A Saga Of Space And Fantasy

Future title of my book series in the future

[thehaemanthus]

Am I sad there was no Meaper reunion in Light Bringer? Yes. I felt the pain like Darrow did.

On the other hand, it allows me to dust off the idea I had for their reunion, toss in some smut, sprinkle better understanding of canon on top, and serve it. Hopefully.

[regularmuthias]

Here’s how I imagine the reunion. I hope you’ve heard of the film it’s from.

https://youtu.be/6lDM35klH5w

[thehaemanthus]

oh yes, definitely familiar. This is a great score, and I can totally feel the wistfulness/triumph/love in this piece!

[chaoticempathkidtrash-blog]

Please read my fanfic #Reaperstang

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[regularmuthias]

Some soundtrack for a lovely scene like this.

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

Peak delicious irony in how Lysander did more with his atrocity to legitimize Darrow, the Republic, and the Daughters (and in turn actual progress) in the Rim than Diomedes could have hoped to do with his advocacy.

[regularmuthias]

To right, a fresh example of the nice job fixing it villain trope!

But the additional juicy irony is how so very much Atlantia and Atlas have fucked up by underestimating Darrow and letting him run free.

Not to mention there, they were on the cusp of taking mars and Lysander about to launch a surprise. Iron Rain and catch everyone off guard. What do they do? They decide to prepare for the future too soon. 

It was absolutely horrific their plan but ultimately it’s given the Republic and Darrow the shot they need to win at long last.

I knew it was going to come down to the Society’s overconfidence, but boy oh boy Atlas and Atlantia end up being too smart for their own good. Thank you so much for fucking up so spectacularly that it makes the Senate’s fucking up look far more tame in comparison. 😂

[fortbooks]

Light Bringer, by Pierce Brown

Can I just say: it feels good to read a well-paced, well-plotted book whose twists make sense and are traceable? I really dislike the trend of zagging for zagging's sake just to keep the audience on their toes.

Now, onto the actual book:

It took me a few days to go through Light Bringer. The last time this happened was when I read Spoiler Alert by Michael Ausiello. I didn't want the book to end. In Spoiler Alert, it was because I didn't want the person to die. With Light Bringer, it's mostly because I know it's gonna be quite a while before we get the next book.

And, boy, it really would've worked in my favor had I put off reading this book until the release of Red God. Because that ending? Sure, it's a great stopping point. Pierce Brown really has a knack for writing satisfying cliffhangers that don't make you want to tear your hair out. But I want to know what happens next.

I need to know what happens next.

I'm debating on whether or not I'm going to write a full breakdown of what I've read and what my thoughts are. Mostly because that's not the modus for this blog, but also partly because I will be getting into spoiler territory and I don't want some hapless reader stumbling into revelations.

Who knows though?

I did start this blog to help me start writing again, and I haven't been doing a good job of that...

I guess this will be a place holder for now. If I decide to write something more in depth, I'll delete this post. If I don't, here's my review of the book:

Light Bringer is currently the best book Pierce Brown has written.

[regularmuthias]

I couldn’t agree more. Pierce never pull the rug out under us just simply for the sake of it. It always feels like it’s in the meat, complex network spiderweb of cause-and-effect.

Each characters, decision leading to one character decision, or multiple character decisions leading to one or many character decisions, and each of those decisions have anything and effect on the entire outcome of the plot.

So many unexpected alliances, unexpected friendships, and unexpected positive/negative changes in characters all of which were caused by other choices, leading to them. This has resulted in the ending, which makes perfect sense, and I look forward to Red God, knowing with confidence that Pierce knows better than to give us a bitter, bitter, sweet ending for the sake of it, but only an ending no matter what kind of feeling it gives us that makes sense due to the plausibility of it.

And that kind of ending can include a happier, bittersweet ending or a happy ending and if Pierce feels as though his complex web of cause-and-effect, can bring us to that I’m sure he’ll go for it.

Wouldn’t you say @darrowsrising ?

[violethowler]

My Thoughts On Light Bringer (Spoilers)

The wait for Light Bringer has been so long that I as soon as I learned that my physical copy wouldn’t be getting delivered until after release day, I immediately went and pre-ordered the ebook version so I could start as soon as it became available. I started reading around midnight my time and I literally only got three hours of sleep before I finished the book. And holy bloodydamn shit was it worth waiting all these years for.

The title of this novel felt incredibly fitting not simply as a reference to any one character, but because after the chaos and death and violence of Dark Age, this book was a ray of light and hope, validating what I said back when Dark Age came out and filling me with such optimism and excitement for what comes next. Even after Cassius’ death, I cried tears of joy when I finished reading the book because with everything in the world being on fire – from the rise in censorship and anti-LGBTQ laws in the US to the various crises caused by climate change, to the ongoing labor issues like the writers’ and actors’ strikes – this book reminded me how to have hope for the future and to recognize that with enough time and enough people fighting back, things can get better. To appreciate the smaller, less-publicized steps forward when I’m feeling overwhelmed by all the big headlines making all the bad things seem worse.

And on top of all that, it was just straight up fun. I love Dark Age and Iron Gold, and their seriousness is important to their themes. But one of the things that I loved about the original trilogy was the capacity of its writing to spark joy and put a smile on my face. Long have I missed a new action sequence that made me cackle like mad as I realized that the tables had turned on the villains, like the escape from Venus or Darrow’s emergence from the leviathan did. Or the powerful, raw moments like Deanna’s pre-battle benediction in Lykos. Or the quiet moments like Lyria and Cassius bonding, or Darrow and Sevro’s gradual reconciliation. These are just some of the many ways that Light Bringer feels like a return to the series’ roots.

The journey Darrow went on felt perfectly timed for the series, and every character grew phenomenally in this book. Some in positive ways, like Diomedes and Lyria. And others in negative ways, like a certain hypocritical, genocidal, fascist wannabe dictator.

Despite my burning desire for Lysander’s enrollment in the Head-In-A-Box club, his POV was masterfully written, allowing us a deeper glimpse into the inner workings of the Society Remnant that we didn’t properly get in previous books, while at the same time showing us at every turn that he is ultimately no different than Atlas and Atalantia. Given Cicero’s reaction to the burning of Demeter’s Garter, I feel like it’s only a matter of time before many of his allies realize that and turn on him.

And speaking of turning, I feel so vindicated that the alliance between the Rim Dominion and the Society Remnant ultimately shattered by the end of the book. But while I didn’t anticipate how it happened, I think it’s better that it happened this way. Firstly, Lysander is the whole reason the alliance exists, so it feels poetic that he’s the one who destroyed it. Secondly, it gives closure to the conflict between Darrow and the Rim over his actions in Morning Star, and that is so much more satisfying than my prediction of the Society being mad at them for Cassius being alive.

I’m similarly impressed with how the Obsidian storyline was handled, and how Lyria’s connection with Volga played into that. In hindsight, the storyline of getting the Obsidians turned away from Volsung Fa was the one plot set up in Dark Age that I could never really think of any theories of how it could be pulled off like I could for things like Sevro’s rescue or the breaking of the Rim-Core alliance. But Lyria being able to use her connections to get to Volga and make the first crack in her armor after Volsung Fa spent eight months manipulating her into following his rhetoric was a sight to behold, and I cannot imagine any other way it could or should have played out. It feels so incredibly fitting that if I hadn’t known Pierce had scrapped his first draft of the book, I would’ve assumed that scenario was planned from the beginning.

Which is really a testament to Pierce’s writing that even if I didn’t always like the choices made in this book (i.e. the lack of Virginia chapters compared to the POVs, the clone plot on Luna being left hanging, etc.), the choices still made sense to me and fit perfectly with the story that Pierce is trying to tell.

After almost 4 years of waiting, Light Bringer defied my expectations in the best way, and I’m even more excited than ever to see Pierce bring it all home in Red God.

[thehaemanthus]

Am I sad there was no Meaper reunion in Light Bringer? Yes. I felt the pain like Darrow did.

On the other hand, it allows me to dust off the idea I had for their reunion, toss in some smut, sprinkle better understanding of canon on top, and serve it. Hopefully.

[regularmuthias]

Here’s how I imagine the reunion. I hope you’ve heard of the film it’s from.

https://youtu.be/6lDM35klH5w

[thehaemanthus]

Light Bringer and Lysander au Lune

Aka, we're finalizing divorce proceedings. Spoilers below. Proceed with caution.

I liked Lysander until I read Light Bringer. And before anyone calls me a bloodydamn fascist, let me quickly recap why. Lysander was a child of war, traumatized, with all this weight of expectation and assumptions about how the world would work. He saw a broken world, thought the old hierarchy would bring order, and assumed he could be a benevolent dictator.

It never would have worked. At the end of Dark Age, I was waiting for Lysander's darkest moment. In a redemption story, he could only crawl towards the light after having that moment. After betraying himself, after losing sight of his goals, after being so beaten he can't see a way forward on the path he thought he would take. I didn't know for sure this would happen, but a journey where Lysander realized his dream could only ever be fantasy in the face of reality and then turned to the real way to ensure prosperity for all (equality, compromise, something) would have been interesting.

Lysander hit rock bottom when he discovered Volsung Fá was a Gorgon, an agent of Atlas. Hands reached his way and offered him a way out.

He spat on those hands. Diomedes is what I thought Lysander could have been. The Rim is defined by its pride-- Diomedes would not brush Atlas's crimes under the rug nor would he go back on his word. The Core defined by its greed-- Lysander and his need for control and power.

Will Red God open with Lysander at his true rock bottom, truly hating himself and what he's done? I don't know. But there's no crawling back towards the light after this. He murdered the only person to truly love him. He insulted every power player that might have compromised.

Lysander is a Lune. Stay on top, at all costs, play games and manipulate. There is no redemption for him. Not emotionally for the reader or canonically. There's no way Pierce Brown can bring Lysander back as anything other than a villain, there's no excuse for his actions.

Blaming it on something Octavia did to his brain would be a cop out. Lysander having his moment of revelation after the destruction and utter disrespect and savagery he wrought....who would forgive him? Who would offer him redemption? Who would say anything but "you must hang above the red dirt of Mars, and no one will pull your feet?"

[regularmuthias]

Exactly Lysander had an absolutely perfect way to be taken out of the horrible pit of despair he was in because of Atlas. But alas, simply because he feels he’s not in control and more or less a puppet. He’s just going to lash out and snap the only way he thinks the only way his family has thought!

[darrowsrising]

I get it that Lysander had his brain washed of any memory of his mother and is dealing with trauma and is clinging to whatever belief will accept him no matter how wrong it actually is, because he genuinely thinks that he has to create that greater good for the sake of humanity, as some sort of outlet for his frustrations and insecurities and pains.

He still deserves to be devoured by Kuon hounds, though...

[regularmuthias]

Not just “how wrong it actually is” but also how to far gone the Golds are and how they’ll inevitablely turn him into a monster and/or murder him when his usefulness has run out.

[m-austinbooks]

One of my favourite power couples 😍 

[darrowsrising]

[regularmuthias]

Must protect this couple at all cost!

[darrowsrising]

“I believe that war will destroy us. All of us, Rim and Core alike. All that the Colors have built together. All we have protected. The legacy of the Society will vanish. Not because our arms are weak. Not because our commanders are frail. But because we are fighting against a religion whose god still lives.” Who do you think Romulus was talking about when he said Rim and Core alike? Do you think he was only referring to the Aureate and excluding the Golds in the Republic?

Of course. Nowadays, when you say Rim and Core, you exclude the Republic.

But I have to give it to Romulus, he was truly scared shitless of Darrow and of the power he inspired in people. And he is right. Rim and Core alike will either break and change or perish with their old ways. Because Reaper is eternal, no matter if his name is Darrow of Lykos or, maybe in the future, Pax au Augustus.

Howl on!

[regularmuthias]

Good to hear because with how the Society turned out because of the Iron Gold Conquerers, their legacy can go to ashes.

Tyranny is not the opposite of Chaos, its just another form of chaos only more controlled to benefit the despots.

Despots who twist honor and other positive ideals into toxic, controlling malignancies.

[scarabskin]

Hey! Now that Kinktober is over and I have enjoyed it all, I wonder what you thought of it? Did you enjoy it? :D also what was your favourite fics to write? And which ones did you think turned out the best? And once again, thanks for blessing us with some smut for this fandom, as well as amazing fics in general!

Sorry for the late answer!! Was a little burnt out after October!

I really enjoyed it! 😍❤️ it was a good excersise for me and I look forward to making more for next year! The idea of managing to write 30k+ words in a month is crazy! I am glad I got to write for Red Rising!

For the ones I enjoyed to write the most, I would say:

Bad Genes

Public Affairs

A Drinking Man

Needy

I would say those were real fun to write, especially since I adore Tactus(obviously😍) and his inner headspace, as well as Sevro’s and Victra’s personalities together! Also I really love when powerful people beg, so Needy was a lot of fun!

Those I think turned out the best are:

puppy dog at play

A Drinking Man

Breakfast

Loving Your Body

Happy Birthday

Wet Love

I suppose the theme here is mostly loving relationships 😂❤️ I love fluffy smut so much and I think it shows in my writing! I’m also better at that rather than the more steamy stuff, so that’s probably why they turned out better in my opinion!

And thank you so much for the ask! 🙏❤️ That’s such a nice way to compliment an author! This really made my day anon! Have a wonderful day my friend! 😭😍❤️

[regularmuthias]

Darrow and Virginia’s chapters were especially loving. The kind of marriage anyone wants to have.

[darrowsrising]

Hey, I recently finished DA. I found it very funny how the Golds all secretly feared darrow. Even Ajax has a deep-seated fear of him.

You and I, anon dear! You and I!

Be afraid, Pixies, be very afraid! Especially because now Reaper can stop being on the defensive and be on the offensive. And with Mustang at his side, they will win as they always do. Although it won't be easy and I'll probably go through several heart attacks before that happens.

Not to mention that they pushed Virginia to her limit and now that she has imperium, all gloves are off. I expect at least one head in a box with the mouth full of grapes in the last book.

Best candidates are Atalantia, Atlas or Lilath imo. But we'll see. For a moment there, I thought it'll be Cicero too, but I remembered that Lorn told Darrow of the Augustan revenge and Fitchner was the victim. So Lysander will get it. And I'll be the Grumpy Cat meme who says 'good' when that happens.

Edit: But what's fair is fair. Everyone is afraid of Reaper. As Pierce Brown says, when he enters a room, everyone takes a step back in self-preservation. Even Lyria and Ephraim are afraid of him. They find it easy to talk shit about him, exactly because he isn't near them. Everyone is a critic from a distance. But they all fear him, except him close ones who love him and know his soul, know that Darrow and Reaper are two separate entities into the same body. (Except that isn't always enough, but hey... no problems, no plot, right?)

If your heart beats like a drum...

And your leg's a little wet...

It's cause the Reaper's come

To collect a little debt.

[regularmuthias]

The true nature of all despotic slavers:

Cowards who take the easy way at the expense of others.

[darrowsrising]

Stop excusing Lysander's fascist arse, you Pixies!

He is a Colorist, a slaver and fascist sucker. The Rim way is still slavery. And he is fully commited to slavery. He deserves all the hatred.

Even if you do like him as a character, excusing his actions is disgusting. Just own that you love a dark grey character and go. No need to wipe his shite at all. No stench, no foul.

[regularmuthias]

To right in the end he’s just simply someone who despite all the arguments and realities against his worldview of slavery he goes by this one and only excuse to justify all of his actions and the numerous crimes committed by the Society:

https://youtu.be/YlDVvd__QUk

And tyrannical order at that, which is the worst kind!

[regularmuthias]

This makes me want to do a Red Rising and Transformers crossover.

[kavinskhhy]

DARK AGE EVENT >> villains (6/7)

“A demon from the past, now undead.”

[regularmuthias]

I just want to introduce this bitch to Manon Blackbeak.

[insignificant457]

Me, watching Lysander use the Republic’s failings as a way to justify the return of the Society:

[regularmuthias]

Yep still using the most primitive way to support a society, slavery.

Advanced technology yet they’ve gone back to the darker ages of inhumanity.

You’d think after 700 years they would find a way to make the necessary evils unnecessary.

But no too caught up in the petty rivalries to remember those they choose to ignore.

Reading any of Lysanders chapters makes me truly think of them as vampire kings.

[kavinskhhy]

DARK AGE by Pierce Brown (a quick review)

“Reaper, Reaper, Reaper. Look what you have done. Look what you are. In your shadow, nothing can survive.”

This was a hell of a ride. I would love to talk in detail about my impressions of this book, but atm I’m like a floating debris full of tears just ready to burst. To sum up what happened in this 700 pages long monster:

- my hopes where shattered

- my heart was broken

- I laughed like a madwoman whenever Ephraim said something

- my favorite character died

- my most hated character found glory

- chapter 66 was there with all its brutality

- WAR WAR WAR

If I had to describe this book with two words I would it’s title for everything that happens is beyond human. The crudely with which our dear bastard Pierce exposes the blunt monstrosity has reached its higher level possible, even higher than Golden Son and the Institute put together; I suggest no faint of heart read Dark Age because it would be a catastrophe.

“Awake, arise, or be forever fallen.”

The only problem for me was that after the first (and very intese) part the second was slow, but as I discovered after it was just building up momentum for the action packed third and heartbreaking finale.

The character development was stunning and both made me happy and absolutely horrified. Some guys become heroes, some monsters, and Pierce was a master in making them change in so dramatic ways.

But now hear me out: if in GS I forgave him for what he did in epilogue, this time I won’t. I expect Red Rising Book 6 to be the fulfillment of all my bloodydamn dreams and hopes because otherwise I WILL COME FOR YOU, PIERCE!

Hail Reaper, Hail Libertas, and May the Ash Legions fall in next one!

[regularmuthias]

Hail LIBERTAS!!!!

@kavinskhhy

https://youtu.be/IMy1ZLyaSqk