blackbrokkoli reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Very much "the chosen one goes to magic high school". But fun.
hardcover, 639 pages
Published June 4, 2014 by Thorndike Press.
4 stars
(152 reviews)
V171 reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
dnf at 10%
the main character's wife gets fridged to advance his personal character development. Any story that utilizes such a tired and lazy trope has nothing interesting to offer in my opinion.
Melissa reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
This might be both my fastest DNF to date, and a surprising one. I always have a soft spot for scifi generally, and am especially compelled by any intersection of labor and any speculative fiction.
Maybe the strongest antipathy I have is toward the protagonist, which I register is something that could just be a matter of personality. Like, I can’t say I was fond of Ignatius J. Reilly, but I was almost always interested in what he was thinking. And an important detail here is that, at least as far as I got, the protagonist is just a kid (a 16-year-old boy) living a nightmare.
But as I read more, I realize more often that I’m always working with a finite and fluctuating pool of charity toward any given book (I tried at least twice before this year to read A Confederacy of Dunces and didn’t have the patience). …
This might be both my fastest DNF to date, and a surprising one. I always have a soft spot for scifi generally, and am especially compelled by any intersection of labor and any speculative fiction.
Maybe the strongest antipathy I have is toward the protagonist, which I register is something that could just be a matter of personality. Like, I can’t say I was fond of Ignatius J. Reilly, but I was almost always interested in what he was thinking. And an important detail here is that, at least as far as I got, the protagonist is just a kid (a 16-year-old boy) living a nightmare.
But as I read more, I realize more often that I’m always working with a finite and fluctuating pool of charity toward any given book (I tried at least twice before this year to read A Confederacy of Dunces and didn’t have the patience). So, being finite, the charity I can extend to, say, Darrow, is limited by the charity I feel like I have to extend to the rest of the work. So when Darrow is occasionally not r/iamverybadass-ing around and I read this:
> A cadre of Tinpots eye us as we trudge by over the worn concrete floor. Their Gray duroArmor is simple and tired, as unkempt as their hair. It would stop a simple blade, maybe an ion blade, and a pulseBlade or razor would go through it like paper. But we’ve only seen those on the holoCan. The Grays don’t even bother to make a show of force. Their thumpers dangle at their sides.
I spend a long time in my notes enumerating all of the tropes I hate and finding the right TVTropes url for them. I’m typing this all on a phone and, well, don’t have the patience to include them all + formatting now, but maybe will later. Or maybe I’ll find one be swept away again by one of the literally thousands of books I would like instead!
Wild Woila reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Recycled ideas
3 stars
Recycled ideas: hierarchical oppression, revolution, infiltration, proving ground. Reasonably done, but takes time to build up a good head of steam.
SciFi #SFF #Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #BookWyrm
Andy Christmas reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Top notch read, one of the best new series I've read in a while!
CuriousLibrarian reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Great page turner. I listened to the audio version, the reader did a great job of reflecting the protagonist's transition by the use of accents since it was told in the first person.
Chris M reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This one was a surprise. I didn't expect to like it as the military school trope has been done to death in both sci-fi and fantasy. However this one grabbed me early on and never let go. It started a bit slow for me but built up to a good story with a fantastic ending.
m9p909 reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
- beginning was a little rough, main character just magically wins everything despite having far fewer advantages than his competitors
- Main character is really annoying until halfway through the book
- Gets much better in the second half
- not going to comment on the rest cause spoilers, but it's really good
- In summary, first half of the book is not terrible but pretty rough, second half is pretty good.
tivasyk reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
probably ok for a ya novell: harry potter meets lord of the flies meets the time traders... meets who knows what else. readable, but i have no high hopes for the (inevitable, unending) series.
ToadyNerd reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Very good read. It is cross between science fiction and fantasy, with a little mythology.
anaulin reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
My notes and highlights: anaulin.org/blog/book-notes-red-rising/
Anne reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'GoodReads'
3 stars
If I hadn't promised my spouse I would read this book, I would have quit sometime in part 1 or 2. In the beginning I found everyone unlikable—the main character, Darrow, was annoying; his wife, Eo, was very two-dimensional; and moving on to the surface of Mars I liked Matteo, but that was about it. Through all this, I hated the narrative voice. There was just something about it—petulance, arrogance, then highbrow British boarding school-esque talk—that just grated on my nerves. When Darrow finally got to the Institute, though, things got interesting.
Finally, I saw some character development for people beyond Darrow. Besides that, I enjoy a good war story, with all the betrayals, strategy, shifting alliances, and machinations that go into it. For all that I hated the first couple sections, I do have to admit that Pierce Brown knows how to write a page-turner, and that was very …
If I hadn't promised my spouse I would read this book, I would have quit sometime in part 1 or 2. In the beginning I found everyone unlikable—the main character, Darrow, was annoying; his wife, Eo, was very two-dimensional; and moving on to the surface of Mars I liked Matteo, but that was about it. Through all this, I hated the narrative voice. There was just something about it—petulance, arrogance, then highbrow British boarding school-esque talk—that just grated on my nerves. When Darrow finally got to the Institute, though, things got interesting.
Finally, I saw some character development for people beyond Darrow. Besides that, I enjoy a good war story, with all the betrayals, strategy, shifting alliances, and machinations that go into it. For all that I hated the first couple sections, I do have to admit that Pierce Brown knows how to write a page-turner, and that was very evident as the story progressed. The battle scenes were brutal but I couldn't tear my eyes away, needing to know what happened next. And the human element—who's allied with who, and the injustice at the hands of the Proctors—made me invested in the story and in what would happen to Darrow, Mustang, Sevro, and the others. For all my earlier complaints, when I finished Red Rising I knew I had to read the next one to find out what happens.
ManyRoads reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
An excellent read. Excitement, tension, war, strategy, politics, betrayal, loyalty are all there. The flawed hero's soul and his very being are challenged. A struggle for the soul of society.
...it all takes place on the planet of Mars.
SharonC reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Familiar-feeling distopia in which people are acknowledged for their differing talents and abilities but our hero just doesn't fit the neat boxes. And because the system doesn't work for one person, it MUST BE DESTROYED.
There's a little glimpse now and then in which our hero sees that yeah, the Golds are actually pretty excpetional. Not morally superior, sure. But better at everything else.
The love interest is pretty good. And I really enjoyed the line Who does he think he is? Ceasar? Patton? Wiggin? That was pretty great.
Sean Gursky reviewed Red Rising by Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Saga, #1)
Review of 'Red Rising' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
"This is the problem with youth, Darrow. You forget that every generation has thought the same."
"But for my generation it is true." No matter his confidence, I am right.
I knew nothing of the series before starting and was entertained all the way through. I would have liked to spend more time with Darrow in the mines but once Eo shared "her surprise" with Darrow the story went in a different direction entirely and I was fine with it.
As the story progressed I couldn't help shake some similarities with other books but I'll cover that below.
A fair bit of the book was devoted to the Institute. The game consumed the lives of those playing while there was a whole civilization, above and below ground, that was existing and struggling. I wanted to know more about Mars and see what was happening behind the scenes but the story …
"This is the problem with youth, Darrow. You forget that every generation has thought the same."
"But for my generation it is true." No matter his confidence, I am right.
I knew nothing of the series before starting and was entertained all the way through. I would have liked to spend more time with Darrow in the mines but once Eo shared "her surprise" with Darrow the story went in a different direction entirely and I was fine with it.
As the story progressed I couldn't help shake some similarities with other books but I'll cover that below.
A fair bit of the book was devoted to the Institute. The game consumed the lives of those playing while there was a whole civilization, above and below ground, that was existing and struggling. I wanted to know more about Mars and see what was happening behind the scenes but the story was focused on the game. In this way the reader and students are going through a similar experience. We are consumed by a single event but life continues on and nothing is put on pause while the game occurs.
The battle and war tactics were fun to read about but it would have been interesting to see more Mars specific attributes come in to play, outside of the difference in gravity.
I did not love him till he was dead; and he should be dead, but he is still my brother.
It's not hard to draw a parallel to The Hunger Games, but I found that it was more similar to Enders Game meets Lord of The Flies. The kids play their games, not knowing what they are doing or why and the adults observe in the background and give the students a pat on the head when it's all over.
Similarity aside, this book got my attention from chapter one and was a fun read so I will definitely be continuing on with the series.
