Book Review: 'The Combat Codes: Book 3 - Blacklight Born' by Alexander Darwin

'Blacklight Born' is the third and final book in Alexander Darwin's 'The Combat Codes' trilogy, and was a great finish to the series.

Split into two parts, the first part focuses on Murray Pearson and the Whelps - Dozer, Knees and Brynn - as they travel on a Pilgrimage, a Grievar tradition that involves fighting challenges across the nation. But Murray has another reason for joining the Whelps on their pilgrimage, he's searching for his protége Cego. 

Mostly following Murray's point of view, it works very well. Punctuated with flashbacks, these glimpses catch us up on the back story of what has been going on in between books, adding depth to story, the world building, and the character development, especially for Murray, as he drags himself from a drunken despair after losing Cego at the end of the previous book, 'Grievar's Blood', before waking from his stupor and realising that he has a promise to keep, one which he can't keep if he's feeling sorry for himself at the bottom of a bottle.

The second part of the book switches the POV to Cego, now reunited with the Whelps, and returns to the classrooms of the Lyceum. As with the first part, this change works very well, as we get a sense of what Cego has gone through mentally, as well as physically, and how his relationships with the Whelps has changed. We also see how the Lyceum has changed whilst he and the Whelps have been away, with the toady Callen Albright now in charge. It all builds up to a brutal final confrontation with Cego's brother, Silas the Slayer, leader of the Flux rebellion, of which he was briefly a part of, in a winner takes all fight.

It's a crescendo of a finish, one that it has been building up to over the course of the series, and Alexander Darwin pulls it off, sticking the landing! Filled with memorable and believable characters, in an expansive dystopian sci-fi world full of different races, beliefs and creatures, with spectacular authentically described brutal fight sequences (Darwin is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt after all!), it keeps you fully engaged with a slow burn as we catch up with the timeline, but once it nears the end is full of twists and turns, unrelenting and exciting. 'Blacklight Born', as well as 'The Combat Codes' trilogy as a whole, has been an epic read. Questions were answered, and threads were tied up, but by the end, it still leaves you wanting more.

A satisfying ending to a great series that is very much recommended reading.

Note: I did receive an e-ARC edition of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review.