Braveheart in Space is how I’ve heard Pierce Brown refer to this series and that is a good comparison. At some point during this series a favorite character will love, kill, die, betray, change for the better, change for the worse, make horrible decisions, make cold decision, sacrifice themselves or others, inspire, destroy, connive , manipulate or frustrate you to the point you are ready to bloodydamn throw the book across the room.***So let him do his worst.I am the Reaper.I know how to suffer.I know the darkness.This is not how it ends.***The downtime and boring moments are few and far between and Morning Star tested my love for just about every character I was rooting for and made be despise to the very depths of my being the villains to our heroes. There is plenty of action to go around and it was an emotional journey.Darrow is a hero with some reluctance and a lot of heart for a warrior. I am always amazed by his capacity to love and try and to redeem the people he cares for. He tries to give them all chances to break out of the cages of their culture and past to reach to be more and while I respect that greatly sometimes I really just wanted him to murder those who betrayed him.***I howl because I am a Helldiver of Lykos. I am the Reaper of Mars. And I have paid for access to this bunker with my flesh, all so I could come before Octavia, all so that I might either die with my friends or see our enemies brought to justice.***Darrow is a character I have always found easy to connect with on his journey. Had his wife not died he would never have left his little corner of the world. But now that he has he will never be that man again. In every book Darrow has grown and changed into something more than who he originally thought he could be. He becomes more and more complex and in Morning Star the dream he had Red Rising has to grow and change with him.After being captured at the end of Golden Son, Darrow has been through so much and it has changed him. The first chapters are really rough as we learn what fate our hero suffered after the betrayals of Golden Son. They are harsh and have humbled him, they have also left him a little unsure of himself. When he actually makes it back to the war he finds that so much has happened in his absence. At first it is hard for him to find his place in this new war….but Darrow is the link that brings everyone together and he finds his voice and confidence eventually.This is a wild ride. I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I yelled at characters, I gave Servo a time out in the corner, I debated with friends over why I loved Mustang and they hated her but I bloodydamn enjoyed every emotion filled moment of it. I’m pretty sure Pierce Brown is an immortal now being fed with all the tears and emotions of his readers.' What I liked the best: '' Darrow - It is hard not to love a character who has been through so much. But the best part about Darrow is that he ALWAYS has hope and belief in the best of people. He is always sure that no matter their flaws they can be the best version of themselves if given the chance. Except the Jackal because that dude is just cray-cray and deserves to die the death of a thousand paper cuts.Darrow is the embodiment of hope but his is not flawless. He doubts himself at times, he makes mistakes, he sacrifices, he cries more than Mustang and he is not without guilt. By the time the book was over he made some calls for ‘The greater good’ that were horrendous but he is our flawed hero and he really carries the story.' The Humor - Remarkably for a book with so many brutal, bloody and heartwrenching moments there is the undercurrent of funny that softens so many blows.***” Do you like ’em?”“They’re bloodydamn marvelous. Fit you like a glove.”He punches his hands together. “Glad you said that. Cuz they’re yours.”I blanch. “What?” “They’re yours.”“My what?”“Your eyes!”“My eyes…”“Did yon Friendly Giant drop you on your head in the rescue? Mickey had your eyes in a cryobox at his joint in Yorkton—creepy place, by the by—when we raided it for supplies to bring back to Tinos to help the Rising. I figured you weren’t usin’ ’em, so…” He shrugs awkwardly. “So I asked if he’d put ’em in. You know. Bring us closer together. Something to remember you by. That’s not so weird, right?”“I told him it was odd,” Ragnar says. One of the girls is climbing his leg.“Do you want the eyes back?” Sevro asks, suddenly worried. “I can give them back.”“No!” I say. “It’s just I forgot how crazy you are.”“Oh.” He laughs and slaps my shoulder. “Good. I thought it was something serious.”***Sevro and Ragnar were hilarious playing off one another, but (view spoiler) is one of the funniest characters in the book.' The Side Characters - Red Rising has some of my favorite side characters of all time. Sevro and his wolf pack of one is an amazingly fun character. We get to see a little bit of a darker side to him in Morning Star. It was always there I fear but with Darrow out of the picture for a while it took over his life. He made some really questionable, cruel and rash decision that I really wasn’t prepared for. I think I even put him in a time out in my head until Darrow could help straighten him out. I think Quicksilver said it best when they met.***“I did what I had to,” he says, sounding so small. “What no one else would.”“Did you?” Quicksilver leans forward nastily. “Or did you do what you wanted to do? Because your feelings were hurt? Because you wanted to lash out?”***He is still a favorite character of mine he just went a little off the deep end of power for a bit.Ragnar became the heart in Darrow’s absence and I love that stained to death. He became as loyal and good a friend to Darrow as anyone could be and even had some fatherly type advice and affection for him.***“A man thinks he can fly, but he is afraid to jump. A poor friend pushes him from behind.” He looks up at me. “A good friend jumps with.”***He has come a long way from the slave he used to be and more than anyone has taken the term ”Break the Chains and live for more” to heart and incorporated it into his life.MUSTANG!!! - I love her! But, in my reading group there was a great debate on her and her ethics/choices/morality etc. Is she manipulative? Yes! Is she cunning? Totally. Did she play the game better than some of the boys and make them cry? Ab-SO-freaking-LuTe-LY and I love her for it and I appreciate the PB didn’t make her some virginal Mary Sue who needed to be rescued. Virginia never needs a man to speak for her, rescue her or come to her defense. Because she can do it all for herself. I like that in Golden Son she was the one that used Cassius and not the other way around. I don’t care that she didn’t care about him at all. I’ve read plenty of books where a man gets to do that so I’m appreciative for the gender equality here. I also adore the fact that Darrow KNOWS exactly who she is and so he lets her come to her own defense and speak for herself. I appreciate that he doesn’t feel the great alpha need to defend her choices or virtues. He as always accepts the people around him for exactly who they are. And as for the big thing at the end….Darrow lied to her for years about being Red and she lied/omitted information to him for much less time. Even Stevens in my book.There are many more…the Telemanuses, Orion, Holiday etc etc….but you get the jist.' The Action - OMG there was so much of it and it was WOW….Close combat fighting, space opera battles, city revolts the list goes on and on. And every single battle seemed to matter, had something new and different to it and was never boring.'The Villains - There are many and I really couldn’t decide who I wanted to die more. At some point in time all of them were at the top of the list. First The Jackal, then Aja, then Cassius, Antonia, Roque so many horrible people that I wanted to die brutal deaths. The Jackal will be on my most hated character list for a long time I think.***“I listened to your proposal, now listen to mine. Run. Now. While you can. But know, wherever you go, wherever you hide, you cannot protect your friends. I’m going to kill them all and put you back in the darkness with their severed heads for company. There is no way out, Darrow. This I promise you.”***'The Rip Roaring Race To the End - Okay so the race to the end….I caught on pretty quick to what was happening but still that last 15% was nail-biting and I couldn’t read fast enough. But then at the end I was exhausted.' The Things I Had Issue With: 'Really there are only a few things and they aren’t deal breakers by any means.There are a few instances where things go a bit over the top. Servo for instance really stepped over a line with me. I still love the little guy but his character got really dark at one point and I really couldn’t believe that he very nearly killed one of my favorite characters.Someone I loved died….(seriously not a spoiler guys lots of people have died in these books) I knew going into a PB book that it was probably bound to happen but I really didn’t want it to and WOW it was brutal. I cried, I had to put my book down and walk away and while sometimes I’m good with character deaths this one just racked me. Even the dialogue surrounding it tore me to shreds….like I said PB probably immortal now from the tears shed. I can’t complain too much because it fit in with the story and PB has killed at least one character I really cared about in every book. But alas I’m still upset hence in the issues section.Other than that I’m not sure how I feel about the end. It is still really soon and I’m not entirely sure what I expected but it really wasn’t that ending. It isn’t bad mind you and you can’t tear down the entire society in a day it will take time. Maybe I just wanted to see something 10 years down the road to see how people are adjusting. The good news is that there will probably be some more stories in this world so I’m sure I’ll see some other types of closure there.' Overall: 'As overall Dystopian series go I think I only liked the Unwind series more (little less brutal). Everything was well thought out, characters are flawed and three dimensional and there is a great story behind it all.Audio Note: - The Audio for the entire series is fantastic. Tim Gerard Reynolds really brought this to life.