Just One More Chapter

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. 

-Vera Nazarian

 

I'm just trying to light up the world as much as I can one SciFi/paranormal/fantasy/space opera/time travel book at a time. 

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Red Rising - Pierce Brown

~~~Between 3.25-4.5 Stars depending on which spouse is rating things~~~

 

This is one of those books that the hubby and I read (or in this case listened to) together before bed each night. I think we got lucky because the guy who did the narration was really really good, on that we both agreed. I'm going to try and incorporate both spouses viewpoints but when it's all said and done, it is my GR profile :-) 

 

This is listed as a SciFi/Dystopian (Hunger Games like) novel but it was very verbose, making it more of a High Fantasy wannabe.  Great if you like that sort of thing, bad if you're reading it before bed (which thankfully we weren't), this time we were listening to some decent acting by Tim Gerard Reynolds. Yes I can see some comparison to The Hunger Games but it's a very vague resemblance. Yes- it has very graphic/ high octane action scenes (hubby approved) if you like your hero insta-awesome at everything. He is awesome at being a Hell Diver, awesome husband to an awesome woman/wife/martyr, awesome at blending in as one of the enemy Golds, awesome tactician/killer/leader blah blah blah. For someone who is supposed to be an average shmoe he sure is great at being awesome... Sometimes too much awesome is just Meh or even boooooring! But the hubby strongly disagrees here and says that the gritty, action packed bad assery of situations that Darrow is placed in gives him a pass at insta-greatness hating. I disagree, obviously, and prefer my heroes to have to overcome some kind of resistance when trying to take over the known galaxies but hey..my standards are different than the hubb's. Anyway...The writing is good, the acting was REALLY good, the action was intense and the author had no qualms about taking some seriously unforseen/most likely unpopular avenues with the characters (beloved and despised alike). The "Good" Guys (who are 100% psychotic) are easy to root for/almost stomach their decisions (especially from my husband's pov) and the Bad Guys are SUPER easy to demand for their a$$e$ on a golden platter. Is this a cut above the Dystopian pack? Yes! Though not the best I've read. I do recommend the audio book over the real deal (almost sacrelige for me), the acting really bumped up this rating for me.