<— The latest dystopian series that appears to be ALL the rage right now with our fellow readers! Fabi says: “Put that one on the greats list. Truly awesome.”
And they’re swooning over the author!! 😉
Michelle: I started reading Red Rising and boy am I on a fantastic book run! I get why this one was hyped to me and I am going right into Golden Son after!
Fabi: Michelle I’m rereading Red Rising before starting Golden Son too. It was a 5 star for me the first time and amazingly it’s even better the second time. There are so many quotes I want to save from this book. Pierce Brown is a genius. He became an auto buy for me with his very first book.
Michelle: Hey yeah Fabi Red Rising is fantastic! I tore through half of it last night and cannot wait to get home like I literally have to talk myself out of sneak reading it today!
Michelle: Ahh finished Red Rising Fabi and I’m officially a huge fan and addicted to this series! LOVED Darrow and felt everything along with him. I started Golden Son today and the reviews look even better for this one not that my rating can go higher because I’m with ya that it was 5 stars all the way!
Fabi: Isn’t Darrow amazing in all his perfect imperfection? I can only think to describe him as so very “human” in his alphaness.
Michelle: Fabi, I got through it so fast because I stayed up two nights super late since I couldn’t put it down! I love every flaw of Darrows truly and his growth is inspiring and real. When this book is made into a movie, I wish them luck because they will never capture it.
Michelle: Let me just say Fabi, you think you know where Golden Son is going and then that’s blown up and I’m left scratching my head. Soooooo good and I’m only 1/3 in!
Cheryl: Fabi and Michelle, Universal studios bought the movie rights. He’s writing the screenplay.
Fabi: Woohoo! I knew it. It just had to go on the big screen. Ender’s Game and Hunger Games were awesome on the big screen. Michelle you’re psychic. Cheryl and Bev thanks for the confirmation. Pierce Brown is headed towards “most eligible bachelor” status quick.
Carol: After finishing up the Hunger Games movie last weekend, I was in the mood for something similar. I picked up Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I read through the night until 4 am. Yesterday, I read his second book, Golden Son! This series does not disappoint! It was amazing and well worth this book fog that will likely stick with me until Feb when book 3 concludes this wonderfully surprising series!
About book #1:
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.
But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.
Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
Red Rising (The Red Rising Trilogy, Book 1)- Golden Son (The Red Rising Trilogy, Book 2)
- Morning Star: Book III of The Red Rising Trilogy – February 9th 2016
Is there at least a teeny-tiny-ittie-bittie bit of romance? If there is, I’ll put in on my TBR list!
Great question!! I love me some romance in any series, and I’m in the mood for dystopian.
Fabi? Michelle?
I’d call it NA instead of YA. It has more romance than typical sci fi. Less than Hunger Games. More than Ender’s Game.
What I want to do is just start quoting these books. Dozens of quotes can come out of just these two books.
There’s a funny one I read earlier today. Unfortunately, I don’t have the book in front of me so I can only (poorly) paraphrase, but it’s something along the lines of “he thinks that because I’m reading a book, I’m not doing anything (so he interrupts). Is there anything an introvert dislikes more than extrovertedness?”
The perspective is fascinating. It’s a young guy, writing about a young guy in first person. It’s my favorite kind of bird’s eye view into the male psyche.
I can’t, in all honesty call these books romance. There is an underlying romance that fuels the book’s plot. But the books are bloody and messy and wickedly evil. They explore human actions, reactions, and growth in extreme circumstances. They show the good and bad in all of us and how situations and expectations can influence decisions.
It does all of that and more in a non-stop action packed series of events that leave you wide eyed and breathless.
What Fabi said…the romance while not overt is the driving factor behind the plot. You get a little more in book 2 but it’s still not a focus as much as the relationships and the struggle for Darrow to hold himself together and find meaning in his new landscape. I went through every emotion I could want to experience with a book and did not even miss a romantic aspect when it’s usually something I like or even prefer.
I even initially was worried about reading a series solely from a young males perspective and thought there was no way I would relate but I relate more if you can believe it.
The second book is even better than the first and I can’t remember a trilogy where that’s happend for me. It is going into the third book on a very high note.
Read this series…just read it!
I’m in the middle of book two. It is as non-stop as book 1. I am wondering how big a part Lysander is going to play in the story Michelle…
In a trilogy, the first book is always the best and the third wraps things up and completes the story. Often, the second is just filler. Not so in this trilogy. It’s only gotten better (how can that be possible?) In book 2.
Michelle, Sevro has pulled at my heartstrings from the very beginning. The Howler loyalty just warms me all over.
It just gets more non-stop Fabi. The last third is like head blown up for me! I know I really can’t remember when I read a trilogy and the second book builds and is even better. The third book has HUGE shoes to fill and I hope it can fill them! Lysander freaks me out a little…like he is so evil that you can’t even recognize it or he can be brought back into the light…I can’t tell. Sevro is my favorite as well and just wait…secrets coming up 😉
brrrr *shiver*
back to reading for me
Here’s an overview of where the romance (one of them) stands midway through book 2.
She loves him but he loves the other her who may or may not love him back. Even so, he can’t completely commit his love because it’s committed to his original her who is, after all, the driving force behind the whole story.
Which love do you root for? Hell if I know.
My heart just broke for Quinn, Roque, Sevro and Darrow. 🙁
Oh Fabi which heartbreak are you at? Yes I said which…
I want to reread it again already hearing you go through it…ahhh sooo good it is even distracting me some from my reread of the Fever series and that’s saying a lot!
Wow, that is saying a lot! I reread Fever and Iced recently so I’m good to go for the release of Burned.
I’m about to start part 3 in Golden Son. I have mixed feelings. I want to finish it so I’ll be ready for Burned tomorrow, but I want to go as slow as possible because I don’t want to leave Darrow and his world.
Oh and I’m wanting to start over from the beginning again too so I can make sure I write down all the parts Ibwany to quote this time. Lol
Ibwany=I want to. *shaking head at auto correct*
I hardly ever highlight but I did for a lot of the quotes. Maybe I should have slowed down and savored a bit more since we have to wait so long for the next one 🙁
I’m just starting book 3 and I remember book 5 in the Fever series is a whopper so I probably won’t get to Burned until the end of the week but the reread is worth it.
I couldn’t highlight or didn’t want to in either of these books since I have hardback copies and GS is signed.
I just googled helium-3 out of curiosity. ‘Cause I’m the curious sort you know. 🙂 fascinating – potential source of clean energy fuel in fusion power. It is rare on earth but mining the moon for it is being considered/planned.
(It’s what is mined in Red Rising by the Red class of citizens and used to help terraform new worlds)
I finished Golden Son late last night. So late that I overslept this morning. Holy crap! It was so hard waiting between Red Rising and Golden Son. I don’t know how in the world I’m going to stay sane waiting for Morning Star.
Crazy right?! It was like Red Wedding crazy for me. Hopefully Morning Star comes out at least in January of next year and not later.
Totally crazy, messed up ending. But I can’t say I wasn’t expecting something like it. Also, I’m not sure agree with everyone calling it a cliffhanger. Granted, it’s not the way I want the series to end, but it is a plausible ending for the book.
Off topic but did you ever read The 5th Wave by Yancey? The sequel The Infinite Sea came out towards the end of last year and its still sitting in my tbr. I swear my tbr became a New Year’s resolution for me when I realized how many amazing sequels I had waiting for me as well as how many new ones were coming out early this year. I feel like I’m scrambling to catch up.
I read The 5th Wave!!!! It was good!!
Hmm I still think it’s a CH but can’t really explain without giving something away so for anyone else reading this, what’s splitting the difference haha?
I haven’t read The 5th Wave yet but it’s on my list. The next dystopian that I have to read is going to be Enclave. I’ve been pushing that series back but it’s complete so that’s a huge plus for me. I’m trying not to start too many series that I have to wait for books…it is starting to make me crazy!
Oohhh Enclave is gooood.
You did? :-0
I can’t believe the sequel has been out for months and I haven’t gotten to it yet. I don’t want to speed read my escape lit, but I’m getting desperate.