For returning fans, this book follows Darrow as he participates in the war he started. He learns what it takes to value human life, which sacrifices he has to make, and where to place trust. Heads roll, flesh breaks, and Society shatters. It's up to Darrow to pick up the pieces. 
 Let me tell you, this was a fantastic end to my absolute favorite series of all time. 
 While it's still fresh let me say all that I Was kept guessing so many times. It was nerve wracking and I almost threw my phone and kindle multiple times. This is why I usually buy good books as paper copies, such as when I flung my copy of the Deathly Hallows at the wall and cried. 
 Anyway, this book was full of action, humanity, heartache and war. Darrow's rage was more like a glowing ember but he's no less sharp. 
 The lines blurs between good and evil as we learn more of what makes the enemy tick and friends stay close. As readers we are constantly questioning them and allies alike. What is he enemy planning? Are my friends still true? Every page turn makes the reader feel like Darrow must feel, constantly questioning motives and loyalties. 
 Enemies who seem outright evil are painted as creatures of duty, simply following the tide of Gold, of the Society. 
 Except Jackal. His true nature is revealed in this book. Readers will peg The Jackal as a serial killer on a grand scale, and clues point to his sociopathic nature. There is little to like about The Jackal. Unlike other characters he has no redeeming qualities save his terrible intelligence and abundance of foresight. But even that will run at at some point. 
 All else I can say is I love Darrows friends. Sevro, Holiday, Victra, Cassius, the Telemanuses. Virginia, Ragnar, Sefi... And Roque. 
 Fucking Roque. Senpai himself. His entire encounter left me with shaken breath, tears, anger. I loved Roque since we met him. Even on the enemy side he was a favorite character of mine despite his betrayal. His poeticism was splendid, beautiful. Such was he. He was my Zhou Yu, a brilliant and becoming strategist of unending loyalty and calm efficiency. A calculating tactician of war. If only Roque could have remained in the corridors of a library or parlor reciting beautiful soliloquy instead of commanding a fleet of sleek ships. 
 But that's the whole point isn't is? All the people we came to know and love at the Institute in the first book had comfortable places to be before war. They could have been happy poets and lancers and Praetors. They could have remained Peerless Scarred toiling for the Sovereign or whoever else, tumbling with Pinks. But instead every single character, even little Lysander, feels the coldness and the sorrow and the violence of war. And for change it was worth the price. Now a new war looms on the horizon and only time will tell if the Morning Star, The Reaper, will again pick up his razor, that slingBlade, and swing its curve at those who would keep the masses as slaves. 
 I am deeply affected by this book and series like I haven't been in years. I haven't read a full book I loved this way since Golden Sun. I'm without further words except these: 
 To you Pierce Brown, is there anything else to say? 
 Per aspera, ad astra.