I met Pierce Brown before ever hearing about his series of books, the first of which is Red Rising. The cover blurb is what ultimately sold me,”Ender, Katniss, and now Darrow.” But where to begin with this review… I’m not entirely sure…

I decided to listen this book because I wanted to tackle it right away and I was in the middle of editing two books (which hinders my personal reading time a bit). I think my biggest hang-up came down to not liking the narrator for the audio version. I found his voices to grain on my nerves and ultimately even when I wanted to know what was going to happen, I’d roll my eyes at the idea of listing to more. When I decided to up the speed a bit, this helped dull the narrator’s voices a bit. In the end it took me quite a bit longer to listen to this book then it should have. This being said…

I enjoyed the book a lot. There were some places where I felt that it dragged a bit. I wanted it to move faster, to really get to the story and leave me in the thick of things. This happened a bit in the beginning, and during the time at the institute. Had I been reading a physical copy I’d have probably peak ahead to find out when it picks back up. Maybe even skimmed through the areas, I felt were too slow of a pace.

I did appreciate the beauty of the world that Pierce created. Stunning world building and that alone deserves recognition. From the caves of the hell diver, to the world of the golds, Pierce paints a world so vivid that I started to question where I was. True immersion in a book’s world is so rare.

I did find it a bit weird that Darrow was married. I had a hard time aliening the book in my mind as a YA, despite the fact that there was no reason it shouldn’t have been one. While it helped move the story forward, it still left a weird taste in my mouth. On the other hand, there were a number of twists that I hadn’t expected and found myself quite surprised, enjoying the ride.

In summation… I would not recommend listing to this audio book. Tackle this one old school, page by page with a paperback, or digital edition. Would I read the next book in the series? Yes, I think I will. It’s a bit short and sweet today, but sometimes that’s all that’s needed.