Thursday, April 9, 2015

Mini Reviews: Red Rising and The Waking Dreamer

Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1) by Pierce Brown

Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy, #1)


This book is...complicated. It took place over a lot longer period of time than I'm used to reading. (Hell I'm pretty sure the TMI series has only gone through like 6 months of time in 6 books) It made it feel a lot more realistic and I really appreciate the small details that were used to make the time passing apparent.  I had a hard time deciding whether I liked the book or not for a lot of it - I loved parts, really didn't love other parts, and the pacing seems really weird at first, but it's just because the book didn't end up going where I thought it was going to.  That being said, by the end of the book I was completely sold on this series! Because this book took such a big turn from where I thought it was going, I honestly am not sure how Pierce Brown is going to plot out the rest of the series. He's laid some good groundwork here  SPOILERS I'm seeing both Cassius and Jackal being big players - if not in the next book, then definitely in the last book. He's inserted the main character into pretty much the most powerful family, and there's a lot of complications now (unsurprisingly) because he has some true allies in the Golds. So is he going to try and turn some of them to his cause? END SPOILERS

In any case I'm desperately going to try and get my hands on the rest of the books and I'm glad I waited so long to review this because now the next book is out!




The Waking Dreamer (The Waking Dreamer #1) by J.E. Alexander

The Waking Dreamer (The Waking Dreamer, #1)

I feel really bad having to say this. The premise of this book is awesome...but the writing fails the story. There's an overabundance of action scenes at the cost of world building and character development. And probably plot too - I honestly didn't know what was happening most of the time. Although disclaimer, once I hit the 35% mark and I was really not liking it, I skimmed the rest of the book. So if I missed an understanding of what was going on, it's likely that's entirely my own fault. I'm just so disappointed - especially after an opening like this one, I had really high hopes for it. But there's a serious case of instalove. Like the dude is in love and I swear they've said two sentences to each other until the very end of the book.

Good Things
- The idea of the story
- There's diversity in race (but everyone one is bloodyDamn gorgeous to the point that it's obnoxious)
- If you love movies, you will love all the movie quotes. On the flip side if you think making everything a movie quote is something only turds do, it will annoy you so badly that I don't think you'll be able to read more than a page of this. I fell somewhere between these two - it didn't annoy me, but it didn't do much for me either.
- Character development is...not the worst I've seen. But not a lot of it happens. For the most part the characters are't just stereotypes though, which I see enough that I'm grateful this book didn't do that.

Bad Things
- Was there a plot most of this? Or rather...did we know ANY of the plans?
- World building is severely lacking. I mean you can tell the author knows what the rules of the world are, but he certainly doesn't share that with us. The explanations are wasted explaining things we've already figured out.
- INSTALOVE. LIKE SEVERE INSTALOVE.

So...no this book wasn't for me.  But the premise is intriguing and I think given the opportunity to write some more J.E. Alexander could come up with some very creative stories, so I also won't write off any future stories he might have for us.

4 comments:

  1. La La in the LibraryApril 10, 2015 at 6:54 PM

    I have Red Rising and Golden Son from Netgalley and have not read them yet *hangs head in shame* I have heard other complaints about the pacing of Red Rising, but I guess Golden Son is much better with this. I would definitely have been a sucker for the cover of The Waking Dreamer. Thanks for the warming!

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  2. kirstymariejonesstudioreadsApril 12, 2015 at 8:57 AM

    Didn't know Red Rising goes through a lot of time, bit iffy now, since I read one not so long ago that went over a year, and did not work for me. I think I'm going to wait until the series is over before reading it now though, especially from what I've heard about #2 *cough*

    Bad, The Waking Dreamer, bad. The instalove? Nope. I mean, I love action scenes and all, I wouldn't be too bothered about the world-building (as long as there is the foundation there) but character development, nope, need it.

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  3. Yeah I was so disappointed because the cover and premise of The Waking Dreamer were awesome! And the prologue was super intense so I was really excited about it :(. Yeah I'm really interested in where Golden Son goes - I've avoided ALL reviews because I'm still not certain what my relationship with the series is going to be. Because I fluctuated in enjoyment so much I think it's equally as likely that I'm going to hate it as much as I might love it haha

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  4. Yeah I think it might be set over the process of two years? A crap ton of stuff happens though - with everything that happens, I'm used to that being maybe a year's worth of time. I actually found it way more realistic. (Like seriously? You saved the ENTIRE WORLD three times in one year? Come on.)'


    Yeah I needed SOMETHING to grasp onto with it...and action scenes is definitely not enough for me haha

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