tim

Speaking as someone who doesn’t read a lot of fantasy but for whom the first Dune awoke something, I didn’t find Messiah as engaging or succinct, though it did take me back to a place I didn’t think I would ever return to. I’m glad I was able to experience the sequel.

It just isn't very well written. Perhaps I am the wrong audience.

Characters seem to do things without no prior knowledge or experience. Things happen in a moment that would take a lot of time and effort. If it were a film it would be 80% montage. The characters don't make much sense.

Frank Herbert spent 6 years developing the universe Dune was set in. The "Red Rising" universe is "plausible-sounding" but not very believable. It reads how someone unfamiliar with the genre would think Dune was. It's not original; it doesn't bring anything new to the table.

Read this book if you're thinking about writing a novel and don't think you're good enough yet.

I almost didn’t finish reading, after putting it down for a week around the 80 page mark. Yet, here I am writing a review at 11.30pm, having read the last ~70 pages in one go. It’s very well written, though perhaps a little too “educated” for me; the protagonist, a character who keeps moving forward and then retreating over his own thinking, I found difficult. Emotive but slightly unsatisfying.

Absolutely brilliant. Thrilling. Sad. Romantic.

I found the middle part of this novel incredibly dull and almost didn’t finish it, but it tied nicely together in the last ~120 pages or so.