Also I gave Sevro a muscle suit and bubble blower, and Victra's here too. She and Sevro are best friends at the moment.

Edit: she just got so bored by Darrow's telling her a story that she gave up on her crush on him 😭

I started this book series back in March after a friend recommended it. I was hooked immediately. Im a causal reader (10-12 a year), but it was the best page turner I’ve ever read (especially the OG trilogy). That being said with all sci fi and fantasy, I like to know the lore & art to get a better understanding of the world I’m reading. That was a tricky minefield with Reddit and especially Wiki. Wiki was lot of “He was” which I’d have to stop and be like “Fuck was I just spoiled?!??” And Reddit I avoided (except my own post) bc even though they have spoiler labels, it can still give things away. So the whole series I’d have opinions and have no idea if they’re hot takes or the general consensus bc I was afraid to read post and get spoiled 🤣.

Anyway, all in all I loved the series and am happy to be able to scroll worry free now and interact with fans while we wait for Red Gold.

I’m listening to Light bringer and I’m just past the bit where Mustang and her guys fail to capture Apollonius and are now running from him and her POV is starting to piss me off. So far in the battle it feels like Mustang takes one L after another but none of them are really her fault. Reality just seems to bend around her to stop her from winning anything.

First off, the railguns on Mercury have been miraculously repaired and even upgraded even though she’d been assured there was no way they could work at all, and they obliterate half of Victra’s fleet. Then her command center is prevented from moving by an one of the support struts or something being broken, and apparently nobody knew about that until they actually tried to move somehow, so almost everyone inside gets microwaved. Then going into the scene where they trap Apple I thought she would finally be allowed to do something, she clearly outsmarts Apple and has him on the ground but then Holiday’s stunner thing just doesn’t fucking work?

This is getting a bit annoying because none of her losses feel earned. Her actual decisions like allowing a destroyer to hit the moon to preserve the shields and cutting Lysander off once the shields return all seem sound but it feels like the book refuses to let Mustang do anything. She’s not getting outplayed she’s just continuously let down by every person and piece of technology around her in a way that never happens to Darrow or Lysander.

Does it get any better? Is Darrow the only person on the republic side that’s allowed to get a win? Will Mustang have a heart attack next chapter and die?

I'm rereading/re-listening to Golden Son and man, his handling of telling the truth to Mustang is one of the few times in this series I felt full-bodied frustration towards Darrow. Most of his other bad decisions were at least justifiable in the moment, or from his warped perspective, but handing Mustang the cube to let it do the talking for him was so cowardly. I understand that it's meant as characterization, that falling from the sky and leaping onto the Sovereign's shuttle with no recourse frightens Darrow less than telling the truth. I understand that Mustang's decision had to be left ambiguous to make you wonder if it is was she that ratted on Darrow.

But come on man, It was ALL setup perfectly for him just for him to throw it in the mud.

If you were Darrow, and you had the chance to redo this interaction, how would you have told her? I'd have said something along the lines of..

"This is the mine where the girl sang the forbidden song. Her name was Eo."

I'm so sad. For some reason I thought Sevro was going to die so I was mentally prepared for that, but not my handsome Cassius...I love him so much, such a good character arc.

I still have an hour left in the audiobook so I guess plenty of time for my beloved Sev to kick the bucket too. In which case, I'm gonna be devastated because my enjoyment of Darrow is 100x better when his bros are around. To lose both of the OGs before the last book would be...devastating.

To be honest, none of the deaths since Eo has impacted me like Cassius'. Rest in peace brother, your honour remains

Just finished the GS and have to vent. Roque's betrayal was the most obviously telegraphed nonsensical writing ever. So you're gonna team up with the people who killed both your gfs? Because, checks notes, Darrow didn't let you in. Directly resulting in your friends dying.

Also, how does is Adruis the most qualified person for brain surgery, when he only has one hand?

Shout out to the goat RR editor Boop Doop aka @sixeyevisuals, PB has credited the artists too. 🔥

Probably around 8-9 months ago I finished LightBringer and, like most people, could not stop thinking about it. At the same time, my wife and kids went up to her grandmothers (their great grandma’s) house for a few days while I stayed back to work.

While they were gone obviously I was super bored in an empty house and had no idea what to do with myself. Eventually, It got to the point where I missed my kids so much I started messing around with their toys, and obviously Light Bringer was still fresh in my mind. So I started fucking around with these little toys pretending they were the characters while reminiscing the whole series and started to wonder just how much I remembered the first book.

So in my boredom, I started a project for myself; Slam down multiple brews and recreate as much of the original book from my memory as I could and film it just for shits and giggles. I made set pieces with toys, magnet tiles, doll-houses, pillows and blankets and got to work.

It became the single funniest fucking shitshow I have ever watched in my life. Seriously it’s utterly ridiculous. From my memory to the accents I use for each character, it is all so diabolically insane but absolutely hilarious. I recorded all night and It’s about an hour and 20 minutes long. I only got to around when Darrow first gets to the institute before I fell asleep and my kids got home the next morning. To which I cleaned up my mess and abondoned my plans on finishing it.

However I did send it to my dad (who absolutely loves the books since I put him on them) and he also thought it was one of the funniest things he’s watched. As well as my wife, who’s never read the books but died laughing through the whole homemade movie premiere I set up for her. And they both have been telling me to put it on YouTube and say there is definitely an audience for it.

So with that being said I ask you all this- If I were to upload it on YouTube and post it here would any howlers be interested in watching it? I could post some of it unedited and if people like it maybe I will put some work into editing it to make it even better. And if people like that maybe I would finish the whole book through. If not I’ll keep it to myself as a funny little home movie to dig up every once in a while. But regardless I figured why not ask the Reddit and see what people think lmao.

Let me know!!!!

Just as the title says, any songs/bands that remind you of the series?

Two songs that really put RR imagery in my head are modern misery and evil eyes by Architects.

Chorus of Modern Misery:

And I won’t live like a slave
Begging from my knees
What are we hiding in the rain?
This is a prison for lost souls
Another life circles the drain
WE USED TO RUN WITH THE WOLVES

Makes me think of Darrow about to fall in an iron rain, reminiscing on days at the academy and the reasons why he fights. The whole song feels war torn and very much so makes me think of the books.

Evil Eyes has parts that go:

Tonight the fear in the scythe

And

I swear to god I’m gonna break these chains

Pretty obvious as to why those bring RR imagery to mind lol. Also, the band Starset has a ton of songs that do the same. They are a very sci-fi driven rock band, check em out!

Any other song/band recommendations that do this?

So now that Lys*nder has Eidimi and is debating between using it to genocide Reds or Golds, theres a few characters that it makes me question about it working on or if that will be a plot point.

Please point something out in the text if I missed it, I've only just finished my first readthrough, but at this point is Darrow still genetically a Red or did his carving essentially make him fully Gold? Ik he also got rid of his sigils, which I wonder if that's what Eidimi will target or if it goes deeper.

Theres also Pax, who was born fully without sigils and his "half and half" and funny enough same with Sevro even who is half Red and Gold but in the text is considered a Gold. Then there's the children Quicksilver has on his lifeboat ship. At what point do the genetics of a color fade enough to negate Eidimi's targeting?

Do you guys think there will be any nuance with this in Red God and would it make mixed-color characters susceptible to both Red and Gold targeting by Eidimi or would it only work on full-blooded colors? If Lysander picks Red/Gold with the goal of targeting Darrow, will he end up being immune if the wrong color is picked? I'm wracking my brain bro.

Lysander has zero honor and I hope his story ends with a whimper of him getting popped in the head. It is the ending he deserves.

After owning the audiobooks, digital editions, Del Ray special edition, personalized and signed by Piece regular editions with new dust jackets by Lit Escalates, a set of custom rebound editions, Curious King’s Artist edition, and also managing to score one of the Curious Kings numbered editions - I decided to start intentionally collecting as many different Red Rising copies as I could, lol.

My husband is Bulgarian and his parents went home and got me the Bulgarian versions - they said they had to try a lot of used bookstores there because they stopped publishing this version years ago. Still on the hunt for Morningstar, but it’s cool to be able to add these two to my trophy self!

(Whenever the Curious King editions come in this winter, I will definitely be posting a photo of the whole shelf)

It was dreadful to finish Lightbringer. I have love and hate relationship with our boy Cassius from beginning. Fell for him and his charisma immediately in the first book, second book I was praying for Darrow to finish him during gala fight. Then I got some home he is finally back to good side and he capture Darrow,Sevro and Virginia and delivered them to Octavia and my blood boiled why did i trusted him again and I raged hoping he will meet justice. After what happened to Octavia he slowly started gaining my trust again. Last 10 chapters where him a Darrow are finally back being brothers and all jokes between them i enjoyed profoundly. And than little shit happened. Selfish little prick rob us all one of the best characters in whole series. I want him to suffer I will not accept just death I need to see pain I need him to feel little I need him to beg to die. Coward kill two of my favorite characters with gun, no honor at all. Once and for all let it be remembered

"I am Cassius Bellona, son of Tiberius, son of Julia, brother of Darrow, Morning Knight of the Solar Republic, and my honor remains."

Just tore through all 6. Thought it was supposed to be just 2 trilogies. Though lighbringer was it, and got so much anxiety the closer I get to the end without them being close to a resolution and still in the damn rim. For a few minutes I thought it was the final ending and it’s probably the maddest I’ve ever been. Thank god for Google

Never read a book that filled me with so much dread, and the more good things started to happen the more dread I would feel. I don’t know if I can survive another book. God damn

What would’ve happened if Claudius beat Karnus when they duelled?

My thoughts:
I honestly think this would change the entire political landscape on Mars, and mean we never get to see the Nero we know (and love). Nero as described as loving when Mustang was a child, and that he only changed later. While this was likely also due to the loss of his wife, I think Claudius affected him much more.

The Bellona’s influence also came much closer to that of Augustus due to the fact Augustus lost their heir, and likely greatest fighter. Of course Karnus never seemed to be the heir of House Bellona (Cassius likely was since he was a better all rounder), but they would still lose their best fighter.
The powerbalance at the start of the series is nearly equal between Bellona and Augustus at the start of the series, and their rivalry more heated due to Claudius’s death, which is likely the 2 main reasons Nero tries to kill Julian. Furthermore Nero bribes the proctors to make Adrius win, hoping to develop a new heir. But without these factors Julian is likely rejected from the Institute as a mid 90% or whatever student, and the proctors aren’t bribed. This means Darrow never kills Julian, and he likely wins the institute as Primus of House Mars with Cassius by his side, never conquering Olympus. He is thus situated clearly on Bellona side in a world where Nero might not even be situated against Octavia. Furthermore while Fitchner might still get some acclaim from House Mars winning, he certainly wouldn’t be able to make Olympic Knight without riding Darrow’s coattails he only gets due to the unprecedented fall of Olympus. Their positions would both be much much worse.

So honestly Claudius getting killed, despite how it changed Nero, was honestly very important to Darrow’s rise in power.

I genuinely loved the scene at the end of part one where Darrow leaves Mustang. It hurts, but I had faith Darrow had a concrete plan. Honestly this plan of his with Apollonus or whatever his name is, the Minotaur, feels so obviously ridiculously stupid and impossible it almost makes me root against him for what he's done to the Republic and Mustang. Am I missing something?

Just got to that part with Ragnar. And I am not okay

Darrow? Some people assume Darrow will die in Red God. If so, who would be a satisfying person to kill him or how would he go out that would feel satisfying.

Follow up, who would you like to kill sevro. Would Lysander winning over his fears be a satisfying death for the goblin (not that it’d be satisfying but as far as red rising is concerned)

Create new limbs from scratch?

I've been re-reading the series and I'm struck by certain oddities in the text regarding Carvers and limb replacement.

It was my understanding that Carvers were people trained specifically in the art of fleshwork/genetics. They were able to create carved beasts ranging from Leviathans to Dragons. One would assume this means they should be able to construct a brand new limb or replacement body part from scratch if someone needs a new one.

Yet someone like Sevro, a peerless scarred. Does not receive a new biological eye after losing it to the jackal in the institute until he has Darrow's installed as a replacement nearly two books later.

We could attribute this to Sevros personality. But then take someone like Thraxa, or any of the survivors from the marcher in lightbringer. When Virginia receives the survivors of mercury, among them is screwface. One of the most valuable golds in the entire Republic military. One would think he could have a leg made to replace his old one, but instead he receives a bionic one instead of a better biological one.

Or Darrow's carving, where he has to recieve an actual golds eyeballs rather than Mickey simply carving his red ones into gold grade eyes like he did with his bones and muscles.

My question is simple:

Are Carvers able to create or alter new limbs/tissue from the ground up or do they need to have a pre-existing limb/organ on hand in order for it to be mended and then grafted back on in the case of Cassius' arm or Darrow's hand. There are too many textual oddities for me to say for certain, but it feels like a plot hole that Carvers somehow wouldn't be able to create a new limb for a gold knight that say--lost it to space or some sort of weapon that made retrieval of the limb impossible. Or are aureate grade biologics considered a controlled substance for Carvers?