Crap! The twists be twisty and it hurts. ( )

This review refers to the whole Red Rising trilogy (Red Rising, Golden Son, and Morning Star). It's about a future society that spans the whole Solar System, with a rigid system of castes, including the Golds, who are the ruling class, and the Reds, who are slaves without rights and perform the more menial grunt work. The trilogy tells the story of a revolutionary leader who infiltrates the Gold caste to gain power and bring the system down.

It has a lot to recommend it. It's very readable and entertaining. The first book reminded me in some ways of the Hunger Games, only on a bigger, more strategical scale. The worldbuilding is interesting, although implausible at times, with the elite Golds basically acting as a pantheon of Roman gods of war. I was engrossed but at the same time I had the nagging sensation that this is one of those stories where you have to disconnect your brain and go along with the ride. Our hero will be taken prisoner repeatedly by the most ruthless enemies, who inexplicably will fail to kill him when they can... The way people act is often too extreme and larger than life... I'm sure future battles would not work in the way the books describe... But if you are willing to overlook things like that you have very compelling characters, intense relationships, often not romantic, and a ripping story.

For entertainment value it gets 5-stars easily, but I will withhold one for the eye-rolling moments. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, though. ( )

distopico
caste
schiavi

CIT: tornare a casa per trovare non il passato, ma il futuro ( )

Als ich angefangen habe, das Buch zu lesen, war ich sehr euphorisch, denn ich hatte schon viel über die Reihe gehört. Als ich dann aber feststellen musste, dass es bereits der 5. Teil der gesamten Reihe ist, war mir klar, warum so viele Dinge, Situationen und Charakterzüge für mich irritierend waren und ich der Handlung nicht wirklich folgen konnte.
Mir gefällt auch nicht, wenn Bücher mittendrin aufhören, weil deutsche Verlage die Bücher teilen. Das ist für mich ein Grund, nicht zum Buch zu greifen.
Der Schreibstil war flüssig und hat mich auch im Buch gut festhalten können, bis eben der Punkt kam, dass es bereits der 5 Band der Reihe ist. ( )

A lot left I'm still unpacking about this book. I simultaneously had a hard time getting into it and also was riveted every time I picked it up. Very dark and gory, and plotted kind of like if The Hunger Games was rated R and set in space. Mars is populated but humanity exists in a strict class system given color names, with Reds at the very bottom, and Golds at the tippy top. Darrow, a Red, infiltrates the Golds for revenge and competes in their school's war games.

In a lot of ways this felt very YA dystopian-coded, just bloodier. Regardless I'm interested to see where the rest of the series goes - there are a lot of thoughtful notions about class, society (and capitalism essentially), with compelling characters. ( )