Talk to me about Red Rising (NS)

[susiebw]

Red Rising came up as a GR Deal of the Day today, and I can get it for Kindle for $1.99.

Worth it?  The GR reviews are mostly phenomenal, but some of my friend reviews are less than stellar.  I know I've seen discussions here about it, but I hadn't read the book, so I never opened them for fear of spoilers.

I'm WAY into space right now, so I feel like I should get it.

[monkeyfeet]

I was one that didn't love it, but I have a hard time saying no at 1.99. It's older so there's probably not a long wait on it from your library?

[snshne322]

It's not a bad deal for 1.99, but I had a hard time finishing. I gave up about 1/3 through the second.

[ufcasey]

So the third book of that trilogy has been out for over a year and I just can't get excited enough to bother reading it. So that probably says a lot more than the fact that I rated the first book pretty highly, and rated the second book as liking it but not as much as I liked the first. It's not supposed to be YA, but it seems YA to me.

[abs]

Apr 21, 2017 12:56:02 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

It's not a bad deal for 1.99, but I had a hard time finishing. I gave up about 1/3 through the second.

This exactly. In retrospect I'm not even sure why I started the second book because I really didn't like the first one.

[minzy]

It's not as much about space as it is about politics/games/alliances. So, less like The Martian and more like The Hunger Games. I only read Red Rising a few months ago and am not sure that I will read the sequels - there is too much else I want to read first.

[Nonny]

Apr 21, 2017 13:27:39 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

So the third book of that trilogy has been out for over a year and I just can't get excited enough to bother reading it. So that probably says a lot more than the fact that I rated the first book pretty highly, and rated the second book as liking it but not as much as I liked the first. It's not supposed to be YA, but it seems YA to me.

It's not supposed to be YA?  Really?  It's absolutely YA - the first one is basically teenagers at Space Hogwarts fighting the Space Hunger Games.

susiebw, I found Red Rising to be super predictable because it was basically an amalgamation of a bunch of YA sci-fi/fantasy books.  I was also super annoyed because the author camelCased every other randomObject to make it like outerSpace and extraFuturistic or someSuchNonsense it drove me nuts through the entire series (but it got toned down significantly by Morning Star).

I actually liked the second book, Golden Son, better.  It was more of a unique story and the author had worked out some of his more annoying writing tics.  Morning Star was OK, but it was way too long and really dragged.

[smock]

I loved it, and the entire series. It's very heavy on the politics/strategy in Red Rising which I love. For those who've read, the game of houses (trying to be vague) read as straight up Machiavelli. I'd definitely try it for $1.99!

[niki]

I enjoyed all three as audio books, but I am not sure I would have the patience to devote my time to them in written form. For $1.99, it is probably worth it. While the politics are some people's cup of tea, I prefer my sci-fi with more interpersonal relationship character development.

[bex]

I put it on my "to read" list solely because Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted that his wife loved it. LOL.

[susiebw]

Thanks guys. I bought it. No idea whan I'll get around to reading it, though.