Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Feb 15, 2015 Mashara rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This books started so well, I just feel like there is another Red Rising hiding somewhere in its author's house before it went through and editor that said "No, you know what's selling now? YA! Re-write it as YA".

And it feels very adolescent. By this I don't mean aimed at an adolescent audience, but written with an adolescent level of maturity. A book that mistakes horrible things happening to its characters with maturity and depth.

The book starts strong. A magnificent world setting, great char This books started so well, I just feel like there is another Red Rising hiding somewhere in its author's house before it went through and editor that said "No, you know what's selling now? YA! Re-write it as YA".

And it feels very adolescent. By this I don't mean aimed at an adolescent audience, but written with an adolescent level of maturity. A book that mistakes horrible things happening to its characters with maturity and depth.

The book starts strong. A magnificent world setting, great characters that found happiness and family in the face of terrible odds. Yes, the disaster was preditable and obvious from the get go, and the book reeks of "girlfriend in the fridge" from the start and then just worsens the problem.

But I could have lived with it, had I not been thrown into Percy Jackson's Hunger Games abour a third into the book. And I like Percy Jackson and I like The Hunger Games, but there's one HUGE difference, well, two: Annabeth and Katniss.
And here is when the "girlfriend in the refrigerator" syndrome this book has goes overboard. Terrible things are done to the boys and girls in the Percy Jackson's Hunger Games (not sex mind, you can be horribly killed but the gods help us if teens have teh sexx), among those rape. Of some girls, we never hear the name of, or talk to or even know how many they are, or anything about them. Because is not about them, you'd think it would, but no, the point of the rape happening is about what it does to the boys, or how they react to it. So, I guess if you're a white straight male, then you might find some way to relate to this book. If you're not... then no, not so much. Or at all.
Why do I say white too? Because the book started as (what I thought) was a metaphore about race and opression and it had (what I thought) were clever plays on our understanding of the past, like making the Reds marry in their very early teens because they're super old by the time they are 40 (Middle Ages!) and the way rich kids remain kids far longer (still in college in your 30s!), because a year in Mars is two earth ones! Clever! No. It's actually Earth years. But then the book plunges into this war among children, and how Golds are physically and mentally superior and how their meritocracy is corrupted. Who cares?? I thought they were the opressors and they were horrible? How is the fact that they are also corrupt such a surprise?

There are however two things redeeming this book. Is very well written, the use of the present tense in short, snapping sentences gives you the idea of the imminence of disaster and the harshness of the situation. And Darrow. He is an empathic character. He manages to see both sides of an argument and that makes him a far more complex and relatable character, than say other Gary Sues as Kvothe. Even when he starts slipping dangerously into megalomaniac territory with phrases like "They will always remember that Darrow au Andromeda touched them". Will they Darrow?

So, this book felt like two books merged into one, and all I can say is, I liked the first one better. ...more

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Nov 11, 2023 David Wilson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have no idea how I missed this book, and this series, It hardly needs another review, but I review everything I read, and this, in the vernacular of the series, is one Gory Damned fine novel, absolutely prime.

Imagine an entire culture shut off in mines on Mars, believing for generations they were pioneers who were readying the planet for terraformina dn an influx of others from Eatrh, who would build a society. Life is hard beyond belief, and the overlords, the "Golds," look down on you and i ...more

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