Dark Age

by Pierce Brown

Info

Date Finished: 10/2/2026

First Sentence: 'Citizens of the Solar Republic, this is your Sovereign.'

Last Sentence: But so does the resistance.

Companion Album:

New Cover

A rough, print-degraded illustration of lightning branching across a stormy sky over a dark, tangled landscape fills a heavy black frame. The title DARK AGE runs vertically up the right side in heavy, distressed block capitals. Below, a small circular emblem sits above the credit line.

A Few Thoughts

“Best one yet” could be my review for all the Red Rising novels. Pierce Brown only gets better with each entry.

That said, Dark Age has too many ideas. A lot of story threads could have been books in their own right, but Brown truncates them and literally loses the plot amongst the noise. A clone? A slave revolt? An improvised weapon from terraforming machines? An intricate political intrigue plot?

What works works well, though. Seeing Darrow through other characters' eyes, for instance, is really cool. There’s a moment with Lysander that might be one of my favorite book scenes ever.

I finished this one in like three days. You’ll rip right through it.

I tried a new method for getting the kind of distress I was after in the previous Red Rising covers and I think I got it! Layout is inspired by these pamphletsI found on are.na. The storm is this illustration I also found on are.na.