I've followed the middle-aged-man onramp to fantasy literature last year with Mistborn (and other Cosmere stuff) and Dungeon Crawler Carl, with Project Hail Mary thrown in there somewhere. Aside from Sanderson and DCC, the only other non-romantasy series I've seen get anywhere close to that kind of hype has been Red Rising. And so, with great anticipation I started the series.
I'm going to be honest with you: I'm struggling. I almost DNF'd at the halfway point, but I hate DNF-ing and the book isn't that long so I decided to push through. I'm now about 70 pages from the end and at this point I have no plans to read the second one.
I'll admit my bias at the outset. I don't like present tense prose. I find it distracting when I'm reading a novel that's in in present tense instead of past. With that said, I can get past it once I'm into a book if it's compelling enough. I do not think that's the reason I'm struggling.
Here are my criticisms so far:
•The very first thing that happens, which sets everything in motion, is Eo gets fridged. It is maybe the most blatant example of the fridging trope I have ever seen.
•From here we go into a very generic Hero's Journey arc. Chosen one with special abilities is forced into action against his wishes to fight a great evil. It's Star Wars. It's Eragon. It's the hero's journey trope. That's not necessarily bad, but it does feel like I've been here before.
•The author seems to fall for the common shorthand of "this person is bad"="this person commits sexual violence against women." Titus is the most obvious example, but Tactus is here too. It is a hallmark of lazy writing, in my opinion.
•Stuff just sort of... happens. I find the action hard to follow. Descriptors seem to be at a minimum.
I wanted to love this series, but I just am not enjoying it at all. I have heard other people say it gets better in the second book—that Pierce Brown tones down the Harry Potter/Hunger Games of it all after the first book—but is it really worth continuing if I'm not finding anything enjoyable in the beginning?