I could not connect with Darrow as a character. His dialogue was dry, and there was little to no inner dialogue. This could have been improved by giving him character development, of which I saw small hints, and I am certain that he has to grow throughout the series as this is only the first installment. If the reader had more time with him in the mines, an emotional connection could have been easier to build. There needed to be more development and inner dialogue.
The atmosphere was inspired by Roman history and mythology; I found this rather intriguing and think it makes the story more accessible, as there were names and myths that the average person would be familiar with. However, I did have a hard time actually picturing the world in my head. The author would have benefited from using more descriptive writing.
The writing was accessible, easy, and readable. The story was fast-paced. As stated before, the story would have improved with inner dialogue and more descriptive writing. With that being said, it was very dry. I hated that this was in the first-person perspective rather than third. First-person does work well for some genres, but science fiction is not one of them. The writing was my biggest problem with the book.
If I had read ‘Red Rising’ ten years ago, I would have loved it. The plot is very reminiscent of ‘The Hunger Games’: a poor person goes to the big city to take down the empire and partake in a to-the-death style game. There are more similarities, but I will not list them all. This is just a more adult style of the dystopian books that were coming out at the time it was published in 2013. As I have read many of those, this story was not unique or anything new to me.
I could not connect with Darrow as a character. There needed to be more development and inner dialogue. The atmosphere was inspired by Roman history and mythology; I found this rather intriguing and think it makes the story more accessible, as there were names and myths that the average person would be familiar with. The author would have benefited from using more descriptive writing. The writing was accessible, easy, and readable. The writing was my biggest problem with the book. If I had read ‘Red Rising’ ten years ago, I would have loved it. This story was not unique or anything new to me. This read did nothing for me, and if you are familiar with the science fiction genre, I would not recommend picking it up. However, it would be a good starting book if you are new to the genre.
2.4 out of 5
by beaniebaby729
7 Comments
I actually didn’t catch the hunger games comparison when I read it. Perhaps because Red Rising is so clearly not YA. But it’s obvious now that you mention it.
I’m surprised you find first person doesn’t work for an entire genre. I don’t see why it can’t for science fiction. It very much depends on the story the author is trying to tell.
I personally loved it and I loved Darrow as well but to each their own! I think Pierce Brown has some pitfalls as a writer (like his lack of a clear outline for the series caused some issues in the later books) but I really love this series. To me RR is the weakest book but it leaves a good foundation and only gets better from there. I’m super excited for his last book.
Five cent plot with endless filler.
I hated this book more than anything I’ve read in the past year. To start, every single woman is either a martyr that exists as wish fulfillment or a dumbass who has to be saved in the end by a man. The writing is horrific, the plot is lackluster, and the world makes less sense with every page you get into it. Darrow is the definition of a Mary Sue. He has no flaws and apparently is madly intelligent, despite this making no sense with his background (no formal education whatsoever, yet he is able to outwit every single aristocrat he meets, despite us being told they are ALSO supremely intelligent — he somehow knows more than every single one of them). Everything is told to us rather than shown. And his wife was the worst-written woman I’ve ever come across in literature.
I hated, hated, hated this book. It was an insult to all the trees that had to die for it to be printed.
Picked up the audiobook on Libby and has to return it after 14 days. The first third I could not get behind. Everything felt like a cliche. Part of the issue I might have had was that I think the protagonist starts out as a young man, but the narrator sounded much older. Anyway, I found the group in-fighting more interesting and I was sorry to have to return the book before I could finish it. I have a hold and plan to finish it, but I won’t hold out hopes for a great ending.
Read I, Claudius and watch Char’s Counterattack and save time by not reading this boring series because it’s those two mixed together and then ruined.
One of the worst books I have ever had the misfortune of reading. They say it gets better in the second book, but I hated the writing and the main character so much I don’t believe they going to dramatically change for the better.