Before the last ten or so pages this journey into the Red Rising saga was going to be a 3 star.

While at no point, I was struggling to read or wanted to put it down, there was something lacking by way of emotional reaction and complete devastation that I had come to expect from the series.

After the insanity that was Dark Age, I went into Light Bringer, expecting to be completely derailed by anything that would take place. However, as its title suggests, this book is full of light and hope, and the possibility of liberation.
Now, I will sound like a complete bitch for saying this, but I found that incredibly boring.

I completely understood that, after all his transgressions, Darrow needed to have a redemption. He needed to understand the error of his ways and be able to be the hero that the Reds and the Rising need him to be. But after the first part of the book - of which there are 4 - it felt repetitive, and superfluous. Like if you’re not actually going to do what needs to be done to make the change, then constantly saying how sorry you are doesn’t mean much.

Not to say that he doesn’t act towards the liberation of the republic, but it just took entirely too long to get there. In many ways, Darrow is still fuelled by revenge and his lust for war, which is evident throughout the book and got me annoyed a number of times. 

Without going into too much detail then, I also wasn’t happy with the lack of Victra and Sevro content and also the fact that the deaths in the book were quite predictable. 

Overall, I enjoyed this for what it is, and in helping me to understand the bridge between DarkAge and the final book.

The ending was phenomenal and Lysander deserves to be skinned alive and then set alight but this was the weakest link in an otherwise amazing chain of books.