The third and (was supposed to be) final installment of (what was supposed to be) the Red Rising trilogy ends with....well now, I can't tell you that, SPOILERS!!!
I can tell you that you will have your heart shredded, mended, shredded again, and maybe mended again. I can tell you that you might chuckle when you least expect a chuckle to be appropriate.
And you will think. When power corrupts and is then overthrown, what steps in to fill the void? Someone has to lead. But what kind of leadership? Not everyone will like the new leadership, that's a given, but how does someone or a group of someones step in and create a new order without becoming the tyrants overthrown but still bring along those who don't want to come? It is a puzzle for sure. It is a world torn apart and needing rebuilding.
A color system that is clearly out of wack with the idea of freedom no matter what those at the top try to sell to those at the bottom....is one color more able than the others? Do we become who are because we are told it is who we are or do we makes choices that make us who we are and learn to carve out a place for ourselves in the place we best fit because of those choices? These are the questions, or at least some of them, that the Red Rising story asks and attempts to answer.
But now I am all uptight because I read this trilogy because someone, I am looking at you Danielle, told me that she loved it and if I did too all three books were already published so I wouldn't have to wait to find out what happens, only to get to the last page of this book and see that Mr. Brown has changed the paradigm once again...and his trilogy is now a quartet and there will be new book in the near future. Well played Mr. Brown, well played.
(finished April 9, 2017)
PS in fairness to Mr. Brown, if you read these now and have to wait for book 4, you won't be left all in a tangle, it does wrap up as if this was meant to be the ending.
My thoughts on
Red Rising
Golden Son
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown
I. Just. Can't. With. The. Feelings!!!
Ok, I can. But wow. It is hard to write a review for books you don't want to spoil for anyone but I will do my best.
This is book 2 in a trilogy, and as soon as I am done posting this I am diving into the finale, Morning Star.
Golden Son picks up 2 years after the ending of Red Rising. So much happens here that you would think it is slow moving, but then when it was over I couldn't believe it was done so quickly.
Darrow learns some hard lessons and some weighty questions are raised. What is the real cost of war is a central thread through the story so far. But there is so much more. What makes a family? How much can a relationship bend before it stops holding together and breaks? How does who we are at a given moment shape how we love? Darrow deals with betrayal, forgiveness, growing up, learning it isn't weak to depend on others, facing the timeless question about going home, and death, he faces death head on numerous time.
I'm finding the main theme of the story to be what makes us human, what makes some people lead and others follow, is it better to follow because it is how you are your best self or because you are forced to or trained to? Or does it matter, someone has to lead and someone has to follow and survival of the fittest and all that? It is the commonality in all of these types of stories, someone takes over and oppresses others until someone sparks a rebellion or revolution and a new cycle begins, until hopefully someday an equitable system is built.
There is also the obvious thread of race relations. I don't say that as criticism. It would be wrong to say we live in a post racial world, and so it feels relevant to have the hierarchy be based on a color system, Gold at the top and Red at the bottom.
Darrow is an interesting character because of his duality. Is he who is, how he is wired or is he a product of his environment? Nurture vs Nature. If you could walk a mile in another's skin would it change how you view them? Or yourself?
I know this all sounds so deep, and it is a thought provoking story, but it is also well written and gripping, even entertaining.
Ok, I have rambled on enough. I must go and begin the next book...
(Finished April 6, 2017)
My thoughts on Red Rising
Ok, I can. But wow. It is hard to write a review for books you don't want to spoil for anyone but I will do my best.
This is book 2 in a trilogy, and as soon as I am done posting this I am diving into the finale, Morning Star.
Golden Son picks up 2 years after the ending of Red Rising. So much happens here that you would think it is slow moving, but then when it was over I couldn't believe it was done so quickly.
Darrow learns some hard lessons and some weighty questions are raised. What is the real cost of war is a central thread through the story so far. But there is so much more. What makes a family? How much can a relationship bend before it stops holding together and breaks? How does who we are at a given moment shape how we love? Darrow deals with betrayal, forgiveness, growing up, learning it isn't weak to depend on others, facing the timeless question about going home, and death, he faces death head on numerous time.
I'm finding the main theme of the story to be what makes us human, what makes some people lead and others follow, is it better to follow because it is how you are your best self or because you are forced to or trained to? Or does it matter, someone has to lead and someone has to follow and survival of the fittest and all that? It is the commonality in all of these types of stories, someone takes over and oppresses others until someone sparks a rebellion or revolution and a new cycle begins, until hopefully someday an equitable system is built.
There is also the obvious thread of race relations. I don't say that as criticism. It would be wrong to say we live in a post racial world, and so it feels relevant to have the hierarchy be based on a color system, Gold at the top and Red at the bottom.
Darrow is an interesting character because of his duality. Is he who is, how he is wired or is he a product of his environment? Nurture vs Nature. If you could walk a mile in another's skin would it change how you view them? Or yourself?
I know this all sounds so deep, and it is a thought provoking story, but it is also well written and gripping, even entertaining.
Ok, I have rambled on enough. I must go and begin the next book...
(Finished April 6, 2017)
My thoughts on Red Rising
Monday, March 20, 2017
Red Rising (Red Rising #1) by Pierce Brown
My friend Danielle insisted I read this. I am glad she did.
When I started it I was only 40ish pages in and I was gutted and angry and I couldn't imagine where this was going. I was solidly in the corner of Darrow and there was very little he could have done to lose me but with his mission I wondered if that resolve would be tested. I needn't have worried. While he isn't perfect he is guided by love and loyalty and when he makes mistakes he seems to learn from them. Only, unlike the teenagers we are used to and their mistakes when Darrow makes mistakes it often costs a life or lives.
Darrow is a Red. He works the mines of Mars as a Helldiver and he believes the history of how his people ended up there. When circumstances put in a place of learning the truth about the world he lives in and the world outside his mine shaft everything is shaken. What is revealed is what might on the surface seem obvious, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but it is so much more in the pages of Red Rising. Brown takes what could be considered a sub-genre of YA, the post apocalyptic, government run amok and blood thirsty in their desire to stay in control, and he makes it feel fresh. Maybe it is the setting (Mars for example), maybe it is the throwing in of the mythology of the Gods of Olympus, or maybe it is that he is talented.
Either way, what we have here is a story that is though provoking on the evils of class division, concentration of wealth and power, and revolution.
I feel like maybe a small warning needs to be given, it is violent in parts and the group we are following with Darrow are young by our standards even if in their world they are old enough to marry. Don't let their ages, Darrow is 16 in Earth years, when we met him, turn you off, it is actually important to the idea I believe Brown is putting forth, the young can make a difference, can be smart and make change in the world.
Like all first books in a multi-book story Red Rising has to lay the groundwork for what comes next. It does this well and without many stumbles. I'm looking forward to reading book 2, Golden Son. And as added bonus all three books of this trilogy have been published so if you like it, as I did and suspect you will, there's no long wait for the other installments.
(Finished March 20, 2017)
When I started it I was only 40ish pages in and I was gutted and angry and I couldn't imagine where this was going. I was solidly in the corner of Darrow and there was very little he could have done to lose me but with his mission I wondered if that resolve would be tested. I needn't have worried. While he isn't perfect he is guided by love and loyalty and when he makes mistakes he seems to learn from them. Only, unlike the teenagers we are used to and their mistakes when Darrow makes mistakes it often costs a life or lives.
Darrow is a Red. He works the mines of Mars as a Helldiver and he believes the history of how his people ended up there. When circumstances put in a place of learning the truth about the world he lives in and the world outside his mine shaft everything is shaken. What is revealed is what might on the surface seem obvious, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but it is so much more in the pages of Red Rising. Brown takes what could be considered a sub-genre of YA, the post apocalyptic, government run amok and blood thirsty in their desire to stay in control, and he makes it feel fresh. Maybe it is the setting (Mars for example), maybe it is the throwing in of the mythology of the Gods of Olympus, or maybe it is that he is talented.
Either way, what we have here is a story that is though provoking on the evils of class division, concentration of wealth and power, and revolution.
I feel like maybe a small warning needs to be given, it is violent in parts and the group we are following with Darrow are young by our standards even if in their world they are old enough to marry. Don't let their ages, Darrow is 16 in Earth years, when we met him, turn you off, it is actually important to the idea I believe Brown is putting forth, the young can make a difference, can be smart and make change in the world.
Like all first books in a multi-book story Red Rising has to lay the groundwork for what comes next. It does this well and without many stumbles. I'm looking forward to reading book 2, Golden Son. And as added bonus all three books of this trilogy have been published so if you like it, as I did and suspect you will, there's no long wait for the other installments.
(Finished March 20, 2017)
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
In the story of Cora the Underground Railroad is really and underground railroad. Station masters and conductors and locomotives carry runaway slaves to the north and hoped for freedom.
Along the way Cora is our look into the world of what it looks, smells, tastes, and feels like to be owned. It is often violent, scary, ugly, and painful. Even in that Cora finds tiny moments of beauty that she uses to hold onto when she thinks she can't go on. And all along the way she is reminded of the words of her first station master encounter, "Look outside as you speed through, and you'll find the true face of America."
And that is the lesson if you will of The Underground Railroad. I won't spoil it for you and tell you what she sees. It is the kind of thing you have to experience.
Some of the questions I found myself thinking about were what does it mean to be free? Are there levels of freedom? What motivates people to do what they do, to act as they do, to think and believe what they do? How much is upbringing, how much is what we are born with, how much is when and where we are born and to whom we are born? What is our responsibility to each other and to those who will come after us? And what price should we pay for those who came before and the things they have done?
Thought provoking. Well written. Gripping. Over before I wanted it to be but also not soon enough.
(Finished March 15, 2017)
Along the way Cora is our look into the world of what it looks, smells, tastes, and feels like to be owned. It is often violent, scary, ugly, and painful. Even in that Cora finds tiny moments of beauty that she uses to hold onto when she thinks she can't go on. And all along the way she is reminded of the words of her first station master encounter, "Look outside as you speed through, and you'll find the true face of America."
And that is the lesson if you will of The Underground Railroad. I won't spoil it for you and tell you what she sees. It is the kind of thing you have to experience.
Some of the questions I found myself thinking about were what does it mean to be free? Are there levels of freedom? What motivates people to do what they do, to act as they do, to think and believe what they do? How much is upbringing, how much is what we are born with, how much is when and where we are born and to whom we are born? What is our responsibility to each other and to those who will come after us? And what price should we pay for those who came before and the things they have done?
Thought provoking. Well written. Gripping. Over before I wanted it to be but also not soon enough.
(Finished March 15, 2017)
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark #1) by Veronica Roth
Veronica Roth has come back to familiar territory. As in the Divergent series (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3) Roth creates a new world where people are divided and war is coming.
In this universe, literally because the people in her story are scattered among planets and space ships, and figuratively, some people are fate favored. As it is explained here there are different versions of the future that oracles can see (choices people make can influence the future that comes to pass) but someone who is fate favored has their fate happen in every version of the future. There are also people with something called a current gift. It is something that can do thanks to a force called the current that is said to run through everything.
On Thuvhe, the planet where our main characters live, there are two groups, the Shotet and the Thuvhe.
The current leader of the Shotet group is Ryzek. He is cruel and trying to get out of the fate he has been told is his, to fall at the hands of a Thuvhe family. He uses his sister Cyra and her current gift to help him rule by fear.
Akos is a Thuvhe boy that Ryzek has kidnapped along with Akos' bother Eijeh. Eijeh is going to be an oracle like his mother and Ryzek thinks he can use this to change his fate.
Cyra doesn't want to be what her brother has turned her into. Akos wants to save his brother and get them both back home.
Can people from diametrically opposed groups come to like each other, to work together, to help and heal each other, or to love each other? Friendships, forgiveness, lies, allegiances of blood and of connivence are al part of the story Roth tells.
It is really hard to review a book where spoilers are to be avoided so I will say that Carve The Mark is, as often happens with books that are the start of a series, a little slow to get started but it picks up and ends up being a good read. I will absolutely read the next book when ever it comes out.
(Finished March 12, 2017)
In this universe, literally because the people in her story are scattered among planets and space ships, and figuratively, some people are fate favored. As it is explained here there are different versions of the future that oracles can see (choices people make can influence the future that comes to pass) but someone who is fate favored has their fate happen in every version of the future. There are also people with something called a current gift. It is something that can do thanks to a force called the current that is said to run through everything.
On Thuvhe, the planet where our main characters live, there are two groups, the Shotet and the Thuvhe.
The current leader of the Shotet group is Ryzek. He is cruel and trying to get out of the fate he has been told is his, to fall at the hands of a Thuvhe family. He uses his sister Cyra and her current gift to help him rule by fear.
Akos is a Thuvhe boy that Ryzek has kidnapped along with Akos' bother Eijeh. Eijeh is going to be an oracle like his mother and Ryzek thinks he can use this to change his fate.
Cyra doesn't want to be what her brother has turned her into. Akos wants to save his brother and get them both back home.
Can people from diametrically opposed groups come to like each other, to work together, to help and heal each other, or to love each other? Friendships, forgiveness, lies, allegiances of blood and of connivence are al part of the story Roth tells.
It is really hard to review a book where spoilers are to be avoided so I will say that Carve The Mark is, as often happens with books that are the start of a series, a little slow to get started but it picks up and ends up being a good read. I will absolutely read the next book when ever it comes out.
(Finished March 12, 2017)
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin by Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin
This book took me three full days and a few hours to read. I started it late on a Sunday night and ugly cried through the introduction before going to bed. I finished it very early on Thursday morning, pre-7AM. It is important to tell you this because the reason this book took me this long to read had zero to do with the length and everything to do with the emotional impact and the need to catch my breath. I made the mistake of taking it with me to read in the waiting room while my teenager was in the dentist chair and ugly cried in public.
My heart ached with every word I read for Sybrina and Tracy. I was overwhelmed with their open and honest sharing of how they felt and what they went through in the immediate aftermath of the brutal murder of their 17 year old son Trayvon. I was angry for them in how awfully the law enforcement officials and the legal system mishandled this case. I was furious all over again when I read the pages about the verdict, feeling again the shock and horror I felt on the day I watched Lisa Bloom talk about it as it happened on MSNBC.
I am going to suggest this book to every parent I know, every high school english teacher, every person interested in social justice, and every person who thinks we live in a post racial society. We all need to outraged and work for change. But if you are a white parent of white children you have a responsibility to parents of color or parents of children of color to step out from behind the privilege your skin affords you and speak out about the injustices parents of children of color face.
I tell you all this as the white mother of a young black man and young white boy. My oldest is 25 and is the child from my first marriage, an interracial marriage. And until the day I don't have to have two different conversations with my sons about how the world sees them and the rules they must follow I will shout this from the roof types. My oldest boy isn't worth less because he has black skin. My youngest boy isn't worth more because he has white skin.
READ THIS BOOK!!!
Thank you Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin for sharing your hearts with us.
(Finished March 9, 2017)
My heart ached with every word I read for Sybrina and Tracy. I was overwhelmed with their open and honest sharing of how they felt and what they went through in the immediate aftermath of the brutal murder of their 17 year old son Trayvon. I was angry for them in how awfully the law enforcement officials and the legal system mishandled this case. I was furious all over again when I read the pages about the verdict, feeling again the shock and horror I felt on the day I watched Lisa Bloom talk about it as it happened on MSNBC.
I am going to suggest this book to every parent I know, every high school english teacher, every person interested in social justice, and every person who thinks we live in a post racial society. We all need to outraged and work for change. But if you are a white parent of white children you have a responsibility to parents of color or parents of children of color to step out from behind the privilege your skin affords you and speak out about the injustices parents of children of color face.
I tell you all this as the white mother of a young black man and young white boy. My oldest is 25 and is the child from my first marriage, an interracial marriage. And until the day I don't have to have two different conversations with my sons about how the world sees them and the rules they must follow I will shout this from the roof types. My oldest boy isn't worth less because he has black skin. My youngest boy isn't worth more because he has white skin.
READ THIS BOOK!!!
Thank you Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin for sharing your hearts with us.
(Finished March 9, 2017)
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird
This book was used as the basis for the PBS Masterpiece series Victoria and watching season 1 made me want to read the source material.
Queen Victoria was stronger than she ever realized. Her mother and her mother's confidant Conroy, tried to run her life and then take control of her reign. This sheltered and what seems like an abusive upbringing helped shape her. She needed and wanted to be loved and cared for and her beloved Albert did that. He helped her be out from under her mother and Conroy's control. He loved her, without a doubt it is clear he did. But he was a man of his time and he wanted to be in charge, to be the ruler. And she gave much of her control over to him.
It is an interesting dynamic that seemed to repeat with many of the men in her life over the years. Her desire to be cared for and loved made her vulnerable.
Baird does a really good job at making the life of Victoria come to life on the pages of this substantial tome. She tells the story of the girl-Queen in such a way that you can feel the conflicts, the pain, the love, the life and losses of her very long reign.
Victoria was a strong woman in a power position during a time when women had no real power and so men struggled under her rule. She had her own opinions but would often be ignored or gone around by the men around her. Complicated would be an accurate description of her life. Her children and other protectors destroyed much of her personal writings/letters to protect her so piecing together her story was a true labor and isn't now and probably won't ever be complete. But this is a really interesting look into the incredible story of a young girl who so improbably became queen.
(Finished March 5, 2017)
Queen Victoria was stronger than she ever realized. Her mother and her mother's confidant Conroy, tried to run her life and then take control of her reign. This sheltered and what seems like an abusive upbringing helped shape her. She needed and wanted to be loved and cared for and her beloved Albert did that. He helped her be out from under her mother and Conroy's control. He loved her, without a doubt it is clear he did. But he was a man of his time and he wanted to be in charge, to be the ruler. And she gave much of her control over to him.
It is an interesting dynamic that seemed to repeat with many of the men in her life over the years. Her desire to be cared for and loved made her vulnerable.
Baird does a really good job at making the life of Victoria come to life on the pages of this substantial tome. She tells the story of the girl-Queen in such a way that you can feel the conflicts, the pain, the love, the life and losses of her very long reign.
Victoria was a strong woman in a power position during a time when women had no real power and so men struggled under her rule. She had her own opinions but would often be ignored or gone around by the men around her. Complicated would be an accurate description of her life. Her children and other protectors destroyed much of her personal writings/letters to protect her so piecing together her story was a true labor and isn't now and probably won't ever be complete. But this is a really interesting look into the incredible story of a young girl who so improbably became queen.
(Finished March 5, 2017)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)