This is lit. Not really attached to the characters but they're cool, I guess, and since this is book one of nine I can forgive that. What's actu81/100
This is lit. Not really attached to the characters but they're cool, I guess, and since this is book one of nine I can forgive that. What's actually cool is the potential this series has to expand into something truly epic and worthy of the term "space opera." Also some pretty sick body horror stuff and some biological warfare that may or may not be aliens (I really don't know yet). Book two is downloaded and ready to be started....more
Scholar’s Tale - one of the best things I’ve read this year. Priest’s Tale - really really good Poet’s Tale - really good Consul’s Tale - good Detec84/100
Scholar’s Tale - one of the best things I’ve read this year. Priest’s Tale - really really good Poet’s Tale - really good Consul’s Tale - good Detective’s Tale - alright, but action scenes (of which there are a good few) feel clunky and just not written very well; intentional with the POV, but didn’t work for me Soldier’s Tale - not very interesting until the last 10-15 pages. but horny...more
This was mostly just... okay. I honestly didn't enjoy the first half very much, but the second half was much better, and the ending was legitima65/100
This was mostly just... okay. I honestly didn't enjoy the first half very much, but the second half was much better, and the ending was legitimately good. Lorian is cool, but I like him much more through Hadrian's eyes, and in the moments Hadrian decides to tell us of.
Belusha also not as cool as I'd hoped it'd be. But it was alright. I don't regret reading it....more
If you’re looking for deep, complex characters, a crazy, riotous plot, or answers of any kind, this book won’t be for you. However if you’re dow81/100
If you’re looking for deep, complex characters, a crazy, riotous plot, or answers of any kind, this book won’t be for you. However if you’re down for some excellent writing and descriptions of dirty fungal jungle environments and ball tripping weirdness, look no farther. Definitely interested in reading some more from ol Jeffrey...more
this is a good book, but i have no clue who i would ever recommend it to. it’s really all over the place. for 75% of the book Tad is stringing y84/100
this is a good book, but i have no clue who i would ever recommend it to. it’s really all over the place. for 75% of the book Tad is stringing you along on this mystery of wtf is going on in this world (both the real life world and the virtual reality world) and doesn’t give you any answers. you kinda just gotta buckle up and be along for the ride. even when you finish the book you’re left with more questions than answers.
there’s multiple POVs here that seemingly have little to no crossover for 600 of the 780 pages this book spans. that’s fine and all, i read malazan, im used to it. my biggest problem here was that the least interesting set of characters here made up the bulk of the book. i enjoyed those parts (except chapter 13...more
going into this one, i wasnt sure what to expect. i knew it was one of the more disliked King books, but had also been told by some friends i tr85/100
going into this one, i wasnt sure what to expect. i knew it was one of the more disliked King books, but had also been told by some friends i trust that it was actually good and i would probably like it. now that i'm done, i gotta ask--why do people hate this book?? it's basically IT mixed with Tommyknockers, but without most of the things that made Tommyknockers a bad book.
King isn't great with aliens, that isn't a secret. they're not done very well in this book, honestly. but that's okay, because they're not really the point. this is a book about four lifelong friends and a chance encounter that brought them together forever with another character named Duddits. and lemme tell ya, everything with Duddits is absolutely fantastic--maybe some of the best stuff King has ever done; very moving and powerful. the flashbacks to them in Derry were easily my favorite parts of this book and gave a lot of IT vibes.
i've seen some complaints about this book being bloated but i only half agree. the Kurtz/Underhill stuff was a significant step down from the Beav/Pete/Henry/Jonesy/Duddits storyline, and it probably would've been better had that been cut or reworked to be shorter, but it still wasn't bad.
overall, a pretty good and super underrated King book....more
this is one i've had sitting on the shelf for over ten years at this point and finally decided to jump in. my first impression was that it read 80/100
this is one i've had sitting on the shelf for over ten years at this point and finally decided to jump in. my first impression was that it read like Stephen King for pretentious people. whether you like that or not is up to you, but i personally enjoyed it.
the first 200ish pages of this book was absolutely fantastic. Cronin does such a great job at introducing characters and getting you attached and/or interested in just a few pages. i was totally hooked on these characters and the questions surrounding Project NOAH and this book was shaping up to be a book of the year contender.
however, in an incredibly ballsy decision, Cronin takes the story in an unexpected direction that just never had a chance to live up to what those first 200 pages were for me. it was still good, don't get me wrong, but it took this book from being an easy five star read to just barely a four star read. there was still some really cool vampire imagery but also never leaned into that horror side as much as i would've liked. the post-apocalyptic stuff was alright, but something i've never been super high on to begin with.
i think most people that like post-apocalyptic stories will enjoy the rest of this book much more than i did. if you've read and enjoyed The Stand you'll find plenty to love here, as Cronin isn't shy about his inspiration (Las Vegas and Colorado literally play important rolls in the book lmao). i'm not sure if i'll go into book two next month or wait a little bit, but this is a trilogy i'll definitely finish and probably enjoy....more
here we go. this book is a fuckin mess. let's get the good things out of the way first, cuz there's not many of them. the idea behind this book 27/100
here we go. this book is a fuckin mess. let's get the good things out of the way first, cuz there's not many of them. the idea behind this book is a pretty good one--flying saucer found in the ground, stuff around town starts getting weird, the usual alien stuff. a kind of cool mystery about what the hell is in this person's shed in the backyard that pays off somewhat well (unfortunately it takes five hundred pages to get there). and that's where the good stuff ends, unfortunately. this may be the worst execution of a good (although highly unoriginal) idea i've ever seen.
the beginning of the book, say the first 200ish pages, isn't too bad. except in that first 200 pages, there's a FIFTY PAGE chapter that is just one of the characters going on a drunken rant about Chernobyl and nuclear power plants that really doesn't play into the story much at all; this section could've been five pages and served the same purpose. so right away you could cut 25% of the "not bad" portion out of this book and have the same--if not a better--book. and it just gets even worse from there!
part two of this book focuses on the town of Haven, Maine, and my god, it is a SLOG. don't get me wrong, King's townbuilding is normally my favorite parts of his books, but here it's not just subpar, it's straight up bad. there's over a hundred pages in this section about a character that literally serves no purpose in the book. you could cut the whole thing out and it wouldn't negatively affect the story at all. there's a fifteen page chapter about the different names the town has had in it's history that, while somewhat interesting on it's own, has no reason to be in the book.
roughly the last third of the book is some of the dumbest, goofiest, most absurd shit i've ever read. there's a fucking (view spoiler)[flying coke vending machine that goes around killing people (hide spoiler)] for pete's sake. some of the imagery is cool (bonus points for (view spoiler)[vagina tentacles (hide spoiler)]) but it isn't used nearly to it's full effectiveness. and the real final ending felt like it was supposed to be some emotional thing, but all the characters here are so lackluster that it doesn't hit in the slightest.
unless you want to be a King completionist, you can safely skip this book. onward and (hopefully) upward, to Dreamcatcher i go....more
take your bloodydamn stars, pierce brown. you magnificent man. this book is somehow a level up from Dark Age. the character work is mostly (iyky98/100
take your bloodydamn stars, pierce brown. you magnificent man. this book is somehow a level up from Dark Age. the character work is mostly (iykyk) superb here, and on a level i’ve rarely seen (ASOIAF/First Law good). i was fist pumping and moved to tears all throughout this book. it’s so good
the writing here is also mostly a step up. idk how bro’s computer didn’t catch on fire while he was typing this shit
ps. thanks for removing the taste of eileen from my mouth...more
First, the pros: it’s got some really cool stuff, some really weird stuff, it feels like a mixture o87/100
This book is pretty good. With some caveats.
First, the pros: it’s got some really cool stuff, some really weird stuff, it feels like a mixture of Howling Dark and Demon in White, and one of my favorite characters returns. The action is great, as usual. It’s very well written, as usual. It’s good. Damn good.
But the cons: I’m a bit disappointed that this doesn’t really feel like a penultimate book to me. Like what happens here is awesome and it’s necessary to move on to the finale, but it left me wanting more. It almost feels like solely a bridge book, like Song of Susannah for Dark Tower, except SoS is 350 pages and this is 700. I felt like it should really be building up everything to this grand finale and it doesn’t really do that (in my opinion) until the last two chapters.
But oh well, book still slapped and I’m still hyped for book seven...more
this book is the definition of a mixed bag. it's an uber-dense 1200 page book of supremely epic proportions. it spans multiple planets, multiple75/100
this book is the definition of a mixed bag. it's an uber-dense 1200 page book of supremely epic proportions. it spans multiple planets, multiple alien races, hundreds of characters, including sentient spaceships, a lot of religious turmoil. oh, and it's only book one, and each book gets longer.
hamilton's prose here is absolutely phenomenal, but i found that it often got in the way of the all the cool shit going on in the story. this is most obvious in the pacing of the book, which was extremely start/stop for me. the first quarter is quite slow, full of overlong descriptions about every single thing. then there's some really cool stuff going on, then it grinds to a halt for another couple hundred pages, and then some more cool stuff. i also thought that when the cool stuff was going on hamilton would sometimes overexplain it with a bunch of ten dollar words that ruined the flow of the scenes. oh and he LOVES the world polyp. like i get it bro, i know what the walls are made out of by the tenth time you told me.
there's a lot of questions raised about an extinct alien race that committed racial suicide and some other stuff involving a different alien race that i'll leave out to avoid spoilers. there were things about them sprinkled in through the first three hundred-ish pages before an inciting incident that really pulled me into the book. it was the first of many times where i had to stop and go "what the hell did i just read?" because hamilton doesn't back down from the weird and outrageous, and that was what i enjoyed most about it.
now onto the characters. there's just simply too many of them. in a book with no dramatis or glossary, i just couldn't keep track of a hundred different characters scattered throughout a galaxy until i was almost done with the book. there's a few "main" characters i was able to latch onto but i found that i was looking forward to their sections more because i knew where they were and what they were doing than because i actually enjoyed them. Joshua and Ione are probably my two "favorite" characters but i wouldn't say i was really attached to them (or anyone else, for that matter). and Quinn was... something, for sure.
but, by far my biggest complaint about this book, is the sex. don't get me wrong, i normally have NO PROBLEM with sex in books. the more sex the better, i say. or at least, i thought that's what i said. hammy done proved me wrong. it's so pervasive here that it feels like either a proper sex scene, or a character thinks about sex, or characters talk about having sex with each other, crops up every ten pages or so. i'm sure that's an exaggeration, but it certainly feels that way. it didnt matter what the situation was, whether they be in dire straits or just hanging out, the only thing these characters can think about is gettin freaky in the sheets. or in this case, a free-fall-sex cage in one of the character's spaceship cabins, which pops up way more than it needs to. and every time something with sex comes up, it's almost ALWAYS fucking weird. like can y'all just be normal about this one time? there is an in-world explanation for why they're horny so much but hamilton could've spared us at least a little bit.
overall, i did mostly enjoy this book, and i will continue with the trilogy and try some other PFH books, but there's some stuff in here that really hampered my enjoyment. but when i say this is one of the grandest, most epic, ridiculous, outrageous books i've ever read--sci-fi or not--i really mean it. and the sci-fi stuff here is cool as hell....more
man idek what to say about this book. part one left me trying to catch my breath at the end of every chapter. the rest of the book was just pier95/100
man idek what to say about this book. part one left me trying to catch my breath at the end of every chapter. the rest of the book was just pierce brown beating you over the head with both intense and sad shit.
(view spoiler)[Ephraim (hide spoiler)] really won me over in this one. his character arc through these first two sequel books has been great. (view spoiler)[Lyria (hide spoiler)] is still just okay for me. some of the stuff she was involved in during the last third of the book with two other characters was awesome, though.
(view spoiler)[Darrow and Lysander (hide spoiler)] continue to be my two favorite povs in the sequel books. the back and forth of their chapters in part one was *chef’s kiss.* they’re easily the two most realized and interesting povs happening in the series and I NEED MORE!!!
the writing continues to be amazing. it’s crazy to see how much he has improved from the first book. a bunch of gruesome stuff in this book. even one part that’s damn near a space-horror that i absolutely loved. pouring one out for all those we lost this book.
my second favorite of the first four Red Rising books. right off the bat the writing was a huge step up from the original trilogy, and as a pros86/100
my second favorite of the first four Red Rising books. right off the bat the writing was a huge step up from the original trilogy, and as a prose snob this is something that goes along way with me. the tone is darker as we see the aftermath of actions from the first trilogy and its effects on some returning characters ten years later. this is also something i loved, however i expected it to be darker honestly. i have no doubt Dark Age will bring that and more, though.
there’s three new POVs in this book, including two from brand new characters. if im being honest, i didn’t care a whole lot for either one of them, but i enjoyed the story going on around them. the returning character that is a new POV was great though, i ate that up, even though (DARK AGE FULL???) (view spoiler)[guess lysander ends up bein a real piece of shit. (hide spoiler)]
this entry is more of a slow burn unlike how Golden Son and Morning Star were super fast paced. i didn’t have any problems with that, and it was pretty welcome since it’s setting up this sequel series. what action there is, though, is exciting and super well executed, as i’ve come to expect with Pierce Brown.
overall, super excited for Dark Age and Light Bringer. let’s keep this show rollin...more
damn. this book completely changed my mind about Dune. when i read the first book, i was just getting back into reading again, and had just seen76/100
damn. this book completely changed my mind about Dune. when i read the first book, i was just getting back into reading again, and had just seen the Denis Villeneuve adaptation. i don't think i was ready for something to challenge me like that book did, and the result was that i didn't really like it all that much (i will absolutely be rereading). reading Dune Messiah though, after a couple more years and a lot more books under my belt, and being a much better reader than i was during the first book, i can see the genius of Frank Herbert.
paul is much more fleshed out as a character in this book despite it's much shorter length. you see him deal with the tragedies that have taken place between books. he is plagued by visions of disaster in which he can't stop and the effect this has on him was great to read about. the other characters really take a back seat for the most part in this book, and while i would've liked a little more of them, it's not a huge drawback for me. there was a storyline between Alia and a certain ghola that was just... not it. two thumbs down on that one.
to no one's surprise, the thematic and philosophical elements are really strong here. Herbert touches on the danger of worship and what can happen when one person gains too much power. the darker, bleaker tone of this book compliments this fantastically.
a good book with a few drawbacks, but one that has me excited to continue with the Frank books and eventually go back and reread Dune....more
this series is awesome. while i dont think this concluding book to the original trilogy is as good as Golden Son as a whole, there's still a bun85/100
this series is awesome. while i dont think this concluding book to the original trilogy is as good as Golden Son as a whole, there's still a bunch to love here.
the growth from pretty much every single character continues to be excellent. the action is fast paced and well written. there's some good ol political scheming. the word "fuck" is finally used (a couple times, too). lots of twists and turns that'll have your head spinning. a lot of good thematic stuff about leadership, friendship, oppression, forgiveness, etc. that pierce brown is actually really good at (that i totally wasn't expecting when going into this trilogy). just a lotta good stuff.
however there was one part in the middle that i was a little so-so on where i was like "okay this is kinda cool and i get why it's here and why we gotta go through all this but can we get back to the other stuff now?" and then there's also some pretty bad unreliable narrator things going on that just... don't make sense at all because it's a first person present pov and darrow just straight up lies to the reader about stuff lmao. that kinda irked me. BUT STILL it turned out being pretty cool in the end even after that.
good book. good trilogy. let's get to iron gold.
p.s. golden son rating upgraded to a 94/100...more
this is just a level up from the first book in every single way. 90-95% of this book is fast paced action and the other 5-10% is deep, emotional94/100
this is just a level up from the first book in every single way. 90-95% of this book is fast paced action and the other 5-10% is deep, emotional character moments that had a mfer ponderin n shit.
i cant believe i’m saying this, but for the first time ever, i was wrong. red rising good. (this rating could even go up higher with time)
addendum: review did go up from 88/100 to 94/100...more