I recently started reading a series heavily recommended by popular authors, booktokers, and other fantasy lovers. The trauma being its key under their skin. However, I was hesitant to read this series because it was labeled as “Sci-fi”. Let’s just say it gave me some trauma.
I am not a fan of sci-fi anything. I am not a Star Wars or Star Trek fan, and have no interest in anything space or math based. This steers me away from Sci-fi very quickly.
After YEARS of nagging from others, I attended the popular author’s panel at Dragonsteel Nexus and decided to add it to my reading list.
As of now, I am on book two, and this series put me into a death grip. It has easily become one of my favorite series and one I will recommend to many people. This is not a review post, this is about it’s popularity and how it attracted me as someone who didn’t like sci-fi until now.
The series is Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The Attraction
Sure, while comparing this series to an author like Joe Abercrombie, this series relates to it’s “traumatizing” aspect.
In the panel I attended at Dragonsteel Nexus, Brown talked about how his readers send him therapy bills after what they experience in reading the series. This was my first hook to read the series.
Brown did an excellent job in creating characters that are not only likeable and relatable, but they also are traumatized and experiencing trauma actively happening. Like Brandon Sanderson’s, he creates characters with ongoing mental health issues (not to the extent or specific as Sanderson’s characters) that face troubles and doubts along the way.
Now, there was still the idea of Sci-fi that bothered me. I have already mentioned I dislike sci-fi books, but according to the fan base, this Sci-fi series reads more like a fantasy with a sci-fi setting. This book lacks, my issue, of overcomplicating science to make a book seem smarter. No crazy math, no special lasers, no terminology that seems unnecessary. Instead we are in space with blades and battling hierarchy.
Brutality
I am a nurse who is used to staying level-headed in serious situations. Brutality doesn’t usually hit the mark for me because other people’s brutal, is almost another day in my life. But Brown took this to a whole other level.
There are descriptive, violent scenes that are so detailed it paints a picture in your mind of exactly what’s happening. That in combination with the traumatizing scenes made this series hooking and engaging.
Taking Booktok by Storm
I run my booktok account by uploading either relatable content, or content of my current reads. My first Red Rising post became my most popular video on my page in the matter of days (Which doesn’t say a lot considering my account at this point has less than 300 followers but it was a lot for me, okay!). I uprooted a community who is passionate about these books to a new level.
Red Rising fans are often referred to as “Howlers”, mainly indicated by certain scenes in the book (as Sanderson would say: RAFO), and that was made clear at the Red Rising panel. Fans howled like wolves upon greeting, which was very confusing at first but makes much more sense now.
I suspect this series really took off because of it’s brutality and very lovable protagonist: Darrow. I think he is one of the best protagonists written. He is a very relatable character, driven with passion, love, and madness. He goes through hardships that make sense, and his decision making may seem a bit much, but he is smart and charismatic.
Give Red Rising a read and tell me who your favorite character is! Check out my other reviews and topics
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