Smorgasbord Fantasia

“Rose petals of a thousand shades fall from the trees as the Golds fight beneath them. They’re all red in the end.” Pierce Brown is fast turning out to be my favorite author – with this book, he gorydamn comes close. To unseating all those Gods I thought I had firmly set in their pantheons of Fantasy/Science Fiction inside my mind. Red Rising was spectacular mind blowing stuff. The thought that a debut author would be giving us such an accomplished mind-bending piece of work was exhilarating and spoke well for the future of this genre. But with this second book, Pierce Brown has clearly proved himself beyond an iota of doubt. He has set his own benchmarks soaring. To the outer expanse of his faux-greek sci-fi planetary system where he clearly enjoys breaking the readers’ hearts. It’s a bigger bolder accomplishment over Red Rising in all ways. Darrow – the conflicted 16-year old has matured into a twenty-year old now. Having infiltrated the ranks of his wife’s killers ...

Of late, only a few books tend to leave me disturbed. Gets me thinking beyond the premise and execution of a story well done. I remember Lord of the Flies did that for me – but I was much younger then. Hardly second year of college. And now Pierce Brown – an author possibly around the same age as me – goes on to write a crackerjack of a debut, Red Rising and charms the hell out of an audience jaded with the dystopian genre. Including me . I admit, the hype engine and the prepublication heaps of praise lauded onto the young author kept me away from this book. But after having blown through this stellar fusion of ‘ Lord of the Flies ’ meets ‘ Enders Game ’ featuring one of the most cold-hearted yet remarkably endearing 16-year old hero, I must say – everything is justified. And the debut deserves more. Red Rising features Darrow – a gifted 16-year old miner deep in the bowels of a terraformed Mars – mining the underground caves for elements to help complete the “Terraform...