It’s been too long since the last book reviews, so I’ll kick things off today with a pair of Sci-Fi novels (at least one of which is excellent) and roll out more book reviews later in the day…
Red Rising by Pierce Brown…An excellent example of everything commercial science fiction should be, and it’s no surprise this rousing debut—the first book in a trilogy—has already been optioned into a movie, but don’t let that discourage you from reading this book as soon as possible. This is a book I could literally recommend to anyone: it’s technically about teenagers but adults will love it too, and the main hero (and heroine) straddle the line between being good role models for kids but interesting characters in their own right.
It’s about a color-coded future society where “Reds” are at the very bottom (they’re “miners” enslaved on Mars, always living beneath the surface) and “Golds” rule at the very top, but the book’s Red hero Darrow soon loses his wife and then is transformed into a Gold so he can go undercover at the “The Institute” school for Golds to work about bringing down the system from the inside. That plot description doesn’t really do the book justice and the second half of the book—when the students start playing war games that quickly spill into real war—is when the pages start flying. The book mixes influences of Roman mythology, Knights, Vikings, the corrupt and powerful houses of any feudal society, but still creates a fully realized world of its own. Aside from the trip-wire plotting, what really stands out is the book’s wide-awake awareness of morality and just how fluid it really is as Darrow is asked to get his hands dirty (dirtier than Katniss ever did) and even comes to like some of the Golds. By turns exciting, funny, intelligent, and rousing, this is the rare commercial trilogy that isn’t worth waiting for the movie. Grade: A
Peripheral by William Gibson…William Gibson is a sci-fi master but this book went over my head. The mechanical jargon and plotting is so dense, I had a hard time following it. There’s an interesting plot about an assassination attempt tied to an island of trash witnessed by a virtual reality that can let you glimpse the future, but that’s if you can wade through the thick exposition and technical prose. It’s a book that I admired more than I really enjoyed. Grade: B