Raging Star (Dust Lands, #3) in End of the Series Reading Challenge

Jan 16, 2013 Darlene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2017, canadian-book-challenge, library, dystopia

This was a satisfying and memorable conclusion to the Dust Lands trilogy!

It’s been a while since I was immersed in this series. I listened to the first book, Blood Red Road, back in December 2012 and the next one, Rebel Heart, in January 2013.

This installment starts off with the Free Hawks - Saba, Lugh, Ash, Creed, and Tommo – heading east. Saba’s keeping a secret from the rest of the crew. She’s leading the group by the marks that Jack has left on the trees. They don’t realize that Jack didn’t This was a satisfying and memorable conclusion to the Dust Lands trilogy!

It’s been a while since I was immersed in this series. I listened to the first book, Blood Red Road, back in December 2012 and the next one, Rebel Heart, in January 2013.

This installment starts off with the Free Hawks - Saba, Lugh, Ash, Creed, and Tommo – heading east. Saba’s keeping a secret from the rest of the crew. She’s leading the group by the marks that Jack has left on the trees. They don’t realize that Jack didn’t really die at Resurrection. Their plan is to blow up the bridge that spans the Eastern Defile, linking New Eden to the Raze. They will do anything to make it tougher on DeMalo’s people to travel. When Saba sees two carts crossing the bridge, she realizes that the second cart contains slaves. She turns back to put out the lit fuse, but it is too late. She puts the entire group in danger, as they wait for her, but she cannot stop what has already been set in motion. The blast goes off, and everyone scatters. Saba tells them she will meet them at the rendezvous point, but DeMalo finds her. He offers her a deal: He will provide an escort to ensure that the Free Hawks have safe passage over the Waste, but they will be killed if any of them ever return to New Eden. In exchange, DeMalo wants Saba to marry him. She has until the blood moon to make her decision, which is only seven nights away.

The rest of the book is divided into sections, with a countdown from Night Seven down to Night Two, ending with After and New Eden.

I had listened to the first two audiobooks, so this was the first time reading the book in print. I did struggle with it, because the issues that I had are not apparent if you are listening. First of all, there are no quotation marks to identify when someone is speaking. I found that very frustrating. Also, Young’s style of dialect takes some getting used to. Here is an excerpt:

“Me an Tracker forge ahead, closin in on Lugh. He's bin holdin fast as leader fer some time. I noticed he wouldn't yield to Tommo a little while back. I s'pose he's makin some kinda point. What that might be, I ain't got time to consider.”

If my library would have had this in audio format, I would have preferred that. Unfortunately, they did not. I stuck it out and, once I got about halfway into the book, I got used to the writing. Aside from those issues, I really enjoyed the book! Saba has come such a long way from how she was in Blood Red Road, which actually is my least favourite of the three books. She has matured, and she is faced with some really hard decisions in Raging Star. A few secrets were revealed, more than one betrayal, and there are some heartbreaking tragedies. I was sad by how some things turned out, but the ending seems fitting and it wouldn’t have turned out that way if anything else had been done differently. So, as sad as some parts were, I was content with how things ended.

This review was posted on my book blog:
http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.ca/2... ...more

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