Red Rising - Review

I am surprised that the deep misogyny of the book could go unnoticed in this review. I started reading the book in part because of this review and OMG. It's soooooo full of sexism and hatred towards women.

Never even made it through red rising. Prose. Was too. Much like. This. Also the characters and story were very drab. Only interesting character was Eo but Pierce Brown just wanted her to be a driving force for Darrow (as if that isnt completely played out). 5/10

What's people's opinion on the audio version?

Hic sunt leones!

It’s interesting to me reading reviews about just Red Rising, (being the first book in the series) not the Red Rising series as a whole. And the first things people say is oh this is a rip off of the hunger games. That’s literally just the first book, everything else gets so much more complex and dynamic after the stage has been set for the later books. And in my mind the Institute actually serves a much greater purpose compared to the Hunger Games games. Its goal is in creating the strongest members of society that embody the Iron Gold values. Not just acting as a show for the world to watch

Daniel is such a pink. Murder is fine, but oh no, not sexual assault done by terrible people to other terrible people.

Howler for life

I just finished reading, and I agree with most of the criticisms. It started slowly, it was exciting, but the first couple of chapters didn't really get me hooked. Once I got past the 1st one-third of the book, I finished it within the afternoon. And I must confess I didn't read much fiction, nor complete reading books so quickly, so I got to give the author credit. I would give it a 3/5.
The main issue is that Darrow was the only one who seemed to be doing anything in terms of moving out and trying to explore and conquer the other houses. Despite his house being so divided and being handicapped. They have no horses, have to travel by foot, and as their house is away from water, it's a very laborious task to ensure they are well supplied. It also means they couldn't hold off a siege for long. These are disadvantages it seems only they have, yet no one attacks them; they are the ones going out and discovering new houses. It's like the other houses decided to just chill and wait for this thing out. It's way too convenient, especially after hearing the Jackal's house was besieged so early, then he rose to 'infamy.'
The lack of a competent opposing force made this fall a bit flat. The Jackal was mentioned early on, and he had, supposedly, a lot of help. But he never ventured out and attempted to conquer the 'world.' Darrow on foot, with no soldiers, and near-death for a month seemingly just took over. What was the Jackal doing? House Mars was so divided, causing issues that weren't apparent in other houses, yet Darrow always had an idea of what would happen next. Always knew when he was being followed (as well as his wolf pack) so they could never be ambushed. Then when he made friends from enemies (proud, rich kids), they suddenly became loyal, dependable lapdogs. As if they would risk their lives for winning a dumb game.
The last bit is that he was so arrogant in speaking with authority; I'm sure in an actual dystopian world based on hierarchy (or in a modern-day authoritarian country), he would have had his throat cut at the end. Imagine a promising politician or general speaking to Putin in such manners. Ego gets people killed, and potential means nothing with emotional intelligence.
It's weird, but in the end, I gotta say I enjoyed the book. I liked the fast pace and plenty of action, although I think some scenes could have been cut out to flesh others out better. Maybe these are things another author can pick up on and rewrite another such novel? I'll look forward to reading the Golden Son.

Where no review here. You just saying the reasons you didn't like the book and saying "don't get me wrong, I liked the book" and repeating the same reasons again.

Did he even read it ? There was barely any sexual violence… or at least it wasnt anywhere near the main topic of the or any real lessons for growth anywhere in the book …Has he even read mature sci fi or game of thrones ( ice and fire) or other books ? This review is pretty bs..

I loved that book, but I like and respect you, so I’m okay with you having a different opinion.

I can't imagine waiting for the next book after reading the end of the second one

One thing İ really like in this book is how the important events don't always happen to the main character, the final battle against the jackal for example.

Lol wasn't going to dislike till you told me to. If I'm being honest you are totally right about all your criticism. My (singular) only problem with the video was that.... well I loved this book. Yes it was hunger games like but different in one major way. The MC brought the fight to his rulers instead of complying with them. In the hunger games (talking about the first book) its not "lets go and win" it's a lets go and be weak and survive through character plot. Darrow does the same thing but I can believe it.

I absolutely LOVE this book/series.

I pictured the Reds and Darrow as being Irish, so when I heard the audio books (years after reading it) I was like, “I KNEW IT! I KNEW THEY WERE IRISH!”

I didn’t find any sexual violence much at all. And I am a woman. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I loved the book at first, though once it got to the wargames part in the second half, I got totally lost. It felt like I needed to lay down a map and put game pieces on it to understand where everyone is, where they’re going, and who’s allied with whom. Given that this series has a board game, I could totally believe that this was the mentality that Pierce Brown wrote these scenes in.

Completely agree with the Audiobook comment, I thought the accents were so good, and the narrator really compliments the style of writing

I'm currently reading the third book. As you said I liked it but that's it. I found the book to be a bit shallow, don't mean any disrespect but it just didn't satisfy me in many ways but there were some parts I liked too. It's already easy to read so doesn't take that much time. But Pierce Brown is a promising writer. I'm sure we are going to read some bad-ass distopias from him in the future. These kind of books are like snack for me, if that makes any sense. I feel like I butchered English so I'll stop here.

more brutal than hunger games?

I'm currently struggling to finish the audiobook of this. The start was promising, but my interest in the story went downhill fast once the battle royal part started. Not because I don't like battle royals, but because I felt like all the important and interesting bits were put on the back burner, and I didn't feel like there were a lot of stakes.

(Minor spoilers below)

95% of the time in the battle royal part I've listened to so far
- Darrow is barely occupied with his primary goal. He's only thinking of his immediate goals of surviving and playing the game well.
- His identity isn't in danger of being found out.
- There aren't really any clever plans or twists.
- There isn't any world building, just your basic teens trying to survive in the wild (which I've seen dozens of times, and hours upon hours of only that doesn't interest me)
- His life isn't even really in danger in most of the action.
- While many characters felt very distinct to me before Darrow's infiltration, now they're all basically variations on "pampered teen thrown in the wilderness" and I struggle to keep them apart (which, to be fair, is also on me being bad with names)

Sure, there are exceptions to each of those points, but the vast majority of the battle royal part is like that. Apparently the thrill of a survival game with warring factions doesn't do it for me by itself. Or maybe I was too tired or distracted while listening to pick up on the interesting nuances, I don't know.

I came here in part to see whether it's worth slogging through the final hours of the book, or whether I should just drop it. Luckily, many commenters are saying that book 2 is much better and goes in a very different direction. That encourages me enough to also give book 2 a try, and gives me a reason to continue with book 1 other than just getting it over with. Thanks, guys.

I just finished it and was disappointed that a lot of the sex got brushed over. You get blood, and steel, and wrath in explicit detail but then you get sexual aspects that are just as much of the setting and the characters as anything else and it's kept at arm distance and second hand hearsay. I'm not sure if this was a publishing or authorial decision but I'd like to see more books just actually have sex scenes.

everyone trashing book 1 is crazy to me. golden son has that ending but to me the original is superior

morning star is still the goat tho

So weird to me that people are so bothered by sexual violence in stories about degraded battlefield settings. It's unbelievably prominent to the point of being a little romantic and dishonest to gloss over it.

This didn't age well.. You must have made this review during the "me to" movement.

This book board me to death.

Anyone reading this get into this trilogy it's fantastic!

Listened to the graphic audio version after listening to the audiobook and I have to say graphic audio did a damn good job.

It came off very braveheart+hunger games in space

When I read this book I was blown away by how fun I found it I was always wanting to read the next page and the rest of the books in this saga are amazing

the sexual assault was there for a reason, it pointed out the differences between the classes. we see two people do it and the lower class one is put to death and the other is just whipped. perhaps he could have used a different example to demonstrate this and i am over simplifying it but it does have a purpose within the story and the main character has to confront this issue that not everyone is created equal.

AGENCY is exactly the word I should've thought of when reading this book. I kept thinking while reading that it was a lot like an RPG where all the other characters just sort of sit around and do nothing unless the protagonist is there, at which point their dialogue activates. And everything they do is centered on the protagonist. No one ever seems to actually be doing anything off screen unless it's directly there to motivate Darrow. Even characters like Antonia, Cassius, Titus, the Jackal, and the Proctors just kind of passively exist until they get activated by the plot to do something directly to Darrow, but even when they do act they never actually manage to set him back for more than a chapter (I guess Cassius does set him back a couple chapters, but even then it's ultimately to Darrow's advantage).

Do you have an involuntary movement disorder?

I only remember two instances of SA, one with Titus and the other with tactus. Can someone let me know the others he's talikng about?

I thought it was an interesting book. I feel like it would make a great movie or TV series.

I couldn't put my review into words and you have done it for me thank you I totally agree except writing style wasn't for me

So you didn't think the taking the lashings with Tactus was a big win in Darrow's growth into a leader worthy of leading? That's what made it for me. If you show me as a leader that you are willing to do the things the lowest that you lead do then that gives you so much credibility. I don't understand how that didn't land for you?

I know people say book 1 isn’t great, but the series is incredible after that, but I HAAAATED book 1. In fact I gave up half way. The whole concept of the colours was far too YA for me and I hated the battle royal section. Half way through Sun eater book 1 though and it’s incredible, although it does need to speed up soon or have something significant happen soon otherwise it will start to drag.

PAX AU TELEMANUS!

PRIME

I find your hangup on the sexual violence a bit weird. It´s not that big part of the story and it's not too explicit either. I started reading the spellmonger series and quit after book one because of too much unmotivated explicit sex scenes. It was just silly. I acknowledge that Spellmonger isn´t taking it self too serious, but still, it was not good writing compared to Red Rising IMO. I´ve watched the Expanse along with listening to Red Rising, and it was difficult not to compare because of the latin names. I think Red Rising is much more compelling based on tv show and books, but books vs books might be different. I would love for Red Rising to be HBO's next Game of Thrones. Lots of drama and betrayal and gore. But it needs to be GoT level of quality production. If not it will feel like a B-show like the Expanse and others.

I loved the irish narrator too!

I find it VERY interesting that you praise his writing so much. I had the opposite reaction to the book personally. The characters and story compelled me to keep reading. But I just really did not care for the pacing and his writing style in general. Maybe it’s nitpicky but switching between kilometers and miles felt off. There was one sentence where he said “beneath my feet” twice back to back without even a period between them. Lot of little things like this add up. I’m new to Pierce Brown so I don’t know if this is his first book ever but it definitely felt like a first book. Reminds me of Sanderson using “maladroitly” every five words in Mistborn. I LOVED the story but sometimes just the way it’s written takes me out of it

I have a rock between my ears hahaha! Did not see the ending coming at all, but to be fair to myself, RR is the first sci-fi dystopian novel I have ever read.

I loved the scene where he took the lashings...because their crimes are his crimes... one of my favorite parts

Terrible review… this guy probably thinks the sequels in Star Wars are good lmka

thank you, saved the some money on this one. Hate sexual violence

Sorry still thumbs downing you for you liking WoT TV show

You can buy the book in the description, or you can start a rebellion in real life! Who wants to fight some golds!?!