Like _________ on Steroids

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
New York : Del Rey Trade Paperbacks, 2014.
400 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

I don't know if I would have read Pierce Brown's Red Rising but for a student who recommended it to me.  This student is an exceptional reader who comes to the library, checks out a trilogy of novels (such as the Red Rising trilogy) and brings them back in three or four days - having read them all! Yes, as a middling-fast reader I am jealous.

So I had to jump into the Red Rising series when this student returned them saying, "These are the best."  Did I have a choice?

I'm glad I read Red Rising.  It is a satisfying read.  As Booklist and Library Journal note, it is in the tradition of The Hunger Games, and should appeal to fans of that series.  I especially liked the opening of the novel, where the underground mining world of the main character, Darrow, is developed.  It is a grueling and brutal world of miners on Mars, laboring to harvest an element necessary for the terraforming of the planet. The miners are the Reds, and as the novel develops we learn that world (solar system) they live in is a hierarchy of genetically modified colors dominated by the beautiful and ruthless Golds - with Reds occupying the lowest rung.

The novel quickly moves from the realm of the Reds to a story of rebellion as Darrow is secreted out of his miserable (but meaningful life) and quickly inserted into a shadowy rebellion that aims to overthrow the entire order of the Golds.  From the paced opening, the novel rushes pell-mell into high-tech, high-combat mode with genetically modified beings and a deadly competition among the young adult Golds which will allow Darrow to gain access to the highest realms of power.  And how did Darrow a Red gain access to this elite competition?  Sorry, you'll have to read the novel to find out.

There is a lot of battle violence, romance, intrigue and tight plotting that holds everything together.  But for me, I found it a bit over-the-top, reminding me of how I feel with many contemporary movies--yes, the special effects are awesome and compelling to watch, but I want more finesse and subtlety.  That criticism aside, I would definitely recommend this series to dystopian, survival, science fiction, and thriller novel fans.  It delivers.

Sol Man

The Martian by Andy Weir
New York : Crown Publishers, [2014]
369 p. : maps ; 24 cm. 

There should be two genres - science fiction and scientific fiction, with scientific fiction being fiction that is so  steeped in science and so close to the near-future of actual science that it reads like contemporary fiction.  If so the The Martian would be an amazing example of scientific fiction.  At times while reading it, I found myself forgetting that humans have never actually set foot on Mars - only probes and rovers. 

This novel is a great bit of exciting story telling.  It follows the adventures of one astronaut stranded on Mars when his crew abandons  him, firmly convinced that he is lost and dead.  The novel unwinds a modern survival tale - how will he even survive long enough on such a hostile planet, and will earth based efforts to rescue him be successful. 

It is an amazing feat that the author takes what could be a very boring scenario and turns it into a wild adventure, a thrilling live or die race to the end. 

The details are so meticulous (and interesting) that I often felt like I was reading a fictionalized version of actual events.  Reviews compare it to Robinson Crusoe and Apollo 13 - not a bad analogy.  If you like a good, gritty, unpredictable survival/or almost survival tale with lots of fascinating details about living on a bitterly cold planet that has almost no atmosphere, then you'll love this novel.  I did!

BTW, a Sol is the term NASA uses to describe one Martian day.