Board 8 > OK...what the hell are these Red Rising books?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wierd topic but I'm just in a very wierd position here. Currently a passenger on a car trip for about 8 hours, and my sister has been listening to an audiobook for a lot of it for a book called Red Rising. Some kind of fantasy space thing, and it's an absolute joke. I'm struggling to think of a more embarrassingly awful YA novel based on the bits and pieces I've gathered on this trip.

And yet I Google it and it's, like, and incredibly well regarded and we'll reviewed book series? Very consistently 9-10/10?? There's no fucking way standards can be this bad. Is this an intense gaslighting campaign via positive review bombing or something?

I would feel bad confronting my sister about how terrible this seems, so thus I've made this topic here. Would not be surprised if nobody has any idea what I'm even talking about. And if you do an actually like them as well....sorry and why I guess??

Im not familiar with this series specifically

but literal fanfiction can often be better than stuff that gets popular these days, so its not surprising at all.

It's Hunger Games meets Enders game.

And yes, it is very popular. Came out when Battle Royal YA books with post-apocalyptic worlds and unique class splits/discrimination were all the rage.

redrocket posted...

but literal fanfiction can often be better than stuff that gets popular these days, so its not surprising at all

I read a LOT of very good fanfiction so maybe that's my problem, lol.

Red Rising is great

What bits and pieces are you getting from your sister listening to an audiobook?

I too have read a lot of very good fanfiction.

It's our skill issue tbh

probably an unpopular opinion but by and large you should expect YA fiction to lack depth and overly rely on simplistic tropes. And that's perfectly okay, because they're primarily written for children to enjoy at a level that's appropriate to them.

As an adult, it is completely normal to be underwhelmed by YA fiction. That isn't to say you can't find different aspects of YA fiction appealing (much in the way that people enjoy simplicity in all mediums) and in particular worldbuilding is usually quite solid.

But yeah, there's a reason why YA fiction is written for 13 year olds and not adults

changmas posted...

probably an unpopular opinion but by and large you should expect YA fiction to lack depth and overly rely on simplistic tropes. And that's perfectly okay, because they're primarily written for children to enjoy at a level that's appropriate to them.

As an adult, it is completely normal to be underwhelmed by YA fiction. That isn't to say you can't find different aspects of YA fiction appealing (much in the way that people enjoy simplicity in all mediums) and in particular worldbuilding is usually quite solid.

But yeah, there's a reason why YA fiction is written for 13 year olds and not adults

Id say this is a very POPULAR opinion, and is often unfair to a lot of really great YA works that do have a lot of depth. A Monster Calls is one of the best books Ive read in recent years and thats YA. However yeah an awful lot of it is trash and very derivative of popular trends.

Plenty of YA fiction is written to include adults in the target audience. Just look at the MCU.

The genre is massive and has been expanding out of the range of just being for teenagers, that's why there's so much trash. You can say that about any big genre really.

Also, having a look at the reception, we just need to accept that we all have our own perspectives on art and can strongly dislike something or even think it is technically bad even though others like it. The critics reviews seem good as well as audience reviews, people in here who have read it seem to like it. While I have not read it myself I have to admit the synopsis sounds fun even if you can clearly see what its derivative of.

I tried reading Red Rising back in 2013 and couldn't force myself to read past the first 70 pages or so.

The only thing I remember was an early heartbreaking scene where the MC had to tug down on his girlfriend's feet to complete her hanging. That was well done. Everything else about it bored me to tears.

I remember reading the first three books at the beach and I thought it was fine? Don't remember much of it, honestly. Red good, Gold bad. The fourth one didn't hold my interest.

Lets be honest, with the absolutely massive amount of entertainment that is out there, many people now just want some light and fluffy reading if they want to read at all. A novel is usually going to take far more time than a movie, and when a person has chosen to read for leisure I don't blame them for not wanting to do any heavy lifting. Life itself offers plenty of opportunities to engage in heavy lifting.

I need novels that are heavier than life. Then life is like a cooldown set.

Yeah its not a great series. I can go into more detail if necessary but the gist of it is it completely betrays its concept and its thematics are absolutely hollow. It's also a typical HMMHD narrative and the protagonist learns absolutely nothing from his journey to be better, which makes the sequel series absolutely dreadful.

I'm sure it doesn't help that the guy reading it on the audio book could not be trying less.

You know how every other Japanese light novel and anime for teens is a shitty RPG rules-based isekai often with reactionary politics

this genre is that for US teens

KanzarisKelshen posted...

a typical HMMHD narrative

a what

Red Rising was good enough for me to warrant reading further into the series.

Golden Sun was decent, your typical follow-up to level the playing field.

Morning Star would have been a good way to end the series, but...

...then they released Iron Gold and I couldn't even get halfway.

ZeroSignal posted...

Red Rising was good enough for me to warrant reading further into the series.

Golden Sun was decent, your typical follow-up to level the playing field.

Morning Star would have been a good way to end the series, but...

...then they released Iron Gold and I couldn't even get halfway.

Basically this, except I never continued after the third. The fourth book was released after I finished reading it, and I've lost interest to continue it

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

a what

Hard Man Making Hard Decisions. Y'know, some extremely boring dude agonizing about how he absolutely has to torture someone, conceal things from their loved ones, deny trust to their followers, basically take every possible action to be a lesser human being instead of ever taking a risk on any methods that induce even the slightest potential loss of control and would make him a better person? That. Red Rising is 100% that kind of shit.

Why would you turn that into an acronym

Oh thanks I thought it was Hallmark Movies and Mysteries HD

FoolFantastic posted...

Why would you turn that into an acronym

fifty bucks says it's the name of a TVTropes page

WazzupGenius00 posted...

fifty bucks says it's the name of a TVTropes page

Actually not, yet. The idea seems to have originated on the SpaceBattles forums and spread from there

FoolFantastic posted...

Why would you turn that into an acronym

Because it's a chore to type and it's fairly omnipresent in bad USian media. It's kind of always been there but it started growing when 24 hit it big and hasn't really stopped being a thing since. It's a specific conceit that appears enough that it's quicker to acronym it than type it twentyfive times while dissecting a piece of media.

Red Rising vs Redfall: You have to complete one, which are you going with?