Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Mar 07, 2017 Redeagl rated it it was amazing

I liked a YA book, something is wrong with me. I must see a doctor.

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Nov 05, 2015 Thomas Stacey rated it it was amazing

Reread Aug 2023: decided to reread all the Red Rising books in anticipation of reading Lightbringer (and hoping Red God will be almost out by the time i catch up!). Decided to listen to it this time - good narration. Still a great book, but easily the simplest of the series. Looking forward to listening to Golden Son!

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A great start to a truly exceptional trilogy. I tend to avoid Sci-Fi, as I find it usually sacrifices plot and character development f ...more

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Jan 04, 2016 Dyrk Ashton rated it it was amazing

ASHAMED of myself I haven't read this before now. Happy that I have it, and the two follow-ups, yet to read ;)

Not at all what I suspected. Couldn't put it down, and I couldn't really tell you why. I try though, review under the finale, Golden Son... ...more

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Sep 01, 2017 Lanko rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: rc2017n-e, 2017, bingo17

I actually did read reviews about it before getting it, specially the hilarious ones with very good points on why the book would most likely fall apart for me.

So it comes as a surprise that despite starting it with all that ill predisposition towards it, I still found it extremely good.

The start isn't very promising but looking back now I don't know how it could be improved. But it really caught my attention the fact that the author wasn't gonna spare anyone and anything could happen.

The tests, I actually did read reviews about it before getting it, specially the hilarious ones with very good points on why the book would most likely fall apart for me.

So it comes as a surprise that despite starting it with all that ill predisposition towards it, I still found it extremely good.

The start isn't very promising but looking back now I don't know how it could be improved. But it really caught my attention the fact that the author wasn't gonna spare anyone and anything could happen.

The tests, the battle royale (with isn't really a full-out battle royale), the dystopian society, the main character who is a main symbol... I'm sure people will easily point out Hunger Games, Divergent, and a myriad of other dystopian, sci-fi and similar books.

But for me Red Rising is far better than those.

Contrary to Hunger Games, the main character isn't protected to look good and pure by the author and really has to make morally questionable choices, kill people he rather not and so on.
The politics are much deeper and much more fleshed out than in HG. And as the game will show you, its society, classes and politics aren't really set in stone.
The battles are bloody, but it's actually possible to win the game without anybody dying, even though it would be really hard. The simulation of an Ancient Age world and let people fend for themselves felt really good.
And this is a competition that happens for months (or maybe more than a year?) and this long time living in this situation really makes some people lose it and become animals.

I did have eye-rolling moments. Some questionable or convenient moments. Or how the references to other works didn't feel like references by the way they so loudly screamed which work they were inspired from.

But how Brown slowly unfolds his characters, their connections and more aspects of them, how he layers the grounds for things to happen both in the near and far future... that was so skillfully done that made me quickly and easily brush away the book's faults, even the glaring ones.
And at first I thought all those side characters would just be at best archetypes, but slowly they keep becoming more and more nuanced, though some do stay that way. And others surprise you.

Even how the book reminds you that Darrow is the hope, symbol of etc etc, started to feel a distraught trying-to-be-tough boy convincing himself than the book telling you how to feel/see the character.

Forward to Golden Son!
...more

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May 31, 2025 Rania M. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, 2025

Red Rising wasn’t what I expected. I went in thinking it might be another Hunger Games—and while there are minor similarities, this story quickly carves out its own bloody, ambitious path.

For me, it doesn't read dystopian, it reads sci-fi.

I did find the opening a bit slow, but once it gets going, it really gets going.

The school system is one of the most fascinating elements—brutal, strategic, and wildly intense. The pacing does take some surprising leaps, jumping through time more than I anticip ...more

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