Kireth
It has been more than a day since I finished blitzing my way through this book (finished in a week!) yet the ideas and moments are recurring images in my brain. I believe it is because of the excellent character work amidst this busy science-fiction-meets-fantasy world, with individual triumphs and failures and continual drives being tested in the worst of conditions. Lessons of power, morality, good and evil and the forging and testing of the human spirit are all on display in Red Rising.
Yet the novel is not perfect; it has its flaws. A frenetically paced writing style (I learned afterwards that the author needed to slim the page and word count down in order to get his first book published, having written five before this) lead to moments where I wish I had more explanation, or time to slow down and absorb the details amidst the breakneck pacing. For me the real snowball effect started from around the 45% mark, with the book's entire second half - which is really the meat of the plot and action - being an awesomely and horrifyingly epic scaled education combined with war. To say anymore would be a spoiler, but everything in the first half now oddly reminds me of The Shire in The Lord of the Rings - absolutely necessary fundamental worldbuilding that establishes the motive, precedent and ignition for the later combat.
Darrow is a simple yet effective character. Smart, burdened, born into the wrong time and place. Everyone else is secondary, but all have a clear role in this novel - practically anyone named actually has a significant interaction which surprised me.
Will I continue reading this trilogy? Hell yes. I understand why this book has sat so high among many Sci-Fi reading lists, it is a great modern introduction to the genre much like Mistborn is for Fantasy. I will enjoy reading the entire trilogy, especially as I heard they only get better, and then likely books 4-7 as well.
It has been more than a day since I finished blitzing my way through this book (finished in a week!) yet the ideas and moments are recurring images in my brain. I believe it is because of the excellent character work amidst this busy science-fiction-meets-fantasy world, with individual triumphs and failures and continual drives being tested in the worst of conditions. Lessons of power, morality, good and evil and the forging and testing of the human spirit are all on display in Red Rising.
Yet the novel is not perfect; it has its flaws. A frenetically paced writing style (I learned afterwards that the author needed to slim the page and word count down in order to get his first book published, having written five before this) lead to moments where I wish I had more explanation, or time to slow down and absorb the details amidst the breakneck pacing. For me the real snowball effect started from around the 45% mark, with the book's entire second half - which is really the meat of the plot and action - being an awesomely and horrifyingly epic scaled education combined with war. To say anymore would be a spoiler, but everything in the first half now oddly reminds me of The Shire in The Lord of the Rings - absolutely necessary fundamental worldbuilding that establishes the motive, precedent and ignition for the later combat.
Darrow is a simple yet effective character. Smart, burdened, born into the wrong time and place. Everyone else is secondary, but all have a clear role in this novel - practically anyone named actually has a significant interaction which surprised me.
Will I continue reading this trilogy? Hell yes. I understand why this book has sat so high among many Sci-Fi reading lists, it is a great modern introduction to the genre much like Mistborn is for Fantasy. I will enjoy reading the entire trilogy, especially as I heard they only get better, and then likely books 4-7 as well.