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Watched the non-spoiler section of this about... 3 or 4 days ago? Came back after only putting down the book to work, eat, and sleep... but only a little sleep. I feel so deeply Austin's excitement in every sentence throughout the rest that I'm now able to listen to. Thank you guys so much for convincing me to start this series. I'm a big Brando Sando Fando and have always been big on fantasy, but this was my first straight Sci-Fi book in 13ish years. Can't wait to read the rest! (After I lose the next two or three of my weeks to Starfield, that is) As an aside: you guys are great. Found your channel a month or two ago and I've done a significant amount of watching/listening to the backlog. We're similar ages, so it really feels like hearing my friends speak about these things. Most of my friends aren't big readers, so thank you both for filling that space.
This is my favorite episode yet. Austin's excitement through the entire episode is so funny when pitted against Richard who basically acts as Squidward, despite liking the book too
Difference between Darrow, Titus & Tau is that Darrow is more than just a pure raging ball of anger. To put it plainly, he's smarter than the other two. He's got some vision to along with all the grit. This allows him to contain his rage and channel it better than just letting it boil over and spill every which way. This is kinda confirmed when Mustang admits that she was wrong about Darrow later in book 1. So, the fact that his rage doesn't hurt him big time is no accident. It is meant to show that Darrow more than just that, even though it is one of his defining characteristics. It is not the only one. Additionally, having control over your rage(or other things) issues doesn't mean that it is not longer a problem. Because you're always fighting your first instinct and just one moment of weakness could push you over the edge. Like it's still a problem, but you're just disciplined enough to keep a lid on it for the most part.
Austin. I get you. I read stormlight and fell in love with reading last year. I stopped before RoW because I didn’t want it to end. I read other books and nothing came close to what Stormlight Archive make me feel. I watched your review of the RR trilogy and put it on my TBR. Start of this year by chance I started reading Red Rising and fell in love. Red Rising is on par with Stormlight Archive and I’ve only the first trilogy so far
Helium-3 is not fictional, is an isotope of helium. It is also a potential energy source via nuclear fusion and energy, presumably what is used by the Society in RR. Is also much more common on Earth’s moon and Mars.
Just met Pierce Brown over the weekend at Phoenix comic con. Really awesome, down-to-earth guy. Super nice and doesn't at all seem like he'd be the type to traumatize you with his stories
Darrow killed Julian in (sympathetic) rage, but rage none the less. Isn't the whole reason why Cassius leaves Darrow is because of HOW he killed Julian, not the fact that he killed him. His rage while killing Julian split him and Cassius apart, and turned enemies.
@@itsagoddam.pandamicthe manipulation def played a part obv, but Cassius himself tells Darrow that it was HOW he killed him that was the kicker, he brutalized him
There is always another mountain! Golden Son will blow Austin’s mind. It was great to hear you go into so much detail. Such a fab series. Lightbringer can’t come soon enough!
First video I ever saw was you guys recommending this book awhile ago on tik tok and idk why I bought it but I did. I hadn’t read in like 5 years but wanted to get back into reading. Once I got to the betrayal chapter I couldn’t put it down and read till 4am. I’m a slow ass reader but it was insane. The most fun I’ve ever had reading a book. It made me fall in love with reading again and since it I’ve bought like 50 books most of them you guys have recommended. Met pierce at Phoenix comic con and told him he made me fall in love with reading again and he’s a very genuine guy. Appreciate you guys spreading the love of reading because it was so special reading for the first time.
There wasn’t a point where his rage negatively impacted Darrow to a point where the plot significantly shifts. But from the beginning when he mentions Eo quells his rage, I feel like it was already a pre-established character trait from an event before the story begins. So it being his internal dialogue is the same as someone who pushes through discomfort of getting up for an early morning run in the cold. I see the point, just doesn’t feel like it’s that big of a deal.
Read all 5 books in a little over a month after I watched the first vid you put out on RR. I’m with Austin, I loved the first book and don’t really understand why people dislike it so much. I mean Pierce is both a genius and a mad man‼️
I’m almost half way through and I’m sort of struggling. Darrow doesn’t really have any real personality traits and it’s just another battle royale/hunger games in space.
I just read the 5 books out in this series for the first time this year. It is an amazing ride. I'm so curious to follow your journey through them and relive the excitement through hearing you talk!
I used to read a lot as a kid and teenager, but in the last years I've lost this habit and the only content I read frequently was software documentation. A youtuber that I like (Dylan from Dylan is in trouble) mentioned Red Rising in one of his videos, and with little to no information about the saga, I decided to start reading. Currently, I'm in the fourth book and can't stop reading. I am so incredibly happy to feel excited like this because of a book again!! And as a consequence, while searching youtube for content about RR, I've found this amazing channel
rewatching this to get ready to read the Iron gold after 4 months since finishing morning star. Love it :) Austins excitement is so infectious. Can't wait to watch the rest or red rising content (again :D)
I do understand how Richard is saying Darrow isn’t rage full enough. I’ve read the Poppy War and Rin is rage full to the point that it causes her problems whilst in Red Rising Darrow’s rage doesn’t cause as many problems
It’s crazy to hear Richard be so wrong on this and Austin so right, but then switch over to Wheel of Time and hear Richard be so right, and Austin so wrong
I read Red Rising last summer and was trying to find a summary instead of rereading the first book. This was great and got me pumped to start the second book. Also, about to binge most of your other videos!
Just recently found your channel and I'm glad someone shares my enthusiasm for Red Rising. Somehow, the books in the rest of the series get better and better. I finally convinced my husband to read them and he's obsessed. Howlers through and through.
oh my gosh, just finished this book and almost done with the second!! absolutely obsessed and I have you guys to thank. Started watching you a bit ago and I have gotten back on my reading kick and now I can’t read books fast enough. I feel like I read three books a week at this rate haha but honestly you guys are the best and I am here to support!
Darrow being conscious about his rage bringing him problems is his " traumatized Red-self ". The book is from his perspective so even as a Gold he fears and remembers the punishment toward reds when they don't behave, but now that he's a gold thats actually a positive because is seem as arrogant which is a good thing 😅 he just doesn't know it or is just really hard for him to get it.
The thing about his rage, is I think the point is that it is a positive for him to defeat his enemies. And while they say it will be his demise, it is the opposite.
I’ve just finished the first book. 70 pages into the second. I remember the amazement I felt at the fulling the feet line. 2 paragraphs in I put the book down to talk to my GF about it. Amazing. And then “none of them will survive.” Page 1 is a BANGER
I couldn’t agree more with Richard’s rating of a high 6, which makes me very excited to start reading Golden Son. Red Rising felt like a maybe slightly better than average “YA+” novel that has potential - very ready to see if Golden Son can live up to the expectations.
I don’t even think I’m a sci-fi fan but your enthusiasm is making me want to read these books. I love how unabashedly obsessed you guys are about something that is constantly seen as nerdy by other people
i absolutely love listening to you guys. i can relate to both of you in so many ways hahahahahaha keep it up. also just finished the last page of book one. was waiting to listen to this.
Hey guys, just found your podcast after finishing Red Rising today! Loved the discussion, you've got yourself a subscriber! Was really great to get an in depth discussion on this book after pouring over it the past couple of days. Quick question for ya: do you have any plans to read/cover The Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch? If not, I think you guys would love it based on this conversation and some of the other series you've mentioned. Would love to hear you guys chat about those novels. Anyways, keep up the good work. Cheers!
Red Rising only really took off for me when Darrow gets to the Institute. The first third in the mines and whilst being turned into a Gold didn't do it for me. Darrow is constantly telling us why we should care about these characters rather than showing, and so they felt like generic placeholders to set up what he really wanted to write about. As soon as the Institute got going it felt more original and the characters actually showed why we should root for them and i had genuine interest in Sevro, Mustang, etc in stark contrast to the likes of Eo. Cant wait to continue the series as I've heard it only gets better.
If you have to "leave room" for future books in a series to have better ratings, every first book of any series is doomed to 3/10 and no one would pick it up. Sometimes authors put out banger after banger. Pierce Brown is one of those authors IMO
@@2ToRamble Light Bringer (that might be the recent tears speaking) Morning Star Dark Age Golden Son Red Rising (here it is toward the bottom of the list, but I just finished a re-read and it's still great. The bottom of a Pierce Brown list is still really high in my all-time reads) Iron Gold
Finally got through my tbr after watching this vid two months ago and just finished reading this book today and MAN, what a fun start to a series! I loved Darrow, Sevro and PAX AU TELEMANUS the most. The hierarchy system in this society is so interesting. This book would make such a great 8 episode , high budget season of a movie imo. I agree with Rich tho, the writing is a little clunky at times and cringe at others but i'd give the book a 7.5 personally.
So… I finally made it through Red Rising. I commented earlier that I had put it down at the beginning of Chapter 4 because I couldn't get into it. After reading several posts from others encouraging me to keep going I did. I have to say, Chapter 4 is where it got interesting for me and by Chapter 9 I was invested in the character. Although this will never be my favorite, I can see where people would enjoy it. I'll probably give book 2 a shot soon.
Here because my partner is excited about this book (and while I’m more a fantasy fan he’s a scifi fan,) I want to be able to talk with him about his new fav series! Thanks!!
So as for the argument you two had over Darrow’s rage and where there was a disconnect between Richard and Austin is simply that Richard is arguing that Pierce Brown did a lot of telling us how rageful Darrow was but not a lot of showing us how rageful Darrow was. Then Austin brings up some passages in the book and most are about telling and then the few that are showing (i.e. actions) Richard concedes those are better examples just simply not enough for how often it’s talked about. It’s always best in storytelling to try and show and explain your character through actions rather than just simply telling us about him or his feelings. Otherwise you run the risk of readers not believing a character is truly feeling said emotions, at least not realistically; you see someone who is rageful in real life, how do you know? They yell, they get violent, punching walls, breaking things, hurting people, they act on their rage and if they don’t how would you know how mad they really are? Richard is right, for how full of rage Darrow is described as being his actions don’t do enough to convince you of it. P.S. I love this book too.
If he killed Julian because of some rage rather then being told to would be a interesting way to show how rage “hurt” Darrow bcs now the most dangerous swords fighter is now his enemy.
Thanks for the review guys. Austin’s enthusiasm convinced me to start reading. On chp 14 and enjoying it so far. I’m not jumping for joy like Austin but it’s keeping me interested.
I agree with the whole rage conversation. My issue isn’t that there isn’t enough rage it’s the fact that it keeps getting mentioned as a problem even though it never causes any negatives. Either make it a problem or stop saying it’s a problem when it’s not 😂
I fell head over heels in love with this story in December-January. I was very hesitant to start book 1 since he reception is pretty mixed, I liked book 1 but noted it felt like a young writer’s first published book. But man, book 2 is a game changer. I rea book 3 alone in a day and half despite being 500 plus pages. Ended up reading all 5 in month, something I’ve never done in my decade plus of constantly reading. Curious to see if you guys get to the sequel series. They’re notably different, but incredibly well written.
I think the differences on this book boil down to whether you give Pierce Brown the benefit of the doubt. For me, darn near everything that happens in this book is told but not shown. Richard has issues with this, but Austin doesn't, and that's the fundamental difference. I side with Richard. I enjoyed the book, it was a really fun read. But everything happened so fast and the plot advanced so quickly that Brown just wants to reader to believe that the character development he's telling you about is actually happening off screen, instead of actually showing any of it.
When I would look away from the book, or go to the bathroom reality would have to come back over me, because I felt like I was inside this book. I felt like I was walking next to these characters. I could not stop thinking about this book and all the underlying topics for 5 minutes. 10/10. Obsessed. I never want to leave these characters.
FINALLY SOMEONE WHO DISLIKES MUSTANG AND DARROW!! it just made no sense to me that one minute hes holding onto his necklace using the memory of eo as a way to ground himself, and the next hes thinking of mustang romantically
I’m so glad to finally be able to say “Hannah Montana” I got and read this book because of Austin’s pure excitement for it. Hopefully I’ll be commenting on the Golden Sun video in a few weeks
I'm in the "very good book" camp, but I can definitely see why so many people love it. Personally I felt the characters themselves were pretty weak and the first third of the book sets up an arc for the trilogy rather than this single book, so that was a bit rough to get through. But honestly once we get into the meat of it, there's a brilliant story that's told and it's just so dark. I love ot
There's always another mountain indeed, Golden son is sooo good. But also, i feel like the first book gets alot more "hate" than it deserves. Full agree with dude on the right (Austin?) that it was a crazy page turner, i blazed through it so fast, just couldn't put it down.
As a new fantasy and sci-fi reader(I usually read historical fiction), you guys have given me such a great list of recommendations so far. I’m currently reading the Powder Mage Trilogy but after that I have Stormlight, Red Rising, Sword of Kaigen, Hyperion, Suneater, Enders Game and eventually The Lord Of The Rings on my list so far. This is about to be a hell of a year of reading for me. No more Shogun ( my favourite book) style books for a while lmao.
I got this books years ago never was a reader, but it just happened to be on sale on kindle for like 3 dollars or something and fell in love. I think i had waitined till the original trilogy was finished to buy all the books physically. re-reading the ENTIRE saga again and can't wait for the next one "red god"
I found you and I’m with you! I didn’t know I wanted this book and I love this book so much! I love it and I love the second one more. It doesn’t mean I don’t love this one still! I read this in one sitting and I wanted to keep going.
About the rage dicuasion. I think a big part of it is not even about the consequences he'll face because of hia rage because like mentioned the Golds respect him often. I would say that it's more about he has to control his rage so that he doesn't just end up being like all the Golds in the end. If he continues being full of rage then he will end up no better than the golds rather than how the book ends by not enslaving people but by letting them free.
Can someone explain the ages in this book ? it was always unclear. He’s 16 and married and says uncle narol is extremely old when he’s in his 30s. And then when he says he’s around 18 earth metric I’m confused are they older on mars than on earth?
What he’s not understanding is if it was never mentioned his rage being an issue in the book it wouldn’t stand out how it’s never an issue in this or any book his rage is a positive and if he wasn’t gonna portray his rage as an issue he didn’t have to say it was one
The process of watching dude on the right try to explain why Darrow's rage is too much while the dude on the left is calmly explaining how it never negatively affected him was some of the most frustrating to watch portions of a video that I have seen in a few weeks.
@@2ToRamble 😂🤣😂 no worries. Luckily enough, it came off as endearing. I just finished RedRising and am ravenously watching reactions to it, since none of the 25 people I told to read it have started yet...
I struggled with the first Red Rising book. It was okay mostly, but held up by Tim Gerard Reynolds's extremely impressive narration. I'm glad I pushed through to the Golden Sun and Morningstar. GS was great, loved it. Morningstar is one of my favorite books ever. Going to go into the second set of books after I finish the final Dandelion Dynasty book.
I love the first book. I knew nothing of it at all. I found the trilogy at a thrift store. I bought the books $2 a pop. Im six chapters into Golden Son. Loving it
I felt the first half of this book was quite tough, as in a bit tropey, a bit clichéd quite predictable. The second half of this book has all the same problems, but it doesn't matter because it's awesome. All I would say to people who struggled like I did, press on because Golden Son in particular is an exceptional sequel and Morning Star again is great. For context I read both Golden Son and Morning Star via audiobook in like 3-4 days and I was findint excuses to do chores so I could listen more.
Red Rising - 8.7/10 Golden Son - 9.4/10 Morning Star - 9.8/10 Iron Gold - 9/10 Dark Age - 10/10 Lightbringer - 10+/10 (best novel I’ve read) This is my personal rating for the series, I love it so much. To be fair I haven’t read as much novels yet, plan to read more.
Finished the book a couple of days ago. Loved it but it’s still not Stormlight Archives. Currently on Golden Son, I hear it’s better so let’s see how that goes! Btw the reading of RR was difficult in the beginning
So a little backstory, im currently reading stormlight (currently finished up to part 1 of Words of Radience), however due to the length of stormlight books, ill read another smaller book for a refreshing break. I picked up red rising on a whim, and it was a fun ride, i was kept on my toes and never saw what was coming next past part 1. If i had to score it, id put it at a solid 7.2, i certainly wanted to keep reading but couldnt stop feeling like the story wanted me to be more emotionally invested than i was most of the time until the very end. Very good read and now i might be binging the rest of the series before i get back to Words Of radiance 😂
