Joint Discussion: Red Rising - Pierce Brown

This month Carole and I will be discussing "Red Rising" by Pierce Brown

Author: Pierce Brown

Title: Red Rising (Red Rising #1)

Genre: Sci-FI, Fantasy, & YA

Pages: ebook

First Published: January 28th 2014

Where I Got It: Borrowed from library

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 already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks 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.  

B: Ok, let us begin. I can start. First I just HAVE to complain..I mean really have to. See for me the first 100 pages were pure torture. It was such a DNF. I had been trying to read it for days and then came today when we were supposed to do this and I had read...20 pages! Yikes. So skimmed most of those first 100 boring pages. Then half skimmed the next 50, then after 150 it picked up somewhat, like to Grade 2 territory. Then after 200 it started to get semi interesting. Them after 250 I sat down and paid attention and it ended with a bang. But really, if this had been a normal book for a normal day then it would have been a DNF! However got it got to be in the end.  You? ;)

C: I honestly didn’t have a hard time. I actually enjoyed the first 200 pages! I enjoyed the slow journey and then everything exploded once they were forced to battle and all that. Yes, the beginning was slow, but I liked it. However….some things seemed SO ridiculous at times. Like the “Passage”. 

B: I guess the Golds are just fucked up people. But I really do not get how the can function as a society. If I made it through the passage fine, but then, the rest, there were rapes. One would think women would not want to send their daughters their, or fathers their sons. If I made it through I would have just gone killer crazy when I graduated. And no one does? Damn, people would have to pay, in blood!

C: Precisely! They tried to compare themselves to the Spartans, but hell, Spartans still have rules and didn’t have half the crazy notions the Golds do. It just seems….crazy. If I was part of this world I would wanna be a Pink or something. Too much for “power”. 

B: But weren’t all pinks whores? I think I would want to be Green, creativity, at least that would get people off my back. I could never be red. Golds are insane. Green I do not know them, but yikes, what a world.

C: I can’t remember who the Greens really were….I would need to learn more. I know for sure I do not want to be a Red or a Gold. Being a Pink (aka prostitute/whore) would be the best of the three until I learn more about the negatives of the other colors not really discussed. Yeah…..poor Darrow. 

B: I know not all Golds go through that horrible horrible place. But as a parent I would not want my kid there to become some crazy mofo. 

Also, the Reds, I know the upper management makes them marry young, but hello, if you want more kids then the answer is not to marry at 14. Bodies are not really meant for that and if you want like 20 new slaves then like wait a bit. 

C: Yeah. Agreed. My question is…..how did the higher-ups keep the city a secret from the LowReds. How? I don’t get it. There are a lot of people flying around...it just seems impossible. 

B: I could believe if it had been a generation or so, but hundreds of years? And no one spilled the beans? No, I can not believe that. I just can not

C: There were a lot of things I questioned….lots of plot holes for my liking. Maybe some of these will be answered in the next book(s). I think this is my only complaint about this book. The journey was fun, the characters interesting, the storyline addicting, but the plotholes? Too many for me. 

B: My complaint, make that complaints, are of course it was so boring, oh my god, so effing boring in the start. I did not care. I do not even know why he was taken prisoner, I just did not care. I only got into it when the killing started, yes, I am dark. But it went from blergh to interesting when they tried to build their effed up society and some did realise the flaws. Like that matters. And that end, BOOM! Oh yes, that was a good one. That made me want to read the next book, I just hope the beginning will not drag there too, I just can not handle that

C: I think it’s funny we disagree on this. ;) But yeah - the best part was for sure the killing and darker part. I think it’s insane how seriously they all took this “schooling”. WTF? It is like High School on steroids! I can’t even fathom what is going to happen the next. I do want to read the next book, but I am scared it won’t be as good. There are three books. I feel the events in the second one will be bleh, while the last book will be epic. 

B: And that is why we are not Golds..well actually those pixie golds would more be my thing. I’d eat cake and more cake and could not stop. Let the rest kill themselves stupid buggers. 

Let me think, I should say something more. Damn that end was epic, I can not get over it. If the book had been all way through like that then it would have been a 4. Now it’s a mercy 3 because of a boring dnf beginning.

 Oh oh let’s read all 3 together. Mouwhahahahahahahahahaha

C: LOLLLL a pixie gold wouldn’t be a bad fate. I must say kuddos to the author...he took the story to a whole different level and direction!! I expected more politics and etc….not death and war and the like. Major kuddos. YES. The ending was good! Loved it and totally worth the “slower” parts ;). We should read the next one together! I’m game. 

B: Before me go, I have to mention the whole, any book where kids are killed is compared to the hunger games. For me the hunger games was a sweet silly book where kids killed each other to survive..ahem. But this, these kids were sociopaths, I mean wtf! The raping, murdering, butchering, torture, some did it for fun! This was not a Hunger games book, more like Battle Royale.

C: Well - I have not read the Hunger Games books….I have seen the first movie *ducks behind barricade* This really is a Hunger Games meets Mad Max meets 1984. Dark and bloody.

B: Ha, we have most talked about one thing, but that is a discussion for you :) So the end?

C: Well, it's hard to really talk about other things without MAJOR spoilers ya know? LOL. But yes, the end. ^_^

B: Until next time then my lady

C: *Waves* Who’s turn is it next?

B: This was my pick, so you

C: *dives behind barricade again* OH NO!! Wish me luck!

B: Do NOT mess it up!

C: 0_0