Red Rising

Choppy prose, sloppy plotting, thin worldbuilding, poor pacing. Do not recommend.

If I were just going to write a review, I'd probably just leave it at the above. I don't like to hate read things. If I'm going to spend my time on a book, it's gotta be something I at least think I'm going to enjoy.

Sometimes though, a friend says: I read this book everybody told me was good, and I have a lot of feelings but I can't quite find the words. Maybe you should read this to have some context and we can have a book discussion. A book discussion, you say! I'm in.

And now, because several of my friends have read this for whatever reason and want to talk about it, now I have to think more about this book that wasn't for me. I am told that the later books are more interesting, but I... just don't have it in me with so many things in the to-read pile.

If I was going to steer people towards other books that are adjacent to Red Rising, I'd say:

If you want people acting as gods on Mars presiding over mock warfare, Dan Simmons did a much better job of this in his Ilium and Olympos duology. (Also featuring: literary references and gay robots on a submarine.)

If you want a competitive school environment that transitions into the Hunger Games, also featuring the most special YA protagonist who is secretly there to burn down all of society and can't let anybody know what his true identity is, I think the Will of the Many is a better choice. (I also appreciate the way that book constantly ratchets up the tension on the protagonist's secrets.)

If you just want arbitrary stratified dystopian social classes, might I recommend this classic ghosthoney video: www.tiktok.com/@ghosthoney/video/6884050977389874437

Here's the extended remix of my grumpy feelings.