Skip's Reviews > Dark Age

Your critique of this book (and probably the series) is spot on. I do think the Pierce Brown developed very interesting characters, but they got muddled in this book.

There is one thing I don't understand, though. This book is raking the five-star reviews all over the place, and staying in the top seller lists everywhere. What is going on? Do you know of an objective review by a professional critic somewhere that would help me make sense of all this craziness going around this book?

I gave this book one star to counterbalance the vehement five-star reviews that make very little sense. Otherwise, it's two stars from me.

I love Pierce Brown writing, but this was very disappointing, I must agree.
Somewhere along the path, while perhaps trying to be like GRR Martin, he concentrated too much on grizzly violence and forgot the heart of the story.
For the first time while reading his books I kept wondering when it will end.

i had to stop at page 444. had no idea what i was reading. it was just wayyyyyyyy tooo convoluted with absolutely no story! just mass killings and that felt like run on sentences

Hahahaha y’all need to stick with twilight. These books are amazing.

God, I feel you! Having read the first trilogy ages ago, I can barely remember who tf killed who, just imagine that onslaught of new dudes

Thanks for this review! I knew nothing about this series, but the hyper-fan tone of the reviews already had me on guard.

I was wondering this, too! Why does everyone love this!? Even if you straight up get off on violence, it has no good plot.

War his hell. The violence is realistic considering the subject matter. The fact that people find it too disturbing to read further proves its excellence, imo...

Thank you for this review. I completely agree but somehow gobble up installment after installment. Your opinion gives me the courage to abandon this sick parallel solar system, at least for now.

Completely agree. This book lost me, and I felt that the character development was poor. After the 4th book, this series fell apart.

Totally agree. It took me months to slog through this one.

It's good to see I'm not the only one here that is disappointed. Loved the original trilogy, but this one is just so hard to keep reading... I'm stuck at 20% of it and getting tires of senseless killing and lack of an interesting plot... I keep thinking "when the story will really begin?".

It's called Dark Age because he wanted to capture the brutality of the actual Dark Ages. It's a bridge book to the final installation of a trilogy that is all about the fallout of a full fledged technological war that takes place 750 years in the future and involves billions of people on each side. This war is being instigated by people who found their way to the top of the food chain through senseless violence, political warfare, and betrayal. Darrow and the Republic aim for the complete upheaval of their lives that have been predicated on centuries of slavery and oppression. The plot is warfare...the reality that the only way the violence is going to stop is when one side is dust. There are subfactions of people who have used the cover of warfare to try and seize their own power. This all strikes me as very realistic and Brown's writing is exceptional.

Sure, the abomination and Cassius being alive were interesting twists that had me scratching my head but they are minor in the whole scope of things. This book is Dark with a capital D but none of it strikes me as useless in the plot...the point is that Darrow doesn't defeat Octavia and skip down the path to a happy victory. This book is real

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Agreed! The first half of this book is a mess. I was trying to keep up with all of the characters Darrow interacted with. Then we meet some new bad guys and then some more and then some more. The violence in the other books were fine, but this one made we want to stop reading every couple of chapters. I will happily call myself a snowflake if it means I am the type of person that doesn't want to hear about how a day old baby was mutilated.

Sara wrote: "I was wondering this, too! Why does everyone love this!? Even if you straight up get off on violence, it has no good plot."

It is the bridge book in a trilogy...the story isn't complete yet. It's war

Reanna wrote: "Agreed! The first half of this book is a mess. I was trying to keep up with all of the characters Darrow interacted with. Then we meet some new bad guys and then some more and then some more. The v..."

It's a pretty realistic portrayal of the outcome of wars. Compound that by billions more people, 700 years of technological improvements and voila...Dark Age. So, are you asking for a less realistic version of events?

Blake wrote: "Reanna wrote: "Agreed! The first half of this book is a mess. I was trying to keep up with all of the characters Darrow interacted with. Then we meet some new bad guys and then some more and then s..."

I didn't ask for realism at any point, just a book that held up to the original 3. A five year old could write about people getting blown up every couple chapters, the first 3 books were also about war, but didn't go for obvious shock and awe.

Blake wrote: "It's called Dark Age because he wanted to capture the brutality of the actual Dark Ages. It's a bridge book to the final installation of a trilogy that is all about the fallout of a full fledged te..."

Again Blake, it's real (according to you, who somehow knows about future wars in space...), but it isn't well written.

Agree.. this is it for me. Don't know who is who anymore.. WTF happened to this awesome series?

Reanna wrote: "Blake wrote: "It's called Dark Age because he wanted to capture the brutality of the actual Dark Ages. It's a bridge book to the final installation of a trilogy that is all about the fallout of a f..."

I think it's safe to say that a world where 1,000 children are sent to an institute and 500 are immediately purged probably isn't immune to baby mutilation, which was the example you surfaced that you didn't like. It's called deductive reasoning based on the content of the original 4 books that you claim to like. It's realistic in the realm of the world that Pierce Brown created. To deny that is, frankly, just willfully ignorant.

You didn't ask for realism but he's not pandering to you. Do you have examples to support your claim that it wasn't well written?

Tissa wrote: "Agree.. this is it for me. Don't know who is who anymore.. WTF happened to this awesome series?"

It's really not that difficult to keep the characters straight. They virtually all have familial ties to people in the first trilogy which makes it easy to conceptualize.

Blake wrote: "Reanna wrote: "Blake wrote: "It's called Dark Age because he wanted to capture the brutality of the actual Dark Ages. It's a bridge book to the final installation of a trilogy that is all about the..."

I don't know why you bother with me. I'm not going to change my mind and like this book, it was poorly written. An endless roster of bad guys and a hobbled together plot of exploding heads.

The baby killing really sealed the deal for me. This author pulls ZERO punches. Not for the faint of heart for sure, but it definitely wasn't incoherent or muddled, that's you trying to justify giving a negative review because you read a string of words that made you feel something you didn't enjoy feeling.

I see a lot of comments here about the killing of the baby. You do all realise he killed babies in book 2 as well right? It wasn’t a new thing. He literally had babies heads stomped in in Golden Son, why didn’t it bother anyone then?

you just don't get it

100% agreed.

This was one of those rare books where I kept going “Isn’t this done yet?” Not the reaction any writer wants.

Yes indeed.

It just sounds like a bunch of people whose reading comprehension isn't developed enough. If it's too complicated to keep up with or you do not understand the plot, might I suggest another author? Dr. Suess has some great ones and even pictures to help out.