I dug the original trilogy. I’m having a hard time getting into the second. I finished iron gold recently and I thought it was pretty “meh”
Red rising read a bit like hunger games, a little bit YA imo. But the storytelling and depth picked up a lot in the next two.
Overrated, such wasted potential.
Abused miners on Mars rebelling against their overlords? Could parallel with any US labor movement of 20th century, labor strikes, even revolutions. Instead, all of that is thrown out a quarter of a way through the first book and we get a generic battle royale / hunger games.
Even in the game itself, the MC is saved by deus ex machina twice or thrice, has absurd luck, does very stupid things, and magically resolves conflicts by making long nonsensical speeches.
It left the same impression on me. A friend recommended it to me and he was insisting that I'd love this trilogy. Maybe it was this that set up a high expectation, but I didn't enjoy it very much. Actually I forced myself to finish the first book, I don't know if I will finish the trilogy. I felt like the main character was driven by the plot instead of driving the plot forward plus an occasional power fantasy moment. And most of his character development was hidden behind the book equivalent of the "training monrage". I saw a little change from the beginning of the game/competition (or whatever they called it in the book) forward.
I saw a little change from the beginning of the game/competition (or whatever they called it in the book) forward.
Oh, I clearly remember he gets worse. Starts out with noble intents to be the least like the upper class (gold?) and not harm anyone, by the end of the book, MC is happily slaying security guards and "lesser" personnel.
The most "remorse" I remember him feeling was for killing Cassius' brother (whatever his name is), but then it felt more like he was just afraid of Cassius than feeling sorry. I wouldn't really have an issue with him murdering people left and right if it was played as the "you become the monsters you battle" trope, I don't know, it may be just that in the other books, I haven't read them. But I doubt it since
In the first book to me it came across as a simple power fantasy.Tap for spoiler
the author wasted it on the other "red" guy.
Obviously pretty subjective to rate books but I'll say I have really enjoyed the series. Once I begin to understand an author's writing style I seem to adapt to it so that's almost a non-factor for me and I am therefore a poor judge of that.
But I really enjoyed the scope and theme of the stories. It goes a lot of places, it does a lot of stuff, there's emotional parts, there's wrongdoings, violence and revenge. The settings I thought were very cool. It's got a lot going on and it's probably one of those books/series where you just have to check it out to see if it clicks with you
Yeah, I also liked it a lot. Massive world building, LOTS happening but even so I couldn't put it down. For me it was an epic saga.
I enjoyed them while reading, it was fast-paced storytelling and fun series to read.
I'd never heard the YA category until a few years after reading, never read Hunger Games but after knowing genre I was like, yeah that was YA.
It's a good read but not in my top ten suggested sci-fi series.
First trilogy was a nice read. After that? It felt that the author was struggling to find how to continue the story after their original plan ended.
I did like that it's a series where plot armor wasn't always successful. More authors who write worlds with danger need to be willing to kill some characters because that's how the universe really is.
I enjoyed Red Rising itself. I agree that it kinda devolved into a Hunger Games/YA feeling saga, and I quit reading when the following happened:
Tap for spoiler
When the MC killed his friend in that skirmish. I don't remember what book, I think it was 4?
I get that this is probably going in the direction of "I have become that which I set out to destroy", but when I read what happened in the spoiler tag above, it broke me entirely out of the story. So much so that I has to stop reading. I may go back to it someday, but right now I've got other things I want to read.
Too grim, bounced off of it
I made it most of the way through book two before I gave up. I don't think the prose is necessarily awful, its just very YA dramatic in a way that can get grating. Or that was my experience, its not terrible and if I was 14 again I'm sure I would love it, but as a grown ass man, I'm too old for that shit.
Just starting, I’ll have to get back to you.
You done?
I finished the first book and am near the end of Golden Son. The writing does feel pretty YA focused in the tropes it uses and the structure, but overall I do enjoy the story.
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