RED RISING TRILOGY by Pierce Brown - No Spoiler AND Spoiler Review 

I'd definitely be a blue btw, nerdy AF.

Ragnar-Darrow-Sevro friendship > Cassius-Darrow-Roque friendship

Spoiler warning for those who haven't read: . . . I wholeheartedly agree with you about Ragnar he was one of my favorite characters and made me feel a lot of emotion I was very attached to him. I'm not sure I recall the exact line but after Ragnars death Darrow says something like it feels like his shadow was gone and that hit me hard. I also felt the opposite about Tactus I did feel a lot of regret for him. The truth about the Violin also hit me pretty hard.

Loved this review. Easily one of my favorite reviews of this series. The way you navigated your thoughts on Brown's writing style and the overall pros and cons of the series was excellent. I always have fun watching your videos. Thanks for the shout-out. I look forward to your review of the sequel books. As for your question at the end, I believe Darrow was doing it for himself and not the former. Cheers lad. 💫

Iron Gold and Dark Age are so bloodydamn good, the world and story gets expanded immensely with new POVs

Goddamn this was a high quality review. I came into this with no exposure to booktube opinions so I’m surprised to hear that liking Darrow is a hot take. I really loved him, and pretty intensely empathized with him the whole way through. Also I thought Brown was going full grimdark at the end, and yeah he cheated, but that reveal was so incredible and intense I forgive him for it. He should’ve just limited those fake out scenes to dialogue and observation though instead of revealing thoughts and it would’ve had the same effect. I could not put this down for 8 days, and it’s a new favorite. Beyond the suspense and action, there was a heap of genuine and interesting psychological, relational, and societal ideas explored in a really impactful way. Love finding a new favorite series and author!

I thought the naming things was excellent: the jackal makes him down scary AF, iron rain sounds epic, all the other nicknames are wonderful. Also making lingo is excellent: gory hell, prime, goodman etc. I’m all for it. I also think Darrow is an excellent protag. I’d argue that the 1st p present is a cool take. However it hurt some of the twists, E.g twist at the end of morning star would have made sense coming from another character’s perspective.

Just discovering your channel. I really enjoyed this review. Nice to find someone else who feels the same way I do about my personal favorite character Cassius

I like the straightforward and personable way you present your observations and reactions to the books. I most likely won't be reading this series but my reasons have nothing to do with your coverage. Fantasy/SF/Horror comprises only a slice of my reading world. I just don't have much more room for books I haven't already purchased and chosen to read. But I'll continue watching your videos. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm with us.

Great review. I really love the series. I def rank it higher in my books I enjoy list than on my best books written list...if that makes sense..so much in it to like and such a fast and action packed read

Nicely navigated between spoiler and spoiler free! There seems to be a fairly consistent reaction to this series, and it seems to be along the lines of your average action movie - enjoyable, not the highest quality, but no regrets for the time spent. Thanks Jimmy :)

This really is an incredible book series and it has consumed my thoughts for like a year now lol. Speaking to your point on Sevro’s “death” in book 3, I kind of took it as a method acting type scenario, or Darrow trying to convince himself that Sevro was in fact dead in order to make the trick more believable, since the Golds would be very accustomed to lies and thus much more difficult to convince. This was a really great review!

This series was my first dive into sci-if/fantasy outside of things I read as a kid. I think that lends into me holding book one to a higher esteem than other people do. I think it was a great intro, dip your toes into, Sci-Fi/fantasy.

Great breakdown!

I'm 3/4 of the way through Morning Star so I'm gonna come back to watch this whole thing soon. I'm absolutely enthralled with the series so far, though I'm dreading the reveal of the author cheat you and Allen talked about in the chat.

Great review. Being a fantasy guy its cool to see you gave this a try. I loved the books, More than you did sounds like. Even still I loved all the same topics you brought up. The battle royal from Book one and the passage. The history the books tell of leaving earth and expanding and the evolution of the colors. I love Darrows Progression and the carving was fasinating to me. I actually like the society and Gold structure. Like you, as juvenile as it may be i loved the names Pierce Brown gave the characters. Along with the pace and his awesome battle scenes it made the books one of my favorites. Thanks for your review. Ill be following for more good insights into what other books you enjoy.

Glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was very enjoyable and entertaining but not amazing 😅 You should do a top 10 fantasy series if you want. 🙂

Wow I am so glad I found your page. I have been so shocked because I agree with you on a lot of uncommon opinions. I felt like I was in the same boat that I loved book 1 even though it has the battle royal setting. I'm also a big Darrow fan even though he makes a lot of dumb choices and is a hard protagonist to love haha. Book 4 has a bunch of characters as narrators besides Darrow also it's definitely not YA haha it's very violent. I'm interested to see what you think about the follow up series. I actually personally don't think the follow up series is better but maybe I'll change my mind after the last one.

I finished red rising yesterday and i want to jump into the next book right away

Aja lives because she needed to for the plot and because it's the trope of the ultimate BA can't be killed by gravity lol I love your takes! I also like Darrow more than most, but RAGNAR is where it's at! GOD-CHILD! The thing you'll love most about the sequel trilogy is MORE MUSTANG, for sure. Great review, Jimmy!

The theme if friendship was amazingly explored!

While brown may not have the most poignant of prose I do believe it is safe to say his writing has a sense of poetical air about that sits so well when needed. Glad you liked this as brown has to be one my favourite authors of recent years

Nice review Jimmy. I liked the series well enough but one too many twists and turns pulled back my interest just a bit from reading the sequel trilogy. I agree with you it would be absolutely amazing on TV. So much constant epicness.

Loved this! This is my favorite series ever! Read the original trilogy 4 or 5 times, and just reread Iron Gold so I can finally read Dark Age. I want to get the Scar of the Peerless, actual scarification, done - I like this series that much. I'm also a Leo, and have adopted the motto "Hic sunt leones" - getting it incorporated into my Leo tattoo and have it engraved on my necklace's pendant. SPOILERS AHEAD: - - - - - - I don't think it was disrespectful, per say. Roque was a gentle and empathetic soul - I think he would have appreciated it. He treated his enemies honorably, and would appreciate receiving the same treatment. I actually really liked Roque, one of my favorite characters. Tactus's death hit me pretty hard, actually. I've done controversial things in my past, and people change. He was trying. I understand Lorn killing him, nonetheless - it was the smart thing to do. If you're betrayed once, don't be surprised if they do it again. Ragnar's "I always dreamed of a good death. This does not seem good..." Gets me every time... I honestly didn't mind the trickery of the narrative/thoughts leading you to believe that Sevro was actually dead. Sure, I was like, oh, ok, guess Pierce Brown got us with the okey-doke, but it's such a great series and I don't really care. I've gotten a few people to read this series. My first time, my friend had been telling me for a year to read it before I actually did, and oh my god... He should have sat me down, slapped me, and commanded I read it xD My ex quit reading for like a month, Eo's death hit her so hard. A friend texted me "I've never cried so hard only 50 pages into a book before." Loved the "Lazarus" chapter title as well. Also reminds me of Mass Effect 2. I LOVED Cassius! Always trying so hard to do well by his family and people, to be honorable, yet also human and in love with himself. Please tell me you're going to do a review of the sequel trilogy. OMFG I AJSP;FKASPD; I just looked through some of your videos and saw you've read The Name Of The Wind! I've been waiting for the final book forever, such a masterpiece. Have you heard of the Riyria Revelations by Michael J Sullivan? That, Red Rising, and The Kingkiller Chronicles are my 3 favorite series. I love sociology and history, so the fact their were anecdotes throughout made this a dream series for me. I think Aja lived because the gravity is so low on Mars, maybe she hopped down bit by bit. I think there was a scene in Red Rising where they jumped down a ridiculously high precipice, can't remember the exact height. Sevro is such a character. I don't like crude humor, so you can imagine how I feel about some of the things he says, though he is such a loyal, good, and often fragile man, you can't help but love him. Absolutely loved Lorn. An Iron Gold through and through. Can't remember the exact saying, but loved when he told Darrow that if he had been his son, he would have been a good man, but great men do not know peace. I will say, and I may get hate for this, but in the original trilogy, the Jackal may be my favorite character. Followed closely by Nero - so the ending of Golden Son, where my favorite character kills my second favorite, was quite an intense moment for me. Yes, Ik, they are bad guys. I've had some *really* bad betrayals in my live, and came to realize no one will ever be there for you like you yourself. I am a Satanist. Look out for yourself first, because no one else will. Adrius flinches. With those few words, Augustus releases something. And the small part of Adrius that held out hope to be loved disappears. He shakes off his humanity, leaving only the Jackal. "*Then farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear. Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost.*" He whispers to some distant, fading part of himself as he lazily lifts the scorcher to his father's forehead. "*Evil, be thou my good.*"

Best Red Rising video on RU-vid.

I'm obsessed with red rising. Sevro is my hero haha

Great review about the first trilogy! I am quite curious on your take on the second trilogy, especially Dark Age. Cause I got a hot take on that one :-D

Any plans for the second series review/discussion and are there any plans for Lighbringer in July?

Darrel had unconditional love for Roake

Great review!! From uk 🇬🇧

Did you ever go on to read the Iron Gold/Dark Age books? They really delve into a lot of the themes of consequence that you may find interesting.

Loved this series !

Also love battle Royale stuff...running man comes to mind

“People rate Darrow from decent to bad” Where have you seen this cause i’ve seen nothing but praise for Darrow. The story is so hyper focused on him so not liking him will have a big effect on whether you enjoy the books in the first place I feel like 🤔

18:07 Paused. I still need to read Book 3. Good reviews on Books 1 and 2, Mr. Nuttwork!

YES, some Darrow love 🔥

Spoiler warning ** I feel like Sevro's "death" was actually handled fairly well given the constraints of the first-person perspective. I'd have to go back and analyze it to be sure, but when reading I definitely noted that Darrow never really specified that Sevro was dead in his internal thoughts; only out loud. The closest thing was that he would refer to "Sevro's body" or "Sevro's corpse" at times, but he never dwelled on Sevro being dead. Especially when compared to his other friends' deaths like Ragnar or Pax, where he'd even continuously tell himself that they were dead and every little thing would make him remember that. Additionally, there was at least one time during that section where Darrow is remembering the names of his dead friends, and he never lists Sevro among them. He'd refer to Sevro's body as basically a prop in the room at times, and the lack of consideration he'd give really foreshadowed that there was something else going on. Could it have been done better overall? Probably. I didn't dislike it as much as I've heard a lot of people did though.

I rea hope to see a review for iron gold and dark age

Most times I don't rate the mc as one of my favorites but Darrow is one of the few mcs that did make it for me

2 years later lol: Spoiler warning.... I really thought the ceremony around Roque's death spoke to Darrow's cognitive dissonance as a Red being undercover in the academy. He sees everyone around as his family/friends, but they are unaware of this entire side of him. It's also explored with how Mustang reacts to finding out hes a Red too, she even says, "all this time there was this other world inside of you". I think Darrow was seeing Roque as the buddy from the academy still and because he passed as Gold essentially never saw the ugly side of Roque until he was "outed". And I don't think Darrow is ever able to reconcile this bonds he makes early on in the series and the reactions of those around him when they find out he's a Red - Roque's being the most extreme. Its kind of sad in the sense that Darrow from day 1 puts such a high value on bonds, friends, and family - to the point that he cant ever fully let someone go no matter what they do (Tactus is a good example).

Spoiler so you are warned How did you not mention the Sevro hanging Cassius and himself scene? That was such a big moment for him cuz up to then he was pretty unforgiving and like borderline extremist in the way he handled the rebellion in Darrow's absence but that moment made sth click with him

So i am a huge fan of red rising, i did expereince it through audio which added a ton for me, but overall its my favorite book saga. Now your question at the end. My take was the importance of those who played and integral part in the build of thier society, roque forever known as a failuer by those who he defended, was 1 of the most important people to the rising thoigh not directly but through his impact on darrow, and i think his honoring plays to that.

I'm almost done with Morning Star, 170 pages left. So this couldn't come at a better time!

So about Roque and Darrow… it is very obvious that Roque hated Darrow at the end and what he represented. The thing that Darrow did is because regardless of how Roque felt towards him, Darrow loved him. So he could not treat his body like it was garbage. The fault in our star talks about that. How what we do when someone dies is for the living, not the dead

I still need to read the rest of the series. I liked Red Rising, but I didn't find it THAT good enough to read the next novel immediately.

The first person perspective at the end of Morning Star was kind of upsetting on my re read. I don't remember being upset about it the first time I read it. Either way, it didn't bother me that much. The multiple perspectives in the second trilogy helps those gotcha moments imo.

I just finished my re-read. Honestly, I'm of two minds about it. On one hand I enjoyed it a lot more on re-read but I still think it is overhyped but in some ways maybe not as much as I once did. I still standby most of my previous longstanding criticisms. Red Rising is overhated, Golden Son is overhyped and Morning Star is my fav despite also being the one I've the most issues with. I still found the reveal of Eo's pregnancy in Golden Son unnecessary. I remember rolling my eyes on my first read. A spouse murdered for political reasons is already enough of a motivator, why include a pregnancy a whole book later? The thing is I predicted she was pregnant in Red Rising, but it didn't come up until Golden Son so until then I thought Brown wasn't going there cuz I thought it would've been cheap and lazy especially when Eo at that point had been dead for close to 5 years. I still dislike Sevro's fake out death. It's my biggest and only issue with Brown's use of first person present tense. It never feels like Darrow being an unreliable narrator or anything like that but Brown himself actively withholding info and lying to the readers. I'm not offended that he did that but it does come across as more than a little lazy. But on the other hand, it was pretty cool at the same time. Brown, you're a liar and a cheat haha My opinion of Brown's character work generally improved (even Ragnar and I didn't give a shit about him on 1st read) but Victra and Cassius remain my favourites. The series is more thematically rich and complex than I initially gave it credit for. All in all, I really enjoyed the re-read, will read it again and will be restarting the sequel series soon. I do remember at the end of Morning Star thinking if I didn't know about a sequel series I would've strongly disliked the ending. The ending is still wishy washy and sappy anyway but it left too many hanging threads so I was pretty satisfied with the answers I was getting with the sequel series. I'm not saying I need answers to fully enjoy a series but when the key themes of your story are: fighting against fascism, class warfare and consequences, of course I want to know what happens next.

The ‘unreliable narrator’ part makes it feel like Darrow is aware he’s a character in a book *SPOILER* you can almost visualise him winking to the reader and saying “had ya fooled there didn’t I!” at the reveal, really immersion breaking. Overall these books are really entertaining though.

I really enjoyed this series. I know it’s not perfect but I still loved it

In a series filled with wonderful, rich and engaging characters, Mustang stands out as being the least interesting. As is often the case with the love interest (A flaw I find often in young adult books), we aren't shown why she is worthy of the protagonist's attention, but are simply expected to like her because he does. With the exception of that first time that she saved his life in Red Rising, I have never seen any qualities other than her beauty that make her desirable to Darrow. She isn't as loyal as Sevro, Ragnar... nor even Victra. She hasn't ever been responsible for any victories. Her morals are still firmly placed in society values until the last moment (and even then what choice did she have after she has already burnt her bridges with the opposition). She isn't even as reliable in her support as a friend as the rest of the cast, as she always has her own agenda. So being as she is neither loyal, helpful to the cause, morally strong in character or a good friend, why the hell should she get to constantly be in charge of armies, be given the benefit of the doubt time and again, and worst of all, get to act as though Darrow must prove himself to her rather than the other way around. To make all this worse, this series ends with her being crowned as the new ruler. Why? What has she possibly done or shown over the course of the previous 3 novels that has proved that she is leadership material? She hasn't even proved to be competent in most cases. So then we get to the final reveal that she has been testing Darrow through this book to see if he is worthy to learn that he has a son. Not only that, when she does reveal it, it is by having their friends and Darrow's family present the boy to him, making it clear that she told literally every other person in this novel before she told Darrow. What the hell had Darrow ever done to make that the right choice? I know the author wants us to believe that she was afraid that he was a warmonger, but at no point in the entire series are any of the characters ever left unclear as to why he has acted as he has. It has all been for a better life for his people. I could go on about Mustang for whole pages, so I will stop here before I have an aneurysm and leave with one last scathing damnation of her character. At no point does she express any sympathy or regret for what Darrow has had to go through. She doesn't apologise that her family was responsible for the suffering of his people or the death of his wife and unborn child, other than to ask him why he doesn't hate her for it at the end of the last book while she was holding a gun to his head. She never says that she is sorry for entering into a loving relationship with Casseus, a man who was actively seeking Darrow's death, other than for the fact that the relationship ended up hurting her, not caring how it probably hurt Darrow. She never once shows sympathy or asks him about the fact that he spent a year of his life going through unspeakable torture. She never once shows regret for the way that she acted when he risked everything, including the freedom of his people, to tell her the truth of his life. Even Victra showed more moral character, telling Darrow how she would never have judged him for being a Red.

IMO Darrow didn't do it just for himself neither thought about Roque's opinion on him or his quest. During the whole trilogy Darrow is capable of setting aside his relationships from his Rising. That is why he gave opportunities time and again for people like Tactus to come back and betray him. When Roque died, all he cared about was to actually care for that man who had just passed. He knew that apart from Cassius and himself, no one gave a shit about Roque leaving existence. Any other person would celebrate the death of a traitor, but Darrow chooses to look at the times they spent as friends. Pretty noble in my opinion. I think after the torture I would want revenge against all of them. I would've killed Cassius, Roque, Antonia...no mercy for anyone.

Darrow did it for himself not Raque. I think it is one of those selfish moments on Darrows part. The narration at the end with Sevro is everything he imagined, would go wrong, and could happen self doubt he talks about in earlier scenes.

The sequel trilogy really does take the grimness to a new level. I felt the same about book 1 too having never read or saw the hunger games.

Personally I think Darrow is an exceptional protagonist, he is very far from being a Gary Stu, he makes a lot of mistakes but his motivation and psychology are well portrait, I really felt connected with him putting myself in his shoes.

The only thing I remember about these books that I remember from reading them 5 years ago was that infuriating perspective thing in book 3 where the narrator intentionally omits details from the narrative to set up a surprise for the reader. Amateur! I hated that part (and I still do). Also I remember feeling like the climax of the book was underwhelming and wrapped up way too quickly.

Agree with everything pretty much you said especially about book one. Getting kind of tired of Goodreads and booktubers being too cool for school. Darrow is a fantastic protagonist. I actually have a huge F about him and his relationships so that says it all. Also agree this is def not YA. What YA has rape, cannibalism, and ultra violence, exactly? Lol. Sometimes people make zero sense. Great video!

Any plans to read the next (gonna be) trilogy?

The community agrees with pierce being really good at naming things, people, etc

I am a howler: Veritas And if you don’t like Red Rising, you are pixie.

Woooo hooooo Nutty time 🤠 📓

Just got through a reread of the original trilogy before I get started on the nee stuff and I agree with most of what's said here, especially with Cassius. A line that sums him up very well in how he acts as an adversary was "He's not a bad man, but he's my bad man. Spoiler below. . . . . . I will kinda disagree with the point of the twist at the end of Morning Star, when you know the twist on the second go it's easier to pick up on the hints like when Sevro drinks the himanthus oil and starts to slur his speech. And though Narrator Darrow says things like Sevro's body and how he's lifeless, he never describes Sevro as dead and gone. Honestly there's a few times where the twists are hidden behind vague language more than outright hints but this is the most standout.

👍

I agree with the "hottakes" for Book 1. I don't consider it YA, but I can see why someone would with the first book, tho at the end of the day I don't think it really matters. Still don't quite get the argument that it's Sci-Fantasy tho. I like Sci-Fantasy, I just don't see it in Red Rising's case. I won't argue with anyone over it, they probably are seeing something I'm ignorant to. I don't really have issues with 1st Person present, I prefer Past tense, but yeah some of the reveals felt deus ex machina for me. Sevro, Cassius and Victra are by far my favourite characters. Especially Victra. *Spoilers*: I found the reveal of Eo's pregnancy to be unnecessary. Tactus' death did work for me in the moment but yeah I wasn't invested in him. I understand being pissed about Brown breaking the rules but I grew to kinda expect he'd do stuff like that so I'd fun with it. I mean it as both praise and criticism. And yes, I agree with you about Roque. I think Darrow thought it would be for Roque but Roque wouldn't have wanted Darrow honouring him. Roque was too set in his ideology. I'm really hyped for the sequel trilogy, I'm hoping to get to it after Richard Morgan's Kovacs trilogy.

The author cheat with the first person present really confused me on my first read. I listened to the audiobook and went back to relisten to the start of the incident multiple times. I agree it doesn't ruin the books for me, but it annoyed me as well.

T-minus 10 days til Lightbringer

I think you spend so much time in Darrow head and his thought process got exhausting at times and eye rolling. I knock more toward the writing style than Darrow.

How have you not read hunger games? That's all I got from this lol

Spoilers ------------- Didn't care about Tactus one bit either. Sevro was technically dead wasn't he ? Darrow probably believes Roque would have turned had he known about Octavia's schemes like the murder of Cassius' family.

Spoiler final question/answer here

Noice

you know you watched a great review when you want to reread the books

I agree on most of your points, but have to disagree vehemently when it comes to whether or not it's YA. It's definitely YA, here are three reasons: 1. The writing is at a grade 5/6 reading level and is lower than most series called YA such as Hunger Games, grade 7/8, Divergent 7/8, Lunar Chronicles 7/8 and Maze Runner 6/7. The reading level is actually on par with the Percy Jackson Series (as per the Lexile text measure). 2. It is filled with teen angst (a state of emotional volatility, moodiness, and uncertainty as to one's place in the world, typical of or associated with adolescence) yes this is because the characters are teenagers, but if you think about adult Sci-fi or Dystopian that feature teenage characters, or younger, they don't act like that, think of Paul in Dune, or Ender in Ender's Game, these characters aren't debating about first kisses and crushes. Which leads into point number 3. 3. It follows the forms of other YA dystopian sci-fi works that came before (Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, etc.) instead of the forms of adult dystopian sci-fi like Enders Game and Brave New World. Also for everyone who is going to tell me it has to be adult because it was published by Del Rey which is an adult imprint, that's great but Maze Runner is labelled YA and is also published by an adult imprint, Delacorte Press. And as far as I am aware there aren't really any YA specific imprints/publishers, there are Adult or Children's and it is really interesting that from my research at least only books in this subgenre written by men get picked up by Adult Imprints and those written by women get picked up by Children's Imprints.