Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1) in The Perks Of Being A Book Addict

Jan 26, 2014 Michael rated it liked it

Shelves: tower-team-challenge-b, science-fiction, pbrc-tower-challenge, arc, kindle, read-in-2014

I'll have to admit I was about ready to give up on Red Rising after wading through the first hundred or so pages of the novel, but solid on-line buzz and a glowing review from Entertainment Weekly made me determined to muddle on and see if I could find out what all the buzz was about.

And now that I've finished the book (the first in a trilogy of novels), I can sort of see what all the buzz was about. In many ways, Pierce Brown's debut novel feels like it's taken a lot of ingredients from other p I'll have to admit I was about ready to give up on Red Rising after wading through the first hundred or so pages of the novel, but solid on-line buzz and a glowing review from Entertainment Weekly made me determined to muddle on and see if I could find out what all the buzz was about.

And now that I've finished the book (the first in a trilogy of novels), I can sort of see what all the buzz was about. In many ways, Pierce Brown's debut novel feels like it's taken a lot of ingredients from other popular novels -- dystopian future, a hero who must reinvent himself and embrace his destiny, lost love, a winner take all, no-holds barred contest - and blended them all together like a stew. And while all the ingredients are good, I still don't feel like everything blended together well enough to leave me feeling satisfied when I got to the bottom of the bowl.

Darrow is the lowest of the low in the future dystopian caste system on Mars. He's a miner who endures day after day of back breaking labor in an attempt to get ahead a bit. His lifespan is expected to be short, but Darrow takes comfort in the love of his wife, Eo. But when Eo speaks out against the ruling class on Mars, her final act before being hung is one of defiance. Darrow is devastated (her death is made even more brutal by the fact that due to Mars' lower gravity, he has to pull on her legs to complete her sentence and allow her to die without further suffering) and vows to find a way to get back at those who took the light of his life from him.

This leads to his own trip to the gallows and his apparent death. But instead of dying, he's taken and turned into an upper crust elite with the goal of leading a rebellion from the highest levels and overthrowing the powers above him and getting his revenge on those who took Eo from him. Along the way, Darrow learns that much of that Mars he knew is built lies and deception, designed to keep the lower classes down and give them just enough hope to keep toiling while the upper castes reap the benefits.

What Darrow endures to become one of the higher castes is interesting, but there were times reading this first installment I wished Brown would spend a bit less time on the world-building and a bit more time developing his characters and moving the plotline forward. At times, Darrow is difficult to like, making some portions of the book less interesting to read than others.

And yet, this book is garnering a lot of glowing reviews from the on-line community, I kept reminding myself. And there are a few twists in the novel's last third as well as a pick-up in the intensity of developments that I could almost see what everyone else seems to love about this book.

It's enough to have me interested in a second installment and curious to see what happens next. But it's not enough for to me really rave about this book and feel completely satisfied with it overall. It feels like it's a few ingredients short of a complete meal. ...more

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Feb 09, 2015 Trisha rated it really liked it

"Steel is power. Money is power. But of all the things in all the worlds, words are power."

Wow, what a crazy story. I kept trying to find similarities in it to think "oh it's like this book" but....NONE, I have none to compare it to.

This story is gritty and ugly. First, it's confusion and trying to understand the world in which Darrow lives.

Then it changes and is war. It's all war. And, as always with war, the rules are out and power and destruction and ugly terror rules the land. This story w ...more

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Mar 23, 2014 Meera rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, ebooks-i-own, topamazon, bookpage, bought2014

I re-read this recently in order to read books 4-5. I could barely remember the characters since book #3 was read 6 years ago. Thanks to my horrible memory, I barely remembered most of what happened till it does so I was surprisingly entertained throughout the whole book. And I think I actually enjoyed it more this time around so I increased my rating to 5. It does follow YA sci-fi/fantasy formulas we've seen before but Pierce Brown is good at telling a story. ...more

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Jun 19, 2023 Mekerei rated it really liked it

It seemed this story was recommended everywhere; friends. web. tic toc. I gave in listened to it on audible.

I became obsessed and had to listen every chance I got, in fact I stopped listening to the radio when I drove the car (only 8 minutes to work, but 8 minutes of Red Rising!)

It is truly worth it, I became caught up in the tale and wanted Darrow never to be found out. I believed in the world created by Brown. There were slight issues, but I enjoyed the tale too much to be bogged down by thes ...more

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