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leannarapier's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I asked readers for a character driven fantasy or scifi with emotional depth to the characters. Red Rising was the most recommended. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me.
It started out interesting with the MC being part of a group (known as Reds) sent to live underground generations ago to mine materials needed to terraform Mars. What they didn’t realize is that their mission was complete long ago and the other Colors were living in luxury on Mars and other planets while they still slaved away thinking they were preparing Mars for their future children.
The MC, after discovering the truth, is disguised as a Gold (the elite group of people) and goes to a special training school. At this point, I felt like the novel was a redo of the Hunger Games only with more language and violence. Nor did I really get the emotional depth I was looking for. I wanted something heartfelt with action, and more than just the grief and violence this book became.
3.5 I would have given it 4 stars except for the bait and switch. I loved the beginning idea of an oppressed people rising up and was disappointed in the whole hunger game school survival setting it became.
It started out interesting with the MC being part of a group (known as Reds) sent to live underground generations ago to mine materials needed to terraform Mars. What they didn’t realize is that their mission was complete long ago and the other Colors were living in luxury on Mars and other planets while they still slaved away thinking they were preparing Mars for their future children.
The MC, after discovering the truth, is disguised as a Gold (the elite group of people) and goes to a special training school. At this point, I felt like the novel was a redo of the Hunger Games only with more language and violence. Nor did I really get the emotional depth I was looking for. I wanted something heartfelt with action, and more than just the grief and violence this book became.
3.5 I would have given it 4 stars except for the bait and switch. I loved the beginning idea of an oppressed people rising up and was disappointed in the whole hunger game school survival setting it became.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Gore, and Cursing
lillelow's review against another edition
DNF 40%.
The book begins the worst possible way with drunk father figures and community leaders laughing about raping the protagonist’s wife - and no one raises an eyebrow. Misogyny, machoism, masochism, prostitution as a means of female survival and male pleasure, a world in which all women are beautiful, marry when they’re 14 and work with silk while all the manly men work in the mines… This is a sci-fi novel, a world of make believe. You can write about ANYTHING. Create ANY future. Yet this is what we get. I’m SO F* TIRED of reading about this bullshit.
I wanted to put the book down then and there, but decided to give it a go because of all the good reviews.
I shouldn’t have bothered. It doesn’t get better.
The premiss is interesting, but the execution and the character portrayal is horrible.
I didn’t like the protagonist at all. Clever, brave, strong, humble, hardworking, loving… All the right things! At least, that’s what I’m told. Honestly, all I see is a self absorbed insular teenager with no weakness who excels at everything he does for no reason other than he’s the chosen one. He doesn’t have to be likeable, but believable is quite important, and this book does none of it.
The supposedly romantic interactions between the protagonist and his wife are probably supposed to be charming and sweet but only feel stiff, cliche and childish and evoke no emotions at all. But hey, at least she is incredibly beautiful and we’re told everyone loves her… I guess that was enough for the author.
I didn’t like any of the other characters either. Even the ones who are described in good light are horrible, not to mention the way they express themselves. I’m not prude. Explicit language and swearing is fine. But most of the writing, dialogue, slurs and expletives in this book are just disturbing and annoying. You cannot make me believe people talk like this for real. Is it supposed to be cool?? I couldn’t stand it, I hated almost everyone and the flat writing did nothing to help.
At 40% through, I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t care about the story or the characters and was mostly annoyed at it all. Ender’s Game’s the perfect chosen one meets the segregation and killing of The Hunger Games or Gladiator (only it’s terrible) in a violent color-coded elite school on Mars with some sprinkles… no, make that a heavy rain…. of machoism and sexism.
No thank you.
★★-
The book begins the worst possible way with drunk father figures and community leaders laughing about raping the protagonist’s wife - and no one raises an eyebrow. Misogyny, machoism, masochism, prostitution as a means of female survival and male pleasure, a world in which all women are beautiful, marry when they’re 14 and work with silk while all the manly men work in the mines… This is a sci-fi novel, a world of make believe. You can write about ANYTHING. Create ANY future. Yet this is what we get. I’m SO F* TIRED of reading about this bullshit.
I wanted to put the book down then and there, but decided to give it a go because of all the good reviews.
I shouldn’t have bothered. It doesn’t get better.
The premiss is interesting, but the execution and the character portrayal is horrible.
I didn’t like the protagonist at all. Clever, brave, strong, humble, hardworking, loving… All the right things! At least, that’s what I’m told. Honestly, all I see is a self absorbed insular teenager with no weakness who excels at everything he does for no reason other than he’s the chosen one. He doesn’t have to be likeable, but believable is quite important, and this book does none of it.
The supposedly romantic interactions between the protagonist and his wife are probably supposed to be charming and sweet but only feel stiff, cliche and childish and evoke no emotions at all. But hey, at least she is incredibly beautiful and we’re told everyone loves her… I guess that was enough for the author.
I didn’t like any of the other characters either. Even the ones who are described in good light are horrible, not to mention the way they express themselves. I’m not prude. Explicit language and swearing is fine. But most of the writing, dialogue, slurs and expletives in this book are just disturbing and annoying. You cannot make me believe people talk like this for real. Is it supposed to be cool?? I couldn’t stand it, I hated almost everyone and the flat writing did nothing to help.
At 40% through, I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t care about the story or the characters and was mostly annoyed at it all. Ender’s Game’s the perfect chosen one meets the segregation and killing of The Hunger Games or Gladiator (only it’s terrible) in a violent color-coded elite school on Mars with some sprinkles… no, make that a heavy rain…. of machoism and sexism.
No thank you.
★★-
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Classism, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Body shaming, Alcohol, War, Trafficking, Slavery, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Death of parent, Sexism, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Cursing, Racial slurs, Body horror, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Rape, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Excrement, Gore, Death, and Eating disorder
lonelylooper's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Misogyny, Death of parent, Classism, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide attempt, Violence, and War
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Body shaming
Minor: Homophobia, Excrement, and Cannibalism
mnkeemagick's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
**LONG AND SPOILERS AHEAD**
Having finally read this book after it's long stint on my TBR, I must say that I'm disappointed. It seems to me that this is a book that neatly falls into the hype over substance category.
This is the story of a "lower Red", the lowest members of a color based caste system, as he realizes his life of mining under the surface of Mars to aid in terraforming efforts is a lie. He is awakened to this lie and enters the fold of a group of revolutionaries that wish to place him high in society that they might overthrow their oppressive color caste system.
To start, our protagonist Darrow is definitely a Mary Sue esque character, exceeding all expectation in strategy, intelligence, and physical prowess despite being a 16 year old whose whole life has been relegated to mining, drinking, and fighting. It's expressly mentioned that he's different from other Reds and lower colors, that he is a new step in evolution that is naturally above the others. Even after his transformation into a Gold where he is enhanced so that he can begin working his way through the upper reaches of society, he is described often as more than the standard for their perfectly crafted selves.
More dexterous in a new body he has to learn to function in, stronger despite size, smart enough that he is one of the highest scorers of the entry exam, to the point he must be interrogated to determine if and how he cheated, and immediately having a mind for logic puzzles and politics. All against people who were bred, raised, and literally modified as he was for their entire lives to do these things. He even prevails over those who have already passed the testing and are considered the highest of the high.
Yet at the same time, he's naive or easily fooled as the plot needs. In the last hundred or so pages he's caught in a trap alone 3 separate times using the same trick.
Then there's his motivation, given to him expressly and with no subtlety by his wife in the early stages of the book, cemented by her martyrdom. She is literally written as an exposition tool to open his eyes and die, then be pined after as needed. Much the same is true of his few interactions with lower colors after he leaves the mines. Symbols of virtue or strife, but certainly not people.
The world building is haphazard and doesn't make much sense. It's loosely tied to Greco-Roman mythos, mostly in name and style more than substance or message. There are little details surrounding the story happening on Mars that irk me, namely the constant thinking about how they are in "low gravity" or specifying that it's 0.376 Earth gravity even though he has spent his entire life on Mars and only learns the difference when training his new body under higher gravity to strengthen it. Names and references aren't consistent, with images given from Egypt, the Bible, and The Reaper. It's frustrating that there's so many little details constantly being shoved at you to remember it's on Mars, only to have slips, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities like the artificial fortress that watches over the game is referred to as Olympus when it could have been set in a valley at the base of the actual Olympus Mons on Mars.
There's also odd societal tidbits that nag at me throughout. This story apparently takes place around 700 years after Earth begins terraforming the solar system, and 300 years after they have successfully done so on Mars, keeping the Reds underground as slave labor to produce Helium. This led me to believe that the Reds were somehow kept a secret, that the upper world is more ignorant with dark forces at the top being malicious, but I was wrong.
Apparently all the people on the surface, including OTHER REDS, know that this is a thing and just don't do anything. Centuries of being complacent with actual slavery and regular death with no social movement at all, explained and handwaved away as people being disappeared when they speak out, even though there must be billions of them watching considering its said that there's at least a billion Reds just underground. No matter how brutal an empire is, there would be more than just The Sons of Ares trying to do something.
I think this all feels so underthought because I noted a delineation in the book where we got to the part I feel Brown actually originally wanted to write and haphazardly built a world around it to make it fit.
There's also a bit about the most inhuman, animalistic, and violent caste being "Obsidian". Not that we ever meet one, mostly sticking to what seem to me to be very Irish coded (and a little stereotypes) Reds and the very European, largely British Golds.
All that being said, there's a solid change in the writing once we enter the game. The entrance and exam this world uses to determine the baseline for the top of the top. This section, while full of tropes from other YA Dystopia, is much more engaging.
Golds enter an elite testing ground after their entrance exams, 1200 total, where they will be sorted into 1 of 12 Hogwarts houses named after the major Gods of the Roman pantheon. Once sorted, they're dragged away in the night, dropped into stone cells naked in pairs, and only one gets to leave. The 1200 become 600 as the high testers cull the lowest scorers and they're dropped into a valley with fortresses and resources with a simple goal: conquer all the other houses.
I like this play on the battle Royale, especially when it's initially mentioned that they're not supposed to kill other students intentionally. It's a nice twist on the format, it's much more cohesive and engaging, even though it has it's own faults.
The not intentionally killing students goes out the window almost immediately. The themes here are darker and I think intended to be more shocking, especially the instances of sexual assault that are again just using women, most of whom are nameless and faceless, as shock props for the story and not characters. The women who are named largely treat this as something either deserved for weakness (per their cultural upbringing) or something to simply heal from, minus one who finds it particularly repulsive.
There's plenty of lagging about as this section takes almost an entire in-book year, lots of space initially dedicated to more or less wandering at the start. None of the twists land because they're telegraphed so hard.
As with the rest of the book, the messaging is about as subtle as a shotgun. Even when they make minor philosophical stabs at violence not being the answer, all their problems and messages are solved or perpetuated with violence. It's even alluded to early on that dreamers and peaceful martyrs are worthless, a dime a dozen, while violence is the only way to really change anything.
All told, not great. I'm leaving some space for the shallowness and the prose (the choppy little sentences and poorly executed plays to make our Mary Sue seem a genius warrior philosopher grated on me) as it's largely considered YA and was a debut. I wouldn't recommend it to friends but read it if you want, but after seeing more of the same in the Golden Son excerpt, I'm going to leave the series here.
Having finally read this book after it's long stint on my TBR, I must say that I'm disappointed. It seems to me that this is a book that neatly falls into the hype over substance category.
This is the story of a "lower Red", the lowest members of a color based caste system, as he realizes his life of mining under the surface of Mars to aid in terraforming efforts is a lie. He is awakened to this lie and enters the fold of a group of revolutionaries that wish to place him high in society that they might overthrow their oppressive color caste system.
To start, our protagonist Darrow is definitely a Mary Sue esque character, exceeding all expectation in strategy, intelligence, and physical prowess despite being a 16 year old whose whole life has been relegated to mining, drinking, and fighting. It's expressly mentioned that he's different from other Reds and lower colors, that he is a new step in evolution that is naturally above the others. Even after his transformation into a Gold where he is enhanced so that he can begin working his way through the upper reaches of society, he is described often as more than the standard for their perfectly crafted selves.
More dexterous in a new body he has to learn to function in, stronger despite size, smart enough that he is one of the highest scorers of the entry exam, to the point he must be interrogated to determine if and how he cheated, and immediately having a mind for logic puzzles and politics. All against people who were bred, raised, and literally modified as he was for their entire lives to do these things. He even prevails over those who have already passed the testing and are considered the highest of the high.
Yet at the same time, he's naive or easily fooled as the plot needs. In the last hundred or so pages he's caught in a trap alone 3 separate times using the same trick.
Then there's his motivation, given to him expressly and with no subtlety by his wife in the early stages of the book, cemented by her martyrdom. She is literally written as an exposition tool to open his eyes and die, then be pined after as needed. Much the same is true of his few interactions with lower colors after he leaves the mines. Symbols of virtue or strife, but certainly not people.
The world building is haphazard and doesn't make much sense. It's loosely tied to Greco-Roman mythos, mostly in name and style more than substance or message. There are little details surrounding the story happening on Mars that irk me, namely the constant thinking about how they are in "low gravity" or specifying that it's 0.376 Earth gravity even though he has spent his entire life on Mars and only learns the difference when training his new body under higher gravity to strengthen it. Names and references aren't consistent, with images given from Egypt, the Bible, and The Reaper. It's frustrating that there's so many little details constantly being shoved at you to remember it's on Mars, only to have slips, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities like the artificial fortress that watches over the game is referred to as Olympus when it could have been set in a valley at the base of the actual Olympus Mons on Mars.
There's also odd societal tidbits that nag at me throughout. This story apparently takes place around 700 years after Earth begins terraforming the solar system, and 300 years after they have successfully done so on Mars, keeping the Reds underground as slave labor to produce Helium. This led me to believe that the Reds were somehow kept a secret, that the upper world is more ignorant with dark forces at the top being malicious, but I was wrong.
Apparently all the people on the surface, including OTHER REDS, know that this is a thing and just don't do anything. Centuries of being complacent with actual slavery and regular death with no social movement at all, explained and handwaved away as people being disappeared when they speak out, even though there must be billions of them watching considering its said that there's at least a billion Reds just underground. No matter how brutal an empire is, there would be more than just The Sons of Ares trying to do something.
I think this all feels so underthought because I noted a delineation in the book where we got to the part I feel Brown actually originally wanted to write and haphazardly built a world around it to make it fit.
There's also a bit about the most inhuman, animalistic, and violent caste being "Obsidian". Not that we ever meet one, mostly sticking to what seem to me to be very Irish coded (and a little stereotypes) Reds and the very European, largely British Golds.
All that being said, there's a solid change in the writing once we enter the game. The entrance and exam this world uses to determine the baseline for the top of the top. This section, while full of tropes from other YA Dystopia, is much more engaging.
Golds enter an elite testing ground after their entrance exams, 1200 total, where they will be sorted into 1 of 12 Hogwarts houses named after the major Gods of the Roman pantheon. Once sorted, they're dragged away in the night, dropped into stone cells naked in pairs, and only one gets to leave. The 1200 become 600 as the high testers cull the lowest scorers and they're dropped into a valley with fortresses and resources with a simple goal: conquer all the other houses.
I like this play on the battle Royale, especially when it's initially mentioned that they're not supposed to kill other students intentionally. It's a nice twist on the format, it's much more cohesive and engaging, even though it has it's own faults.
The not intentionally killing students goes out the window almost immediately. The themes here are darker and I think intended to be more shocking, especially the instances of sexual assault that are again just using women, most of whom are nameless and faceless, as shock props for the story and not characters. The women who are named largely treat this as something either deserved for weakness (per their cultural upbringing) or something to simply heal from, minus one who finds it particularly repulsive.
There's plenty of lagging about as this section takes almost an entire in-book year, lots of space initially dedicated to more or less wandering at the start. None of the twists land because they're telegraphed so hard.
As with the rest of the book, the messaging is about as subtle as a shotgun. Even when they make minor philosophical stabs at violence not being the answer, all their problems and messages are solved or perpetuated with violence. It's even alluded to early on that dreamers and peaceful martyrs are worthless, a dime a dozen, while violence is the only way to really change anything.
All told, not great. I'm leaving some space for the shallowness and the prose (the choppy little sentences and poorly executed plays to make our Mary Sue seem a genius warrior philosopher grated on me) as it's largely considered YA and was a debut. I wouldn't recommend it to friends but read it if you want, but after seeing more of the same in the Golden Son excerpt, I'm going to leave the series here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gore, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Classism, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Rape, and Racism
_fallinglight_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
This book is proof that no matter what book I previously thought was the worst I'd ever read, there's always a 10th level of worseness hell out there that I can subject my poor brain to. What an absolute dreck of a book. I despised everything in it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Misogyny, Rape, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Blood, Sexism, and War
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Vomit and Homophobia
flitfox7's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Rape and Cursing
luis_vieira's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Death, Violence, Classism, and Blood
Moderate: Cursing, Slavery, Rape, and Murder
Minor: Excrement and Injury/Injury detail
the_trees_speak_latin_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Death, Sexism, and Misogyny
Minor: Slavery, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, and Vomit
naechan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Body horror, Colonisation, Rape, Blood, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Cursing, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal death, Murder, Slavery, Grief, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Classism, War, Genocide, Death of parent, and Physical abuse
blingokitty's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Blood, War, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, and Slavery
Moderate: Confinement, Excrement, Gore, Kidnapping, and Rape