Quick Look
Plot = .75
Characters = .50
Promise = .75
Engagement = .75
Efficiency = 1

SPOILER FREE LOOK (Please note I listened to this book so names may be spelled wrong.)
Plot = Darrow is reunited with his allies that remain and takes the fight to the Emperor and Jackal. We get to see the conclusion of many plot threads. His relationship with being a Red, his place with Mustang, the Status of the Obsidians with Ragnar, the betrayal of Roque, the status of the society at the end of this Sons of Ares crusade. Overall, I was pleased with the plot and my only complaint comes from some of the character choices. Those choices dinged the plot a bit for me because I felt that just when the series was widening its scope it suddenly pulled it tight again, and not to my liking.

Characters = a .50 means it was okay. I don't want to spoil anything here so I'll just say some things generically. I finally started liking Sevro and his growth. Victra continues to be a personal favorite of mine and same with the Tellemanus crew. I'm burning out on Darrow a bit. I feel the series has grown past him and I've been told I'll be happy with the next book because of this. Mustang redeemed herself and I felt, for the first, time she was written well. The .50 mostly comes from the bad guys. I wanted to see some different outcomes and I was hoping for some different...conflicts to happen. I will explain in the spoiler section. 

Promise = This book delivered on its promise. We got to see the ramp up and outcome of the Sons of Ares and Darrow's journey to topple the Society. That being said, the ending and how the promise played out was only okay to me so I took off a bit for that. 

Engagement = I cannot explain this without spoilers. But I will try. There were portions of this book that seemed like tangents that were a bit over explored and there was an entire plot moment early on that left me tense for far too long for fear that Mr. Brown was going to hit me with one of my least favorite plot devices ever. I can't say much but if you read book two then you know Darrow was captured. The things that happen after that had me concerned how and if everything that was happening for the next hundred pages were reliable for the reader.

Efficiency = This book was the perfect length. If it had been shorter we would have needed a fourth to conclude the struggle, and based on the ending scenes that would not have been a good idea. Any longer and we would have been just ready to reach the end. 

SPOILER LOOK (RANT STYLE)

Alright so let me complain about a few things and praise a few others. Praise first, I think Brown is an author who grows tremendously with each book, the biggest increase in his skill for me in this one was his female characters. They felt individual and not like the tropes they were in the first book. I loved how complicated Victra, Mustang, and (Sepsi?) were. Let's not even PRETEND that there wan't a challenge for the author with Sepsi since she becomes the replacement of freaking Ragnar. So I want to say that was amazing. Now complaints. I HATED that the Jackal was the final Villain. His betrayal at the end of book two was fun, but I just never cared for him as an antagonist. Maybe if we had chapters from his POV I could have been more invested, but most of the time I just didn't care about him. Then we have the choice of what happens with the friends. I guess I might be in the minority here but it was FAR more important to make Roque the character who Darrow changes over (excuse my language) fucking Cassius. Cassius is and always will be a piece of shit to me, period. I never liked how his sense of justice is a driving character trait. That and supposed honor. Roque's sense of duty was a much more interesting angle for Darrow to tackle in my opinion since you can't just call Roque a hypocrite. Cassius is nothing but a waste of space. He tries to kill Darrow in Red Rising after learning the latter HAD TO KILL his brother Julian. It is thoroughly and OBVIOUSLY pointed out to him that Darrow had NO CHOICE if he wanted to you know.....LIVE. Then, the convoluted plot with him helping them at the end of the book was just so random. It 110% felt like Mr. Brown, who I will never criticize in person because his glacier stare would teleport me into a world of peaceful oceans, just wanted to keep Cassius alive and relevant. My problem with that, it caused other more interesting characters to have an early death. All this said, I did really like the book and I am going to continue. I can tell from the names of the next few that my predictions about how this struggle will put the galaxy into a state of regression for a while may be true. I guess I will see!

The plot device I thought was happening in the beginning was that Darrow wasn't actually rescued and was living out a sort of enhanced torture VR where the Jackal was learning all his secrets by tricking him into believing he was saved. That WOULD HAVE SUCKED. So I'm glad my time wasn't wasted. 

For fun, my dream ending. Darrow knows Cassius is a piece of gum on the bottom of a shoe at the bottom of a garbage bag that is crushed in a dump. SOOOO. He betrays them for real. Sevro doesn't die since that's been set up since Red Rising that there was that drug that makes it seem like you die. Fast Forward....................Cassius is told to kill Darrow and he gets close. Just as he lifts his blade Sevro jumps up from death and screams some shit like "I'm gonna pierce your ears onto my ass," and kills Cassius. Darrow and Mustang use the confusion to then wreck house with Mustang killing the Emperor and Darrow killing the Jackal. The end.