doing this responsibly while also keeping us entertained? 

We bring you our spoiler free reviews, “Five Sentence Summary” and all our faves and least faves, but also discuss sci-fi themes, differences and similarities to fantasy, the romance, genre miscategorization, lore and fun facts, quotes, character growth and relatability, and most importantly… themes. All of our characters are constantly evolving and now we’re prepared to look ten years ahead to what they’ve created through all of this destruction… Was it worth it? 

Next week we’ll begin our coverage of the second plot arc which commences ten years after the conclusion of Morning Star with book four: Iron Gold. And something tells us that even though we feel ready, we’re nowhere near prepared. 

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Transcript

If you want a book to make you feel something, this will do it. I don't think I can do this anymore. We get it now. We get it. It is officially like it's on. Your heart racing yet. This is us before reading Iron Gold. I don't know how it

Welcome to the Besties in the Books podcast, guys. I'm Liz. And I'm Ashley. and welcome to our fourth episode in this Red Rising bonus series. You guys were asking us to read it for so long and we are so sorry it took us as long as it did cuz we're freaking obsessed. We're obsessed. It's official. It is that official. It's the next obsession, hands down. So, this is our first official deep dive into book three, though, and it is the conclusion to what was the original trilogy for Red Rising. So, this is going to be featuring Morning Star today. We're going to be dissecting it, pulling it apart, laughing, crying, feeling old.

I was like literally going through their quotes today, starting to cry again. So, I'm like, "Thanks. Great. Okay, cool. Cool. It's going to be those. It's going to be one of those." And we love it cuz like rip our hearts out. But also I'm so mad. Okay. Well, it's like I I texted Ashley. I was like, "We thought we knew pain before reading Pierce Brown." We did not. We didn't. We didn't. Oh, so we If you know, you know. If you know, you know. And we'll talk about it. We'll be your moral support, emotional support if uh if you need it here when we get to the spoiler section. We'll all laugh and cry together. Okay. Literally. So, we kicked off this whole thing with what is science fiction? You know, because we as ladies were like, "Hey, we're not really into sci-fi." Oh, you sweet summer child. Yes, you are. You just don't know it. You've always been obsessed with sci-fi and you just didn't know that what it that's what it was. Duh. So, we decided Liz did all the research on that one and really educated us in a fun and uh informative way and we really appreciate that. That was great. And then of course we did the first Red Rising Deep Dive. Incredible. Went into Golden Sun and here we are now back for more pain. And apparently I heard good luck with the next three. So cool. Cool. Great. Can't wait. I really I can't wait. But I also I'm so scared. Mom, pick me up. I'm scared. Yeah. Literally. I think I think in the fable chat I just put something like I don't think I can do this anymore. like I'm too scared. I've been I've experienced too much trauma and it's only the end of book three and everyone's like, "Oh yeah, the second, you know, like arc basically like books, you know, four, five, six, and then ultimately seven are crazier. They're way more advanced. There's multi-povs. There are lots of new characters like and bring on the pain even more." And I'm like uh like I literally don't know how that might be possible. I'm crying just thinking about the possibilities. I know. I'm afraid. I'm afraid. So anyway. Anyway, just uh Yeah, prepare prepare yourselves. Yeah, prepare your loins. G your loins as much as you as much as you can be. I thought I was prepared. But I was like, "Oh, after books one and two, like I'm figuring out that basically Pierce Brown just sits over there and figures out the ways that he can hurt us the worst and then just writes those, you know." So I was like, "Okay, all right." No, I was not prepared for book three of Morning Star. Well, when you said that to me, I'm like now envisioning Pierce is like sitting in his like evil layer, which is just his room with his books, I'm imagining, much like us, and just has this the swivel chair with I is he a cat guy? He seems like a cat guy and he just has like a fuzzy, you know, cat on his lap and he's just they think they know pain. They don't know pain. Like, and that's what I envision now. And I think he brings some great joy. So, good for you, I guess. It's like, you know, the villain from um who was that? Is it Mr. Gadget? Is that what it was? Where he has like the arms that like shoot out? Oh, Inspector Gadget. Inspector Gadget. Mr. casual. You lost me on that one. Yeah. Um, but you know how the villain is literally that he's just a guy who like sits at his desk and like pets a cat. That's Pierce. Sorry. Yeah, that's literally who it is. Yeah, it makes sense. Or he just writes down like what could be the worst possible things that could possibly happen and he writes them on little post-its and then he just sticks them on a wall and just like throws darts at it and just writes those things. Yeah. So, anyways, here we are. M uh we're releasing a bonus episode every week on Friday in case you guys didn't know that. So come cry with us every Friday. It's going to be great. Uh yeah, as of recording this, we have not started book four yet. So we don't know necessarily at all what that will bring, but I'm sure I mean stick around for next Friday where I'm sure we'll just be like slowly passing away. Uh but yeah, so here we are. All six books. We'll end on our seventh episode. But I did write in here, what did I say? I said, honestly, at this point, with the level of intensity that this OG trilogy has brought us, it's kind of leaning towards we might need its own wrap-up episode. Yeah. TBD. But like the next three books are longer. Yeah. And what we've heard, it's crazier. Lots of POVs. So, we'll see. Um, but we will be basically bringing you Friday episodes until we've wrapped up all of the existing books and then potentially ranked them all in a separate episode, but we'll see. Yeah. So, yeah, today we're just going to be deep diving into Morning Star, the conclusion of the original trilogy and book three. And we'll be, you know, talking about the fantasy versus sci-fi lens. We'll give you a little bit of, yeah, our spoiler-free obviously reviews to start off with. Um, so first, you know, 15 minutesish max will be uh spoiler-free reviews, spice rating, who we'd suggest it for, and a little bit of lore, which will be cool. Fun fun facts about the Red Rising fandom, franchise, whatever you want to call it. U, but before we get into all that, we just want to say thank you so much for being here. Seriously, thank you so much for taking time out of your day and your book to come and hear our thoughts on this infamous series. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you listen your favorite podcast, including YouTube. We are Best in the Books podcast everywhere and Instagram and Tik Tok. We are also there at the same handle. So, come and hang out with us. It's so fun. It's so fun. Come cry with us. We We all support group. Red Rising support group is what I am going to name the future fable chats for the next three books. Yeah, totally. We all hold hands in a circle and cry. Okay. Yeah. Do you have any fun Red Rising lore that you would like to share with the group? The like good for Pierce Brown. The Morning Star, the third novel in the series debuted at number one New York Times bestseller when it was published. That is incredible. going from like, you know, he had a bunch of books that were not published that weren't going anywhere to Red Rising getting picked up and becoming a number one bestseller for Morning Star instantly. It's pretty amazing. So, good job authors out there. That's amazing. Incredible work that you guys do. So, I mean, how could it not be? Like, imagine reading Red Rising and reading Golden Sun and then not literally being like auto knocking on the window of like your local bookstore like as soon as they open in the morning being like, "Get that to me." You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, like I need it right now. Yeah. So, it makes sense. It really does. That's awesome. Yeah. So, I thought this was kind of cool. Um, and random, but I just looked up some like of the inspiration behind some of the character names. Mhm. Okay. So, or like where supposedly Pierce Brown got some of his inspiration from. So, Darrow's journey is frequently compared to Alexander the Great, Spartacus, and um, Edmund Dantes. I think that's how you say it, cuz I haven't read it from the Countmani Cristo. So, I thought that was cool. Yeah. Um, and then Seo's surname. So, Barka is a poetic nod to the brilliant uh general Hannibal. His chaotic gorilla style howlers are based on the real life World War II filthy 13 squad, which I was like, I don't know how true any of this stuff is, okay guys? Like, but hey, it it gives me like things that I can like look up and look further into and dive deeper down the rabbit hole into the lore, which I appreciate. Um, and then I thought this was cool, so I'm going to probably butcher saying this, but Casas takes his name from Gas Casinus, the historical figure who assisted in the assassination of Julius Caesar. Oo, what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? I know. I thought that was cool. Yeah. Um, oh, and then also for any of you Goodwill Hunting fans out there, again, um, there is a part in the book where Mustang tells Darrow, she says, "It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. Four times referencing Shawn Maguire, played by Robin Williams, comforting Will Hunting and Goodwill Hunting. A And there's actually a lot I think that's one of the cool things that I really like about these books. There's actually a lot of uh like pop culture references like woven in um as well as like all of the kind of like mythology lore, too. So, I was like that's really cool balance. Yeah. So, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Very nice. Very nice. All right. Well, here we are at our spoiler-free reviews. Yeah. Yeah. This is like one of those that like I'd rate infinity stars if I could. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Infinity. Um Yeah. Infinity stars five stars because it's the highest that uh the internet let us go. Yeah. Um, I mean, if you've made it to book three and you're considering not reading it, like I couldn't be you, but like just read it. Like, I don't know how you would sleep at night, literally. Um, but definitely obviously recommend that this book to anyone who is unsure if they should like continue on with the series, please read it. Oh my goodness gracious. Um, and then yeah, I mean just the series in general, I'm going to just recommend it to everybody from now on forever because this book it's right up there. It's like it takes you on the emotional roller coaster that we all I think look for constantly in book series. And it's like this is one of those book series that I think would be this is like the acitar of quote unquote sci-fi to me. Yeah. Like that's what this is. And it's like I feel like it it has the potential to be the quote unquote gateway drug for so many people. Like maybe Acatar wasn't your thing. Red Rising would probably be your thing. You know what I mean? It's like if you don't love both of them, one or the other will do it for you. But I definitely think that I will just be like screaming from the rooftops forever for people to read this. Um, you don't think that you like sci-fi? Hey, just read it and see what happens. You know what I mean? Um, but yeah, this book specifically, I would say like the emotional roller coaster that it took us on. Um, the political subtrafuge was insane. If you're a Game of Thrones person like I am, dear, it's like Game of Thrones level in space. So brutal. Yeah. Um, and the character development was excellent. The found family, one of my favorite found families ever. Yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, without getting into spoilers, like there was very, very little that I didn't love about this book, aside from the fact that I think that Pice Brown is just like, you know, causing us all emotional damage and destruction. Yeah.

Yeah. Here we go. Infinity stars if I could. So, I'll have to do a solid five stars. That's all the let us rate it. Okay. This is officially my favorite book so far in the series that I've read. So, that's it's number number one. Number one. And then book two is number two. And book one would be number three as far as ranking goes for me so far. Yeah. They're just getting progressively better, which is how it should be. Which is how it should be. It's what I want and more. You know, he brought us what we want and more. I didn't know what to expect at all going into Red Rising. Really didn't. Knew knew it was sci-fi. That's it. Um, so I get it, you guys, that were telling us to read it. We get it now. We get it. It is officially like it's on. This book is the make it for me 100%. Cuz I was in it, but I feel like, okay, book one was like definitely our introductory, right? It had that Hunger Games vibe to it. um he there the characters are younger. They're, you know, dealing with those younger emotions. We're we're aging with the characters and I really appreciate that. And then book two I really enjoyed, but I was still trying to like understand the political systems and the names cuz they're more Greek and difficult for my brain. But like now, okay, I'm completely warmed up. I'm in it. I understand everything that's happening. So that also helps. Um, and yeah, it's just if you want a book to make you feel something, this will do it. Yeah, it's perfect. It's perfect. It's perfect. We'll just put it this way. It's like, you know, I have my right leg has a gigantic like uh SJM tattoo on it, right? That centers all around Neesa's sword, Adoraxia, and then everything's kind of like around that. So, I've got like Throne of Glass, Acatar, Crescent City, all the stuff and Hunts Wings, all that. I literally was texting Stacy, our tattoo artist over at Seven Stars Tattoo and Eureka. Go see her. Um, and I was like, "You have to read Red Rising because I need Darrow's sling blade on my left leg with all of the Red Rising stuff around it to match. It's like that's how much Yeah. I love this series where I'm just like it needs to be on my body forever. It has affected me just as much as A Court of Silver Flames, just in a different way. And so, yeah. Obsessed. Yeah. Yeah. So obsessed. She said she's gonna read it. I'm so excited. Yeah. Stacy, you're going to love it. Everybody's going to love it. Go read it. If you haven't yet and you're still trying to get the feelings, guys, just do it. Don't listen to the spoilers. We give you permission to exit stage left and go start picking up this book and read it. And just just trust us. Just trust the process. Trust it. Literally, please. Please, just do it. Uh, okay. So, should we just get into spoilers, including the five sentence summary of Doom? Of Doom. We got to do it. Let's go. So, guys, spoilers are coming. Save it to your playlist, watch it later, and come back when you finish the book so you don't get anything spoiled because that is the whole thing of it. You can't be spoiled on this stuff. Don't do it. Don't do it. Not worth it. This is This is something that you might stick with you and ruin it. I think it would. If I heard if I heard the spoilers for this, it would have ruined some things. So, don't be like us and say, "Well, I'll forget." Because I do forget a lot of things. This one I will never forget. Never forget. Agreed. So, get out or stay and be ruined. Whatever. I'm not your mom. Okay. But it's time. Don't say we didn't warn you for at least the five sentence summary if not more. How'd you do? Oh, I mean I put everything into a quote unquote five sentence summary format. Yeah, that's all that matters. Yeah, but it's a lot happens. Yeah. Yeah. This is like Yeah. Like I said before, it's Game of Thrones level political subtrifuge where everything is important and it's hard to just cut stuff out and be like, "Oh, that won't come back around later." Really? It probably will. So yeah. So anyway, and I will have a character new characters to talk about places and things too after the five sentence summary. So we can go into that. If you guys need to skip ahead, if you're looking for certain information in this episode, there are chapter markers so you can skip to the characters if you need to. You could just hear our thoughts if you don't want the summary. But listen, Liz puts a lot of hard work in that. Let's hear the summary. We're excited. It breaks my brain. Oh, before we get into this, too, it must be stated for the record since we always do this. This was a less than one spice. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's go time. All right. It's go time. I apologize in advance for the chaos, but listen. Yeah. I mean, here we go. Can't do any better than this. I feel like, unfortunately, I did my best and that's all we could do. Okay. Morning Star by Pierce Brown. Daryl is rescued by two undercover sons agents named Holiday and Trigg, brother and sister, after being dragged out of the box that Adrias had been keeping him hostage inside for the last nine months, aka his dining table, and outright torturing him for three because Daryl had finally reached his breaking point. And rather than let him unal alive himself inside the box, Adrius was going to hand him over to be experimented on by Octavius Carvers. But he was found because Sevro, who refused to believe he was dead and at who and who has been leading the resistance as Aries, insisted they continue looking for him after his public execution was broadcast across the galaxy. Seo and Ragnar ride a gigantic drill up through the ground and dramatically rescue Daryl, Holiday, and Victra, who is also alive, but being imprisoned and tortured by the Jackal. After they are almost caught and Trigg is killed by Asia and Daryl wakes up to his family including his uncle who is actually alive. Seo and Dancer fill him in on the second moon rebellion which includes 67 moons that Mustang now leads and the last year of war he's missed including the fact that Rogue is now being called the poet of Daimos because he controls the whole of the sovereigns fleet and is undefeated in battle. There is open rebellion and warfare happening across Mars and other areas. A faction called Red Legion, led by Harmony, is now massacring every high color they find and the media is being used against them. However, Seo did manage to get the video of Darrow being carved out to the masses. So, that was the major catalyst for the war. Now, he will not only be a martyr, he'll be a messiah, come back from the dead to lead the people to freedom.

One one. It's like this is so crazy. Okay, here we go. experiencing it all over again. Okay. Daryl begins to be pulled out of his hopelessness as he talks to soldiers and sees how much his presence bolsters them in their cause. So, he sends an emissary to speak with Mustang, has Mickey get him back to Prime Health. Victor joins the Suns after they lash out their or hash out their murky past and Seo initiate Darrow, Vicra, and Holiday into the Howler's Pack. Their first mission to crash the economy when they find out that Quicksilver is Adrius's silent partner. They break into Quicksilver's compound and find Matteo who sever beats because he assumes his betrayal of the sons. Then they move on to Quicksilver's office where they find the death knight, Moira, Cas, Kax, Daxo, and Mustang who they fight, killing the knight and Moira and taking Kax and Quicksilver as hostages. But Casius, Daxo, and Mustang stand down and retreat when Mustang almost kills and realizes it's Pharoh and that he's alive. They flee, jumping off the ship into space, almost dying, but being picked up successfully by Holiday. Then Kvax explains that Orion saved almost all of Daryl's crew and fleet who now fight alongside Mustang who is on the rebel side because she believes in it, not because of Daryl. And they were meeting with Quicksilver because they are losing the war. And he offered a deal when Mustang becomes where Mustang becomes archer of Mars. Everyone is pardoned and some reforms are made quote unquote, but the empire will still stand. Ultimately, they learn that Quicksilver was indeed working with Fitzner the entire time as a founding member of the Suns. And Seo and Darl hash out their power dynamics, forgiving each other and rallying the resistance, making their first broadcast together, revealing that the Reaper lives.

Two. Two. Mustang officially allies with them and travels to Ragnar's planet to gather an army from the Valkyrie Spires. When they are shot down over the Antarctic plains by Cas and his crew. Both ships crash, but they eventually find Cas, Asia, and two others, and they fight. Mustang getting an arrow in the shoulder. Cas gets one through the throat, and Asia falls into creass, disappearing after cutting Ragnar down. Sephi and her Valkyrie warriors come down on their griffins, having seen their lights, and is with Ragnar, her brother, as he dies. Daryl delivering the killing blow so he doesn't suffer, but not before telling Daryl he was going to kill his mother in order to enact their plan. And now Daryl must do it. However, when they are taken back with Sephi, they're thrown in the dungeons. Alia, Ragnar's mother, unwilling to help them, even though she's fully aware that the golds are not gods and her people are essentially sold into slavery to keep the status quo. So Sephi is tasked with taking them to Asgard to be surrendered, but they're able to reason with her, and she chooses to help them kill and kidnap the golds on Asgard, pretending to be gods. They go back to expose this to Alia and her people, but she doubles down in the lie, acting like she doesn't know the truth and calling Sephi a traitor. So Sephi kills her, takes the throne for herself, and rallies her people to war, joining Darrow and the Rising. So they go and gather thousands of allies from different tribes before Mustang orchestrates their intricate and grand migration to join the Suns.

Three. I know. I feel like so much happens. It's like obviously we're going to talk in detail, but it's like I have to like briefly skim over major plot points. Yeah. Okay. On Tenos, they reunite with Seo and the Howers and establish a tenuous alliance with Romulus, the new sovereign of the Rim Moon Rebellion, who they promise real sovereignty to once they win the war based on the semi- true intel from Casius that Rog cannot effectively refute that Octavia has 500 nuclear warheads that she plans to use against them for rebelling for rebelling. It's actually the Jackal. So, they fly to war. The sons, Mustang and Romulus, effectively outsmarting Rog's fleet and boarding his ship, resulting in his surrender and suicide and the complete destruction of Romulus' shipyards by Darrow, who blames it on Rogue. After the battle, Daryl meets with Casius. They drink and reminisce. Daryl leaving him to watch a specific video alone. Meanwhile, Victor catches up with and takes Victoria's entire fleet, killing most of the golds, but throwing Thistle and her sister in the dungeon for questioning. But before Thistle can give them any info on what Adrius might be planning, Victoria kills her. And then Victor beats her almost to death. Darrow gets a calm from the Jackal who executes his uncle Nero. And this creates chaos and discord among the Low Cololers who are now turning on their gold allies. Mustang calls in saying that Darrow should get to her ASAP. It's chaos and Sephi is leading the Low Cololors and Cas is taken hostage by them. But Seo makes a grand gesture to hang himself after hanging Cas. So Sephi cuts them down, recognizing his point that they have to be different to create a new world. They're patched up. Victor proposes to Sebro. They get married and during the reception, the Jackal calls Darl. They banter back and forth and Mustang steps in two, basically just telling him that they're coming for him.

Uhoh. So stressful. Uhoh. Okay. They travel to Luna to attack the core. And Daryl and Mustang decide to secretly smuggle Cas out because they still believe he can be good. But he uses it as an opportunity to free Victoria, kill Seo, and imprison Daryl and Mustang in the box he was going to escape in. Then contacts Asia, who reveals that she was or this was all the Jackal's trap. Adrias makes Cassas cut off Daryl's sword hand, and then they're delivered to the sovereign, who orders Asia to kill Antonia for treason when she left Roken Battle to save herself. And the Jackal is about to execute Daryl live on air when Cas kills several of the guards and reveals this has all been part of their master plan. So they kill the knights and gravely injure Octavia, wake Seo from his fake coma, kill Asia, then together they watch Octavia die. Her final warning to stop Adrius. Cassie tells her he defected because the video Daryl showed him was of the Jackal killing his entire family and Octavia being complicit in it. Meanwhile, the Jackal moved all of his nuclear weapons to Luna and is detonating them slowly through his second who is on a ship in the middle of their fleet. Each bomb killing millions. So, Darl attacks him and rips his tongue out. Then, Lysander suggests calling the Ash Knight because he will see reason. He does and they are finally stopped. Mustang assumes the role of Sovereign and is mostly accepted because of their brutal way of life. Adrius is hanged and the survivors aside from Cas who takes Lysander away to raise him away from politics try to figure out how to move forward. They abolish the color system and Mustang introduces Darrow to their son Pax.

Is your heart racing yet? Dude, that was so so many things happened. Apologies for the chaos, but there was no other way.

Still things were left out is the thing. And it just makes my brain crazy. But holy moly, this was insane. So many twists and turns. Oh my god. So much trauma. Is right. Yeah. So, wow. Thank you, Liz. Great job. Holy smokes. It's only going to get worse from here. So, good luck. Crow speed. All right. So, we went in very ind depth. uh in book two, our deep dive with Golden Sun on characters. So, we're not going to like do the basics. We got the basics down. We know it. So, a couple of characters that are coming up a little bit more frequently that we haven't been paying too much attention to or maybe some new ones. Okay, so we have Romulus Raw, which was the arch governor of Low and the leader of the Moon Lord. So he's the one that joined forces with Daryl in exchange for pulling basically the son of Aries from his planet and like telling him where they were where they were even though Daryl let gave him a heads up. So he did that instead of siding with Rogue. So that was that big pivotal moment. Super exciting. That whole scene was incredible. But then Darl technically double crosses him. Yes. So, we'll see if that comes up later because he did use Rogue's ship as the one to destroy the shipyards. But, like, I get it. Like, I get both sides cuz he didn't want him turning on him right after and coming for him anyways. And he said something like it's going to take him 50 years to rebuild those shipyards. So, you know, we'll see that that might come up later. I don't know. Worried. Romulus knows. I mean, cuz they had that discussion at the end where basically like it's like an agree to disagree situation where it's like Romulus gets his sovereignty as Darl promised, but then he understands that Daryl blew up all of the shipyards, but they kind of just like, you know, kind of give each other like a staredown and then like move on. You know what I mean? So, we'll see. We'll see. Yeah. But it's like as another leader, it's like, well, yeah, I get that, too. So, hey. Mhm. All right. And then we have Regulus Aan which we find out is Quicksilver and not only is he Quicksilver but he is the co-conspirator that was alongside the son of Aries which was Fitner. So he was the moneybags okay as an extremely wealthy silver. He funds a lot of what was going on with the son of Aries including Darrow's gold transformation. Mhm. So that was pretty cool finding all those pieces. Yeah. He gives him a lot of the tech, like supplies him with a lot of the tech and has a lot of like underground connections. Yeah. Which I love that because it makes so much sense. Like so it's like Fitner couldn't have been the only one running the show. Like there has to be different just like we have with our found family that we have right now. There's different strengths and weaknesses. So I like that he explained that and it and it just makes sense. Mhm. We have Sephy the quiet. So Sephy is sister to Ragnar. RIP the daughter to Aaliyah. I think that's how you say it. I don't know. Eli the Snow Sparrow. So, she was she had sworn a vow of silence when Ragnar was given over to the gods. And so, that was a big pivotal moment when she spoke for the first time. So, people listened, that's for sure. So, a key leader also in convincing the other Valkyrie clans and tribes of the Antarctic uh to join the rebellion. Yeah. So, big deal. I think she's going to be also a major player in the next couple books. And um yeah, Aaliyah is no longer since she chopped off her head. That was great. Love her for it. Yep. Then we have Landra Lander Aloon. So he is the grandson of the sovereign Octavia, an heir to the house of Lon. He reappears. So he is also kind of a bit of like peace in between the rebellion and the sovereignty as we see him play out his role at the end of this book and that was really exciting. So he always has like uh he's idolized um Daro in the other books like mentioning he had been watching his tapes and things like that. So, it's it'll be interesting to see where his character evolves or devolves cuz he could still go either way. So, we're seeing right now he's a nice neutral middle ground that can see both sides, but he's also young. So, I'm nervous, but I'm also hopeful. Well, it's like Cassie kind of took him under his wing and basically was like, I'm going to take him. We're going to not participate in this war anymore. Off we go. I want to raise him outside of this. So, yeah, I have my theories about that. We'll talk about it in a little bit. All right. All right. And then just to touch note on some of uh Daro's family we get reintroduced to again. So his mother is Deanna. And then we have Kirrion which is his older brother. We have Noro who RIP. And then which was his uncle. And then um we have Dio which was the sister of Io his late wife. Yeah. So they'll be I think also in the next ones except Naro. Nero. And then uh a big FU to the Jackal and his band of bone riders who are mostly all dead. Thank the Crows. Yeah. Which was Antonia dead, Thistle dead. She was a previous howler. So that was a sad moment, but also like Yeah. Hey, extra double double middle fingers to her. We do have and obviously the jackal's dead. Good and dead. So that's awesome. Yeah. Um, but Lilith is still around. So, she was the one operating the bomb. So, what is going to happen with her? I'm scared. I'm nervous. Oh, no. Because she also is strong. She wasn't just a follower. So, I'm definitely nervous about where that's going to go cuz I also think she's a psychopath. So, yeah, for sure. You'd have to be. Yeah. Um, for things, I only put the ship Morning Star because I just felt like that was an important moment. It was an important thing and I didn't realize this at the time, but when I was researching it, it is the largest known warship in the Red Rising universe, at least up to this point. So, that I think is monumental. And that's the Millennium Falcon of uh Red Rising basically. Yeah, it's amazing. So, they named the ship um Morning Star after they commandeered it in the battle against Rogue. So, it's very exciting. And then places we have more exp exploration of the moon such as Feebas and then we have more explor exploration of Mars and the Arctics where the obsidians reside. I loved that. That was very Star Wars to me. It was cool. Like the different like the snow planets, you know, basically. So exciting. And then we get introduced back to planet Earth. H wonder how that's going to go. I know. Wonder. Totally. I'm like, send me back to space. It's crazy. Here, let's go. Mhm. Well, and then um don't forget our new packs, which is Mustang and Darrow's son that we meet at the very end. Yes, I did forget. I didn't forget, but I did because, you know, he's not talking yet. So, yeah, we have packs. So, what's going to happen there? I mean, I'm excited. I, you know, I was wondering how this book three was going to wrap up in such a way. you know what I mean? To where it's like how why is there this differentiation between books one and three and then the rest of the series. So, I love that because it just uh we're going to be sped up a bit in the next set of books. So, we'll see how it goes. I from what I was reading and I may unless I'm confused, but I think the next book is 10 years later. It is. It starts 10 years later. Yeah. Mhm. So, yeah. Packs will be what? Like 10 and a half. So, we'll see how it goes. We'll see. 10 and a half, 11, something like that. And uh Lander is going to be much older. Yeah. I'm thinking he's probably around that same age. 10 11. So he's going to be 20s. Yeah. Like what is that? What is that? Everybody's going to be older and wiser and maybe more badass and stronger. Maybe different sides. People are going to change again. I don't know. There's so many ways you could take it. Well, it's like I love that we get the time jump though because we get to see, okay, Mustang becomes the new sovereign. We get to see how they are actually changing things and what's actually transpired because if it kept going in real time, it's like things are so like change so slow, you know what I mean? Um, so I don't think that that would be realistic to be able to like actually understand like how they're rebuilding society for better, for worse, and you know, making new enemies, new friends, whatever. So, I am excited for that time jump a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So, what was your favorite part of Morning Star? Oh, man. Okay. Um, honestly, I probably said it every time, but I'll say it again. basically just Seo and all the silly things he says and does. Even though he's flawed, he's still that comic relief that we need in such dark, horrible, horrid times. Yeah. Um, the specific part that sticks out to me though is when Seo had taken Daryl's eyes when he thought he was dead. So, he even asked at one point like, "Do you want him back?" Yeah. So cute. I have the quote and everything. Seo, I lean forward. your eyes. He leans in close. Do you like them? Bloody damn. Did you get carved by the best of the business? Do you like them? They're bloody damn marvelous. Fit you like a glove. He punches his hands together. Glad you said that cuz they're yours. What? said Darrow. They're yours. My what? Your eyes. My eyes. Oh, do you want them back? Sever suddenly worried. I can give them back. No, I say I just forgot how crazy you are. I love that. Oh, and then he laughs. Good. I thought it might be something serious, so I'm okay to keep them. And he said, "Find your keepers." I love that. He's like, basically, I wanted to be close to you, so I took your eyes. I'm a little crazy. And why not? Yeah, I love that. I love it. Um, also like in all seriousness, but also still in such several fashion, I loved the scene of him jumping with Casius and being temporarily hung because uh because of what it represented, you know, it was like symbolic. Yeah. Morbid. I'm like a little freaking out, but like also it was such a cool call back to how Darrow handled Tactus back. very similar. Yeah. Of like this is what we're going to do then this is then live by it, you know. So it was such a huge moment and the way Pierce wrote it was amazing. Yeah. Well, it established like just like it established with Darrow back at the institute like that um loyalty from Sephi because she was like, "Oh, I get it now." Like I understand what's happening here. Yeah. That was Yeah. And it's like, oh, you know, yes, obviously he's a bad dude at this point, Casius, but like if you're gonna make him live by these rules, then all of us need to live by those rules. So Seo says, "I'm a murderer, too. Then you better kill me, too. Here we go. Off we go."

Hope it works out. Hope you get it so I can get chopped down from this news. Yeah. Right. And it works. It works. Love them. It is. Mhm. Mhm. Um I love that I mean this wasn't my favorite part, but I did love that um you know he and Victor got married. Yeah, it was so cute. I had a feeling like something that would be their type of relationship cuz he like said I love you and she's like stop being weird or something. What did she say? Like yuck. Uh not yuck but he's I don't remember but basically she said you're stupid. Yeah, I love that. Like you're stupid. Like shut up. Like let's go. And then she proposed to him and he comes in all blushing and excited like she proposed like oh my gosh I'm kicking my heels like a school girl. It's so cute. I love it. Yeah. Um what's the quote? I saw it on a bunch of t-shirts and um I was like wondering what the hell that they were talking about and I'm like now I can't find it. Oh, finish the bucket or get the box. That was one of my favorite parts for sure. um just like the crazy hazing basically, right? Um so anyways, that will be a shirt that I'll be buying for sure because I'm like, "No, I get it. I love that's what we love about the fandoms is like the inside jokes. It's so great." Um, so that was definitely one of my favorite parts because I loved seeing people like Vicra and Darrow who are so, you know, they have to be serious, they have to lead, they've had to be so strong, you know, so formidable, just like basically being hazed in like this prank by Sevro to like join his group, you know? It was like that was a that was a great moment. I loved that. Very humanizing. Um, but my I would say like my all-time favorite parts for sure were there was two when they're trying to break down the door to get to Rogue. And you know, basically Holiday is saying, "I can do it, but it's going to take like 12 or 13 minutes or whatever it was, right?" And Daryl's like, "We're all going to be blown to smithetherreens by then, probably." Um, and that random person, one of the pink low colors pushes the button and lets them in. I was like, "Oh, that was so good." Yeah. Um I loved that part. It was really awesome. It kind of just showed like how there are secret rebels literally everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. And it was such an important moment for Rog to see that like dude, he's all crying and sad. I thought you loved me, but it's like I'm your servant. Like like I'm your sex worker servant. Yeah. like you. I would not be here if it wasn't for having to live within this structure you guys have created and you want to act all almighty because of your fancy words. You know, it's like to Lulu like you're literally delusional. You know, I was rooting for Roo to like figure his [ __ ] out and he just didn't. And so like okay, bye then. Like I didn't want him to go that way but you know it is what it is. So well he just doubled down on the old school philosophy. You know it's like at the core of himself like he wanted to he could not get past the belief that the golds are saving humanity from its ultimate destruction by creating this class system. It's like he couldn't as smart as he is. It's like poet for the wrong reason like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like you can't see the forest for the trees and you think your [ __ ] don't stink. You literally think that you're high and mighty. Yeah. And you are quite literally above everyone. Yeah. And this is you are just doing your God-given right to be in this position. And it's like you're so not you're so not. Yeah. I don't It's crazy. So I did love that part. My other favorite part um which I was glad I remembered because I my memory came back when I was doing all the quotes was when um Victra so when Daryl makes the call to bomb the um docks in the shipyards that Romulus has and he knows that he's going to have to kill hundreds of thousands of if not more than that of low colors to do that. But it's like a sacrifice that they believe needs to be made in order to prevent more death from happening in the future. Um, and he's really mentally struggling with that choice. And Victor just looks over at him and says, "Share the load. This one's on me." And she does it. Um, I that was one of my favorite parts because I feel like those are the moments where it's like the found family part becomes so important because you just see like what we're creating here and like the kind of bond that they have and she is willing to make that, you know, emotional sacrifice for Darrow so that he doesn't have to carry the weight all by himself. And I was like, wow. Like that was really meaningful to me. Yeah. Mhm. So, those were the two. I mean, there was a billion parts that I liked. Okay. But if we're picking out a couple, like those were the couple that really stood out to me for sure. What about your least favorite part? I mean, Ragnar's death will do it. Ragnar. Sorry. Ragnar's death. Yeah. I couldn't believe that. I mean, I could, but I was like, really? I thought we were going to have Ragnar forever, you know, through the I thought he was going to be here with us through the journey. I mean, we have Sephy, so I love that because parts of Ragnar obviously live on. However, that was terrible and sad and the worst ever. It and his fi all his final words and just like he was such a protector. I love him so much. I was crying in the club hard with that one. That was one of those deaths that will go down in reading history for me. Oh, for sure. Oh, yeah. He says, I put this quote down. I will give Io your love. I will make a house for you in the veil of your fathers. It will be beside my own. Join me when you die. He grins, but I'm no builder, so take your time. We will wait. I'm going to do it again. I'm going to cry again. That was the one that I was writing down when I was crying again. Doing the quotes. Um,

I g I also appreciate though that his death isn't meaningless. You know, that Pierce is giving us our time to cry and that yeah, we do see pieces of Ragnar in his sister and it was unfortunately it needed to happen probably because of like to be able to get all of these people to join the resistance. Oh, for sure. such a catalyst to get moving. It was symbolic. It meant like it it maybe is what made that be able to happen. Had he lived, maybe things wouldn't have been able to go the way that they went. So, it's like fine, but I'm so mad at you, Mr. Brown. Yeah. It was brutal. It was so sad. It was so brutal. And the fact that Daryl had to basically bestow upon him the killing blow so that he did not suffer. Yeah, it was a rough time. Uh, yeah, I also put thinking that Casia sucks for real. I was really struggling with that. I was like screaming at that in the Fable chat because I was like this whole time, man, we've been rooting for you even though you've been playing for the wrong freaking team and like we thought you would come around and like what are you doing? Like we really have to hate you forever now. Yeah. like you killed Seo and now we can never forgive you and you will never be redeemed. And I was like I was so mad at it. And then when he makes like the you know when it's revealed that he in fact has been working with them the whole time I was like oh my god thank god. Yeah. Okay. That's my question to you is did you think Seel was really dead when it first happened? I mean, I was in denial, but yeah, I thought that Sebra was really dead and that that was going to be essentially like the rift that would forever make Cas and Darrow enemies. Like, I was like, "Okay, so this is how the line is going to cuz the line needed to get drawn in the sand with Casas one way or the other." Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so I was like, "Oh, okay. This is what's happening." Like, literally, they're going to be on opposing sides forever. This blood feud is never going to end, even though we were all hoping that it would. Um, and so I was in denial, but I was like, "Okay, I guess this is what we're dealing with." And then when he came back around, I was like, "Oh, thank God. They're going to be best friends again. I'm so excited." Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I did think that Sea was dead. And I was really, really sad about it. And it was horrible. But, um, I'm so glad that he's not and that Cas gets to have his day. He gets to have his redemption arc. Yeah. I was so deep in denial. I was like, "Well, it doesn't seem like it doesn't seem like this is h this is we're I know things are happening really fast, but I don't know. Darl doesn't I it's just not the reaction I was expecting from something that monumental." So, I was like I was deep and like la. It's going to be fine somehow. It's I don't know how it's going to work out, but it's going to work out. Several can't be dead. Like, it's not No, I refused to shed a tear. It's not going to happen. He just got married. They're the best. I have to continue reading about his story. It can't end here. So, I was I I didn't like think enough ahead. I was just literally like la no, not going to happen. No, no, it'll work out. Um, but I was kind of thinking it would be weird, but I wonder if the jackal was going to kill because I know he wanted to be the top in power. I figured he was going to take his moment to actually shoot the Sovereign, the Jackal. So, I was I kind of forgot Cas was in the room with us, TBH. I was like, "Well, he's just a dull dud now and he's stupid and he turned on him." So, I was That's what I was and I was like, "Dang it, I don't want a redemption for the jackal because he's just too far. He's too far gone. There's no way." So, I was screaming. I was listening to the audio folding laundry and I went and sat down and I like relisted to that whole like orchestrated synchronized swim of like a thing and it was so incredibly satisfying. Yeah. So good. Yeah. I mean the way that I was basically like the world does not exist to me for the last like 300 pages of this book or whatever 250 pages. I was like literally no one talked to me. I'm gonna sit here and hyper like hyperfocus and I'm so glad that I did because oh my god like the way it played out was just perfection. But yeah, I mean I'm glad that I too am glad that Jackal did not get any kind of redemption because he did not deserve it. Um I do feel sorry for Mustang because brutal that that was brutal. That must have been very emotionally horrific for her. Um but it was a full circle moment but she wanted it too. She's been saying it for years now. You got to kill the jackal. He is crazy. So, for sure. Um, so yeah, glad so glad that we get to see Cas come around um in the future books. Uh, you know, for better, for worse, but I'm hoping for better. So, we'll see how that goes. But yeah, o, what a emotional roller coaster that was. It has to be hard. Like I get I love I love the series so much is because it's really making people face inward especially that are the higher colors to see how the system is working against them as well. And that has to be just obviously as Rogue struggled too to see it and he was so damaged by the system that he couldn't even see it. It's like Casius needed he needed all that growth and he needed everything spelled out for him to finally see like there's not like you they murdered your family and they don't even care. The last thing you cared about. Well, it's like that was the thing that I was struggling with the most was like not googling like WTF did Darrow give freaking Casius to watch like what is that? What is that? What is that? the whole time I'm just hyperfixated on like what happened. And then obviously when we find out it was the footage of the jackal killing his family and then literally the sovereign just being like, "Okay, whatever." You know, I was like, "Okay, that makes perfect sense." Um, but yeah, you're right. It's like that's exactly what Cas needed to basically like seal the deal. Um, it kind of seems like perhaps anything else that had happened up until this point should have been enough, but I get that it was like so deeply ingrained in him. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, I love that. I love a good uh, you know, ridiculous. Yeah. Well, it's being told your whole life this is this is what you're being told and you trust these people and everything and then you have a rebel coming in and trying to convince you otherwise. It's like, well, for their gain, right? It's like, I don't know. Like, it's it's a gray area, so it's hard for them to see it. Oh, man. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Well done. favorite favorite character, Liz. Who stuck out to you this time? I literally like couldn't choose one. I was like, I love Sevro. I love Victra. I love Darrow. I love Mustang. I love, you know what I mean? It's like, what do you mean I have to pick a favorite character? I can't. Like, I love Ragnar. Like, you know, it's even though he's gone now. RIP. Um, but yeah, I mean, there's just so many freaking good characters. It's like the found family as a unit is what makes this book, what makes this series. Um, so I had a very, very hard time choosing one person, but I guess if I had to choose one, I would probably choose from this book, Victra. I think nice. Yeah. Um, but that is very hard to do and we're splitting hairs at this point. It's like I really want Mustang to be my favorite character to be honest, but I feel like we still don't know her on a deep level. I agree. Yeah, I agree with that. I do feel like I know Victor more than Mustang sometimes. Yeah. I mean, for sure. We don't get a whole lot from Mustang's perspective because she didn't really agree to fully ally with Daryl until almost the, you know, twothirds of the quarter of the way through or twothirds of the way through this book because she needed to know, what did she say? that you cannot just destroy, but that you can also build because she has this baby off on this other planet, you know, like and is wondering is my baby daddy a warlord only or like is he going to be able uh to help me run a society moving forward? Yeah. Um so I really really want to get to know Mustang better and I do know that moving forward in the books we do get some of the story from her POV. So, I'm looking forward to that. Awesome. Mhm. What about you? So, for the same issues that I was having with that, I decided to do a standout new character to me that I haven't talked about yet because she's new. Um, I love Sephy. Love her. She's cool. She's super cool. Yeah. Um, that moment where it's like, okay, this makes sense. And it chops her mom's head off. Boom. You're dead. Like, you know, she saw what she needed to see. the proof is in the pudding. Like, okay. And then she just takes her crown and just plops it down, sits on that seat. All right, let's do it. I love that she was willing to go to Asgard and actually see Yeah. what was going on. Like, she wasn't so bullheaded that she was like, "You guys are making it up. You're idiots. I'm just going to kill you or throw you into the dungeons and not listen to you." She was like, "Let's go check it out." And she was like, "Oh." like she was open-minded enough to understand that change was necessary and was willing to unlearn some things which says a lot about her. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. She's a cool character. I agree. Really. Yeah. It's great. Loved it. Yeah. And she was also willing Yeah. She's just she is the perfect amount of willing to grow and it change when presented with new information, you know, with Casius and Seo that whole scene too. Just like yeah, okay. Like I don't like it, but I get it. You know, because she's used to doing operating under one set of rules, and now we need to look at the whole picture here. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. So, obviously, we both hated the jackal and the sovereign. Uh, any other shout outs you want to give to least favorite character? I mean, yeah, Aza, for sure. Like, this is all your fault. Like, Ragnar's death is your fault. I hate you so much. How do you keep slithering your way out of here? I know you're like the best and it took like four of them to take her down. I know. So, she is a badass, but for the wrong reasons. Imagine if they were on their team. Oh my gosh. I know. I was like, really? She fell into a freaking creass in Antarctica where there's like cannibals and crazy monsters and [ __ ] and like literally she still comes back. Yeah. How? Secret like shoot off into space boots. I don't know. Like what? I know you have to suspend disbelief for a minute, but golly. I mean, there are ways, but it's like she was definitely not on my list of least favorite characters, honestly, because I feel like she was a formidable foe and she did have honor until the end. Like, I don't think like given as much of a nemesis as she was, and obviously she killed Ragnar, we hate that. But at the same time, it's like she's also the perfect example of someone like Lauren. Yeah. Who was literally doing that job, you know what I mean? It's like he chose to renounce it ultimately at some point, but it's like, you know, she's definitely part of the system and is defending the wrong side. Um, but I didn't feel like she was like it it didn't feel super personal to me. It felt like she was just doing her duty. You know what I mean? which doesn't make it right, but it didn't make me like hate her as a person that much. Yeah, fair. Like I didn't feel like she was an evil psycho like the jackal or Antonia. Antonia. Yes. Yeah. She was the worst until her freaking last dying breath, right? Just terrible. Her character is just trying to get ahead like no matter what. No matter who she literally steps on, abandons in war. I love that she was called out cuz I loved too like once we get the big reveal that it was like all orchestrated this like transfer because then they killed Antonia. Like that was great, you know? That was great. It was horrible but like great at the same time cuz she got what was coming from her own side and it's like look it they killed they're killing you. Do you get it now? Do you get it now? Probably probably not. But yeah, probably not. I do appreciate as far as least favorite characters go, I appreciated that Pierce said point blank, not point blank, but like gave us like the Jackal is crazy. He's not a smash. Like there's no routeing qualities. He is like just literally like what is it called? Diagnosibly a psychopath. Like he doesn't care about any sides except his own. It's literally a game to him. and he has said it over and over. So, I appreciated that the characters could also see that like, oh, he like he's crazy. Like, he's actually bad guy. When we found out that cuz, you know, we get this intro for the first few chapters or couple chapters or whatever, right, of Darrow in this box or in this I pictured him in like a dungeon, right? Like, he's in a dungeon in a basement. It's dark. He's locked in this cell. He It's very small. He can't move around a lot. Like, he's literally going insane. He's been in there for 9 months and then you just to find out that he's literally been kept inside the Jackal's dining room table for 9 months. Crazy. They've been eating off of the table that they've been keeping Daryl inside of. Crazy. He thought he was going crazy and that's why he was hearing voices. He was hearing voices cuz he was right there. Yeah. like that is diabolical and reminded me a lot of another main character from a popular series who gets locked in a box. Um, and yeah, that was Yeah, you cannot redeem the jackal. I agree with you. I love that it was very very cut and dry that way. Um, also shout out to Ragnar's mom for being sucky, too, because listen, you know that everything is lies and you're like, "Whatever, we'll just keep the status quo going. It's fine. Yeah, it's cool. Gross. I was I glad I'm glad that didn't have to get dragged out too much. Yeah, same. Same. Uh, okay. Well, what about some tropes that you loved? Uh, Trojan horse. Loved that. Loved such a huge reveal. what I picture in my head when like it all got revealed and like Cas turned on them and turned on, you know, the sovereign and everybody starts orchestrating this different unveiling their scheme. It's like that song.

Yeah, totally. Totally. So that's what I imagine. And then he like jumps onto Sevro and is like wakey wakey goblin. Boom. like in the room. Well, that was a very like Pulp Fiction moment or whatever, like with the stabbing with the needle of adrenaline or whatever and he wakes up and they're like, "Our plan worked, dude. Like, we got to get going." Yeah. Can you imagine? Like like crazy. Oh my gosh. It was so crazy. And I appreciate that it didn't like go 100% smoothly. Like the whole scene was so perfectly done. Well, it was because we were all like, "Oh no, is Casius now that we know he's good, is he gonna die? Is, you know what I mean? It's like, is Mustang gonna get gravely injured? Like, what's going to happen in this like whole thing?" Yeah. Yeah. So, it was beautiful. So, Trojan horse and then um with that, it's like literally all tied together, but character redemption with Cas like officially character redemption. And then this time, fake out death is in my favorite tropes because I don't you dare take several from me. Well, and it was done so well as part of like this. It's different when it was planned. Yes. That is different than like we're going to someone's going to almost kill off this character. We're going to think they're dead and then they're just going to come back. It's like no, they literally planned it this way. Yeah. And then it makes sense cuz I was just like, you know, I don't know. Like Daryl isn't like reacting the same way. That's why I refuse to let myself react cuz it's like if Daryl's not like I don't know. I didn't know. I didn't figure out that it was a scheme, but like like no like it makes sense that Daryl wasn't like freaking out when they cuz you know if we ever lose Sevo, Daryl is going to freak out, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So, I I think it would have been it would have been different if like we got all these fake like tears from him or just a response because we're getting his complete point of view. So, even though we're not in on that part of that conversation and that orchestration as the reader, it was just so well done. It was so well written. Yeah, totally. Yep. Yeah. What were your favorite three? So, yeah, I had plot twist, so similar redemption arc, similar. Um, and then I have to keep putting found family in there because that's one of my favorite parts about the series. Yeah. Yeah. Just growing stronger and stronger. Family's growing. It's beautiful. Beautiful. Um, what about a least favorite trope? Something that you really just didn't like. Important character death. Like, I get it, but it hurts. hurts and I get it. I would say I wouldn't change it, but I would. Yeah, I know. It's hard with someone like Ragnar because it's like we understand why it was important, but at the same time like I feel like I don't know. Could we not have achieved it through some other means? Like we had to kill Ragnar off. We all loved him. Like I don't see another way. But I hate it. Sucks. Mhm. So what was yours? Well, mine is I don't even know like what you would even call this trope, so I just put it under foreshadowing. Um, as like the official trope, I just put not killing Lander because I agree with Seo. I think that they should have killed him. Interesting. Interesting. Maybe that's an unpopular opinion. However, or maybe I watched too much Game of Thrones. I don't know. But it's like you're literally going to not kill the heir and then hope that works out okay for you in the long run. Who literally just watched his grandmother die slowly at the hands of you all. It's hard. That's a hard gray area. But they're trying to operate within a new set of rules. They're trying to remake the world. You can't remake the world the same way they made it to begin with. So, it's so I know hard. But I fear he's going to grow up and try to take his power back. Yeah, I'm scared. I'm hopeful, but I'm scared. Maybe being under somebody like Cassas who had to like see it all will be good and beneficial. I think it's going to be a problem. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. It's scary. But if we worked with that set of rules too, then Daro would have had to kill a lot of people that we love, you know, including Cas. He was given a lot of chances. So I think that adolescent deserves a chance, but it's probably going to bite him in the butt. But I think that's the wi risk that he is willing to take for, like I said, orchestrating with under a new set of rules moving forward. Yeah. And he's young enough that figure it out. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I also didn't mention the the daughter of the Lord of the Moons or whatever his name is. Romulus. I wonder if the daughter's going to come back, too. I think she is. That was like a that little side conversation that they had. Yeah. You know, she's basically she's like aware of everything that's going on, but they think she's too young and immature to know what's going on, so they let her listen to everything. So, I think she's creating like she's become she's becoming her own person and it's not exactly what the society would agree with. So, I think she's going to become an important character in the next books as well. At least I hope. Well, because it's I mean we're looking into the next generation so that would make sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, possibly an exciting opportunity there. Also, oh, I forgot to mention this because I had put it as like a side tangent. will just include it in things that I didn't like um in general. Um okay, so I this is like a nitpicky thing, but it bothers me and I don't know why. Like I do know why, but I don't know why. I don't know if it will become relevant, but there are several instances where basically like Daryl explicitly says out loud, I have a couple quotes here that essentially like he is relying on Mustang to be his moral compass and that concerns me. Yeah. On a lot of levels. Um like I understand like being support, being a partner, being a ruler together, being all of those things. However, it's like, okay, so this is one quote. Aren't you afraid you're going to break everything and not be able to put it back together? And then Darl says, yes, I say, understanding myself better than I have for a long time. That's why I have Mustang. Okay, so I was like, that's a little red flaggy. Okay, so then he says later on, she's with me now, anchoring me among these predators. Without her, I could face my enemies, but I would not hold on to so much of myself. I would be darker, more wrathful. I count my blessings that I have people like her to which I can tether my spirit otherwise I fear it would run away from me. So it's like I get what he's saying as far as like it's good to have people around you, you know, advisors, mentors that can help anchor you when you're having to make these huge decisions um and like essentially rebuild the world, right? But it's like at the same time it's a lot of responsibility to put on one person to basically be your entire moral compass. Yeah. Um, so that was something that I didn't like. However, it might be in there for a reason outside of just our assumption that, you know, Mustang can be a more emotionally sound person than than Darrow. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't really like that. Yeah. He seemed to do a similar thing with Io's Io's ghost as well. you know, like using her moral compass to propel him into this and what she stood for. It's like what does Darrow believe? You know, it's like I feel like we know what Daryl believes as far as like what's at the core of him like ethically and morally. However, I think that what he's saying is I might do anything in my power to achieve that which would be, you know, problematic. We'll just say yes. Yeah. Um but the only thing stopping me from doing that are these women in my life and they're they're holding me morally, emotionally accountable. I don't know. I don't like that cuz that's a lot of responsibility to put on someone. But then also it's like why don't you work on doing that inside of your own self instead of projecting that onto other people? I don't know. So we'll see. That might be part of his, you know, growth arc, too, because we've seen him go through a lot of different iterations already. And we're only on book three. Yeah. Yeah. He's only what in his mid20s at this point. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Good call. Good catch. Mhm. So, what about dystopian or political themes you might want to bring up? Any new ones or ones you wanted to call out? I think feel like we got more like ethical like paradoxes in this one with like the bombing of the shipyard. Um they're seeing the underground cities. They also have to they they fall into freaking just bad times like the people within these cities. They're like, you know, they're like, "Hey, no raping and pillaging each other." I hate that we have to say it, guys. Yeah. you know, um but even like what they can feed them and what they can supply them and having those dilemmas of okay, you know, as we blow up these different areas and help these colors rise out of their classes, classisms, how can we be their support because they have no tools, you know? So, I think we're going to see more of that obviously in the future books as well. Um, and that kind of goes hand inhand with the personal cost of war. Like what what are these things going? I like that his family though also went through their growth moments. It seems like his mom like gets it now because she was kind of just like, oh well, like this is just the lot that we've been handed in life and we just have to like deal with it in the last book. And it seems like she snapped out of that and is ready to I'm interested to see if we get to see more of her character where that goes too. Mhm. Well, especially with, you know, her having a grandchild now from specifically like, you know, Mustang who's actually like a gold um and Darrow. So, yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. I mean, breaking those generational trauma, you know, and generational curses and all the things are still heavily themed throughout for all these people. Every single one of them is affected no matter their rank, color, class. Yep. Yeah. I mean, I put similar things. I put, you know, what do you do after you win? Quote unquote. Yeah. You know, um that's made pretty obvious just with, you know, Mustang taking over as the sovereign at the end and then basically being like, okay, well, we we had a vision of tearing down this whole system. But now we realize that it's like we have to still somewhat work within the system that exists to rebuild it a new. like we can't just start from scratch because that's literally impossible. That's not real. Um, so watching them kind of like figure out how to navigate that. Um, so yeah, I also put like, you know, things like the ethics of killing off entire bloodlines like with Lander. Um, tenuous alliances like with Romulus. Uh, the need for an actual leader or symbol of the rebellion because otherwise like you know you literally will have anarchy and I don't think that's what they actually want. Yeah, look what happened when they thought Daryl was dead. Like you still have this symbol, but everybody's branching off and doing their own things. And then you have Severo taking over for Fitner because he's next in line for blood. Like they're still falling into those hierarchies, but then Severo is not actually making the right choices. Yeah. You know, cuz he's a hurt man. like he's a sad human and he's upset and he's out for blood and he didn't like fully understand what they were doing like at the core of it because of his based on the way he acted. Well, yeah. He would he was basically like guns ablazing. Like, let's just, you know, blow up everything and everyone and have anarchy, whatever. Let's just tear it all down. And Darl's like like kind of shaking him like we need to play this game a little bit if we want to, you know, have the ends, you know, like justify the means kind of a thing. Like if we want to get somewhere that we actually want to be, then you can't just do that. Like you could, but then what is the point of this then? There's no point. Yeah. Yeah. So, I did appreciate that, too. Yeah. Did you have any like specific sci-fi themes or anything like that that you wanted to call out that were different?

That were different? No. Very Star Warsy right now because we have so much more planet hopping and spaceship hopping. That's what I put. Yeah. I was like, this is actually really interesting because we're dealing with, you know, look at the maps. like we're dealing with literally like the moon, you know, the outward moons rebellion and like these different planets and like their moons and like all that kind of stuff. So that was actually, you know, super interesting and very sci sci-fi specific, but um yeah, I mean it works the same as fantasy. You just pull up the little map and check it out and it's pretty easy to process when you look at it that way. Yeah. Yep. And then like the ability to repair, you know, and heal them without magic like from fantasy, so more scientific plastic surgery, things like that, being able to heal Daryl after he wasted and emaciated away to nothing again. Yeah. Um, and so yeah, now I'm wondering, uh, did they an anatomically change Darrow so that him and Mustang can have a baby or was that all BS? I still think it was all BS that like they ever were not able to mate, you know, the different classes. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure it was. Yeah. Yep. So, yeah. And then we we have more um we have more uh what's it called in it? eugenics with Mustang's dad getting rid making his mom get rid of the baby that was going to have issues with birth because he said if she's not strong enough for birth then she must be killed and then the mom ends up killing herself you know it's horrible so sad we did get that backstory on Mustang which I did appreciate it was very brief we still don't know a whole lot we don't get a whole insight into her inner self but I did like that that is such a pivotal time like even for the jackal it was so form formative for him and how he processes life and that he it breaks him too. Like how something like that can affect everybody around them, you know? Yeah. It's crazy. It was just like she chose death because and I wasn't good. It's just again to the jackal. Nobody's ever good enough. Like I can sympathize with him even though he's awful and he has no redeeming quality. like he he was a part of the he was a cog in the system as well. Mhm. And it broke him and it made him a horrible person. So he can also just have a screw loose. I was going to say this has got to push him over the edge though, you know. Totally. Having these traumatizing instances to you can can really put you over the edge for sure. Yep. Yeah. I just put, you know, I feel like this just this felt very very very similar to a fantasy book with major battles. It's just we're calling things different things. And as you say, you know, they're able to heal Darrow, regenerate him, whatever, or whoever through quote unquote science, but we don't really know how that works. So like it may as well be magic, you know? Yeah. Um, you know, I feel like, you know, if we're talking about similarities and differences between execution and exploration of the themes using sci-fi rather than fantasy or vice versa, I don't know that like you could even like you could just add different words in. You you could m this spaceship has the biggest dragon like Yeah. And literally the biggest castle fortress. You'd feel the same things. you'd come to the same conclusions. Yeah. Um, you know, obviously we have a space setting rather than a fantasy realm setting, but like okay, you know, it's Yeah, I don't know that that really like necessarily matters in the grand scheme of things. Um, and science versus magic again, it's like if they're so far ahead and so advanced, then it's like we still can't explain like to our brains that science anyway. Mhm. Um, so yeah, I feel like the biggest things for me were the themes of rebuilding a society once everything has been completely broken down and gutted. So, how do we destroy a system and then rebuild it? Abolish the things that were quote unquote wrong with it. Who gets to decide what was wrong with it, was right with it, you know, like to begin with, what's ethical and what's not and then how do we move forward to create something new without recreating all the same patterns. It's a tale as old as time, right? But I feel like it's accomplishing that and we're in that stage right now. So, it'll be interesting to see where the next, you know, arc essentially goes in the future books. Mhm. Um, and then let's see. Oh, I did want to mention this too. The use of romance to propel the plot. So, I did think that this was interesting because obviously Daryl and Mustang have this pushpull kind of like, you know, thing. This uh enemies to lovers thing. Now, we we didn't have a surprise pregnancy, but we did. And then we have a we have a pregnancy trope. We have a pregnancy surprise pregnancy trope. We have a surprise child trope. Um, so you know, we have a marriage, we have a proposal, we have a celebration. Like there are so many elements in this book that are in romance. Yep. Yep. Uh, so there this is, like I said, I still stand by this has more romance in it than Hunger Games, hands down. Yeah. And many other a lot of other stuff. A lot of other fantasy books than I read. Yeah. It's it I think the differentiation at this point in time would be there's plenty of romance romance and I think that this is made a lot in you know quoteunquote fantasy that's like written by men is like or like sci-fi that's written by men is like it's not written for the female gays so therefore we're not getting like like this book isn't necessarily spicy but there's a lot of romance in it. However, I would say that what sets this apart to me is like yes, there has been specific violence against women in this series. However, I feel like it's been handled responsibly, realistically, and it's not gratuitous. Um, and so or excessive, and so I feel like that is what sets this apart in my opinion. But there's definitely plenty of romance. Would it be nice to get a little bit of spice between Darrow and Mustang moving forward or even Vicra and Zeo? Like, yeah, for sure. But like the romance elements are there and they're definitely being used for the same reasons we always see, which is character growth and development, etc. You know, like it's Yeah, I I love it. I think it's great. Yeah, it's great. And I feel like Victra and Servo are like punk icons. Yeah. Like a punk icon couple. Love them so much. I agree. They're the best. They're the best. But I do want to see more and I hope that we do. Obviously, now that we've got, you know, this little family that's starting, it's going to be so cute. I was so happy for them at the end. Honestly, I was like, like I'm not one for a surprise pregnancy trope. I am not one for a surprise child trope, but like it just Yeah. It just touched my heart. I was like, "Oh my god, you guys deserve some joy in your lives." Yeah. Yeah. And I love that she was so like, "I'm not going to even tell you about this. I'm going to completely shield our child from this horrific situation until I know what we're working with here, you know. Yeah, it makes sense. And I mean, he's a fragile fragile dude and that would just bring a different element to his decision making and I do think it was best I think it was the best choice to help him move forward. Well, and I like that, you know, Mustang also conferred with his mom and his mom even said he won't be able to give this the attention he needs. This meaning the war and everything that's going on politically, if he knows that he has this son who he's never met with Mustang that he needs to take care of, like Yeah. then it complicates their relationship that still isn't squared away. Yeah. Totally. In in and of itself, you know. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. So, I feel like that was all handled really well as well. But yeah, to say that this doesn't have romance would be completely insane, especially at this point in time given like how much of this plot has literally been formed around the love story slashinterests. Yeah. So, yeah. I also like that it explained where Mustang was for part of that time and also probably why she reacted the way that she did if she had known. It sounds like she would have known at least she was early on in the pregnancy at the time that he confessed to her that he's a red and took her to his home, you know. And imagine her fear in finding that out. Mhm. That she is pregnant with someone that is at the bottom of the class system and what is that going to mean for their child, you know? And loving him and wanting it and like having to leave the situation before you say something that you can't take back and affect him and their relationship and like needing to process it herself. Yeah. and coming and forming and forming a plan. So, it she's a smart cookie. I do I'm excited to see some more from her point of view so we can get to know her even more. Same. Same. Yeah. Um I also do love but find it interesting and a little bit suspect that the last sovereign was a woman even though we have determined at this point that we're living in a fairly classist society or a fairly sexist society in addition to classist society at this point. And now Mustang, who is essentially breezed over as the heir of Mars, is now sovereign again. I'm like, what's going on here? Yeah. With this. Yeah. You know, I'm like, I don't know. I feel like I need a little bit more explanation. It's like of I get why Daryl would defer to her because obviously he thinks that she would be a better ruler than him. Um, but it's interesting how so many people seem to accept that given what we know about like the inherent sexism that they have purposefully implanted within the society on all levels. Yeah. So that is a little bit contradictory to me, but it might also be intentional. So I'm just going to kind of wait and see how that plays out. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, agreed. So, how did this book make you feel, Ashley? Oh, yeah. He ripped my heart out. He stomped on it and then he laughed at me. Yeah, that's what PICE did from his little his little perch up there just like he Yeah. Yeah. What about you? I literally just put I felt completely overtaken by all emotions the entire time. Yes. Literally. Literally. Yep. There's just like no better way to describe it. Like the roller coaster was real and true. And as I told Ashley before, like I thought I knew pain from books. No. Yeah. No, no, no. Not even. So, can't wait to start the next one. I have to read a couple books first, but oh my god, I cannot wait. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to get into this second iteration. Um, but I am also fully aware of the fact that the final book is still being written and we're going to have to wait for that once we finish these. That's going to be tough. That's going to be tough. So, are there any any unanswered questions that you need to know more about or predictions that you wanted to call out at this time? Yeah, I think we're going to get some of those younger characters aged up like we talked about. Um, and and I'm just I'm ready to let the story unfold. to me. So, um, nothing unanswered that isn't supposed to be. I think it it does make sense. That's what I was going to ask you. Did it make sense for it to be a trilogy and be done? Yeah, cuz it's one of those books that if he decided to not return to it, use your imagination, go from there, because it's hard. Like, we as people don't have it figured out, you know? So, he has to figure it out for that's complicated. It kind of ends very similarly to like the cautiously optimistic, slightly morose but hopeful ending of like the Hunger Games. Yeah. It has that tone, you know, where it's like we don't really know where we're going to go from here, but the people living it don't know where they're going to go from here. Um, it leaves it open-ended to where you could write Yeah. prequels. You could write sequels. You could like do whatever you wanted with it, but it really it left it feeling settled enough in a way that I think a lot of us can accept because of the fact that we don't even really know what the future would look like anyway. Yeah. Um, exactly. So, not any unanswered questions that like I would keep everything exactly the same. Um, I am very concerned that Lysander lives, but and I think that is my biggest prediction is that it's going to come back badly in the future. Um, because I feel like it always does. Um, but maybe but that could be said about any of them. Like then do you go around murdering any of the arch governors? Because I know they were holding them against, you know, they whatever they did with um c just imprison them for their crimes against humanity, but they were also generations old. You know what I mean? Like they went far back generations. So what how long do you reprimand the families that were the leaders, you know, of the machine? So that were also so it's it come it's it's a morally difficult dilemma because if you kill Landra then do you kill you know Venus's arch governor's kids like do you kill I know the sovereign is different cuz she was so I guess I saw I saw the sovereign as a different entity because she wasn't the leader of only one planet or moon or faction. It was like she was the top top. So to me it was like If Lander is the only living heir of the person who is literally in charge of all of the, for lack of a better way of putting it, planets, realms, whatever you want to say, that would be the person to take out because then that would effectively be like, no, we have, you know, wiped out the possibility of any type of person from the old ways coming back and, you know, Kylo Ren us basically. in the future. But, you know, but who knows? Maybe he will change my mind. Yeah, maybe he'll change my mind. Yeah. Uh, but that that's not an unanswered I mean, it is an unanswered question, but it's not like uh one that obviously isn't there on purpose. It's there on purpose. It's a prediction for you. You think it's going to be bad. Yeah, I think it's going to be bad, but I am open to the possibility that I'm wrong. Yeah. You hope you're wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So, I would say we're excited for the next one. We're excited for the next trilogy installment. Yeah. Like, I literally cannot wait. I cannot wait. I wish I would have started it already, but I cannot yet. I'm trying to be responsible and not just cancel my whole life and finish everything. Yeah. As soon as possible. This is going to be impossible, but let's share some quotes real quick. I'll share a funny one and then three uh three three real ones. But uh several we'll just say, you know, I had to include one of his funny quotes because this one literally made me laugh out loud. He goes, "Oh boyo, you look like you slithered out of a skeleton's rickety cooch." Yeah, I'll do a funny one too then cuz it's the best. You troll. Seo shouts, "I'm a terrorist warlord. Stop throwing me. You made me drop my candy." We needed We needed that. So, it just it's also what makes the book so perfectly well-rounded to me. Sweet spot. Let's see. I loved this one. Everything grand is made from a series of ugly little moments. Everything worthwhile by hours of self-doubt and days of drudgery. All the works by people you and I admire sit at top a foundation of failures. Okay, so this is a reference to the like Antarctic area with all the cannibals and stuff. They say this place shouldn't exist, but it wouldn't exist if it weren't for the golds that created it. Mhm. Like they created their own monsters. This is just another little funny one that Seo says, "Shit escalates." Yeah, I've se I've seen that on t-shirts and mugs and stuff, too. And I'm like, I love that now I know what they're talking about. That's so funny. This is always how the story would end, he says to me. Not with your screams, not with your rage, but with your silence.

This one was was good. Uh, suffering isn't real to them. War isn't real. It's just a three-letter word for other people that they see in the digital news feeds. Just a stream of uncomfortable images they skip past. A whole business of weapons and arms and ships and hierarchies they don't even notice. All to shield these fools from the true agony of what it means to be human. Oh, so crazy. Oh my gosh. Mhm. See the parallels. I I could do like a million more. I know. I could do a million more. You guys know we could do it. There's so many. There's so many. I has come and he brought hell. So good. I loved this one because this seemed very very relevant for us right now. They gave these screens to us as chains and today we make them hammers. Oo yeah. Man is no island. We need those who love us. We need those who hate us. We need others to tether us to life to give us a reason to live to feel. Mhm. Yeah. I did like this because this felt very like we'll just conclude on this. There's so many good quotes, guys. Like literally, there's so many just those oneliners that just like make you feel so deeply like how we feel about things like you do not yield or you know I'm the rock against which the surf crashes like the this series has all of those too um that come through so strong. But I loved this one because it was at the end and it just really made it very meaningful. I used to think the life strands of my friends frayed around me because mine was too strong. Now I realize that when we are wound together, we make something unbreakable. Something that lasts long after this life ends. My friends have filled the hollow carved in me by my wife's death. They've made me whole again.

Yeah, that'll do it. Yeah. Well, reviews, guys. Everybody loves it. Nobody regrets reading it. Just do it. I mean, yeah. As of this morning, let's see. The Goodreads situation was excellent, of course. Uh so it has 257,415 ratings as of this morning, and it's uh staying strong at a 4.55 stars. Yeah. Yeah. And Audible is even higher at a 4.8 stars. 54,000 rating should be more than that, but there is a dramatized I hate I can't ever say that word. sorry, dramatized audio split up into two parts. So that's also mixed in with the ratings. Um, it was great. I listened to the audio. It was fantastic. I love the narrator. The narrator is excellent. And I did immersive reading for almost the whole thing. Um, since I was making so many notes and highlighting so many things, um, I have a very hard time doing that only on audio. Um, and so I would say, yeah, I loved audio so much. It was almost entirely immersive reading for me with like little small snippets of doing one or the other. But yeah, I would give the audio five stars as well. However, I will say this. I did buy on an Audible sale all of the Red Rising audio books cuz they were all like on sale for like less than $5. Um, but that being said, I am going to try Iron Gold, which is book four. I'm going to do the dramatized audio so that I could report back to you guys because I've heard it's really good, too. So, we're going to do a tester and see how that goes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, do you have any bonus questions for me or anything that you wanted to add? No. No, I'm good. I've said what I needed to say. Probably not enough. I could talk about it forever. I'm gonna I'm obsessed with it now and I can't wait for the next one. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Red Rising is now my entire personality, and it's literally, like I said, it's like another one of those book series that is like Acatar, Crescent City, Throne of Glass level obsession, plated prisoner level obsession. Um, I think about it all the time. I can't wait to get into the next book. I feel like we I always feel weird and uneasy at the end of filming these episodes because of the fact that I feel like I could talk about it for 10,000 million more hours. Um, yeah, but it's like you guys get it. If you're here, it's because you read it and you wanted to scream with us about how great it is. So, yeah, I can't wait. This is right up there in a in a first to recommend when somebody asks for book recommendations. Oh, for sure. Read Red Rising. Just read book one. That's what I've been telling my clients. I'm like, cuz they ask me what I'm reading, you know, and I'm like, I'm reading Red Rising. Just read book one. Go into it blind. And hey, if by the end of book one you don't want to continue on, then maybe it's not for you. However, I cannot see that happening to very many people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. All right, you guys. Well, thank you so much for joining us today in this discussion of Morning Star. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen favorite podcast, including YouTube, because next Friday, we are bringing you Iron Gold. I'm scared. This is This is us before reading Iron Gold. I don't know. I guess like I don't know how it's going to go. I don't know. Um and so see what happens next time. We just going to start the episode crying. I don't know. I don't know. I feel like that's how we started this one. So maybe it'll just the tears will keep flowing. Or maybe not. I We'll see. We'll see. And you guys will see and we'll all see it together. But before that, we will see you next Tuesday. Bye.