Starred review from February 8, 2016
In the excellent closing book of Brown's Red Rising trilogy, revolutionary Darrow is given a second chance to overthrow the government of a class-based future society obsessed with Ancient Rome and segregated by color-coded functions. Red-born Darrow's attempt to incite revolution while hiding among the godlike Golds, rulers of the Solar System, has failed, but it inspired an open revolt. Darrow struggles to figure out whom to trust; uniting an interplanetary uprising requires unstable and unpalatable alliances. His decisions often make him barely better than the oppressors he seeks to overthrow, blowing apart the all-too-overused trope of a plucky good-hearted band overcoming a corrupt oligarchy. Brown's vivid, first-person prose puts the reader right at the forefront of impassioned speeches, broken families, and engaging battle scenes that don't shy away from the gore as this intrastellar civil war comes to a most satisfying conclusion.