Pierce Brown’s Morning Star is available on Audible as a 21 hrs 50 mins unabridged audiobook, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds.
Publisher’s Summary
Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.
Finally, the time has come.
But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied – and too glorious to surrender.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 21 hrs 50 mins
- Publisher: Recorded Books
- Release year: 2016
- Audible category: Science Fiction & Fantasy / Science Fiction / Adventure
Listener Ratings
Morning Star holds an average listener rating of 4.8/5 from 55288 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.9/5
- Story: 4.8/5
- 5-star ratings: 86% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
4/5 stars — “Great Trilogy, Big Plot Holes for the Grand Finale”
I enjoyed this trilogy, but I have to include a large caveat in that you really MUST NOT THINK TOO MUCH or the whole thing will fall apart. There are plot holes a-plenty, especially in the "grand finale" in book three, which has several holes big enough to drive a bloodydamn Mack truck through.BUT.
If you are a reader that is fine shrugging your shoulders and just “going with it”, then these books are an action packed good time.
THE GOOD
Characters: The nuanced characters – mostly the supporting and minor characters – are actually quite good. Everyone gets surprisingly nuanced motivations, even for characters that last less than a full book. In fact, the supporting character are far more interesting than the main character himself. More on that later.
Pacing: Other than the really depressing begging of the first book, which nearly put me off the whole series, the pacing in excellent. There is literally something happening in every chapter, which makes the books fly by. Once you get past the bleak beginning of book 1, you’re in for a roller-coaster ride thereafter.
THE NOT SO GOOD
Mary Sue: Darrow is a Mary Sue. I mean, there’s no denying it, he just is. When he’s not just better/smarter/stronger/cleverer than everyone else, he’s also luckier. If that’s something you can’t deal with, you’ll want to skip this series.
Death/Betrayal is EVERY Plot Twist: The plot twists are rapid fire in this series, but they nearly always follow the same pattern: a betrayal of a friend that results in the death of a different friend. It’s actually pretty impressive how dumb Darrow’s friends are. He’s nearly as deadly to hang around as Jessica Flethcer, you’d think they’d run like hell to stay away from the guy.
No Space Warfare: In a SciFi series with spaceships aplently, somehow all of the battles are hand-to-hand. Seriously, without fail all of the battles end up hand-to-hand. I love me some Ender’s Games style tactical space combat, and it was disappointing to have the few space battles that do happen end up being described in a few sentences like “my fleet destroyed his fleet” or “my ships outmaneuvered his ships and we destroyed his ships”. It left something to be desired.
THE BAD:
The Names: good god, there are SO MANY bloodydamn names to keep track of!
THE UGLY:
Plot Holes: As I mentioned, if you can just roll with it and not think about things too deeply, you’ll be fine. But even so, the grand finale of the series has some really big, obvious plot holes, even if you aren’t trying particularly hard to pick the plot apart.
THE VERDICT:
This is a fun, mostly well written, dark but exciting series with a Mary Sue main character, great character work, and giant plot holes. If you feel like you can roll with that, you’ll have a lot of fun.
I’d give the trilogy 4 1/2 stars overall, just for being good at what it is, but I had to give this particular book 4 stars because of the really glaring plot holes in the "grand finale" ending.
— J. Angel, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “I’m actually depressed the story ended.”
I have NEVER immediately restarted a trilogy after finishing until now. This book can compete with Tolkien. unbelievable story telling. Never a dull moment, I laughed, cried, yelled out loud in anger, and cheered! My new favorite.— Kindle Customer, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Amazing books, super talented author!”
Have re read them many times love them even more. Have given lots of copies to friends who all loved them. Fantastic story and narration nails it— BorisG007, Audible listener
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