August Science Fiction

Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
My babies all grown up with babies. Must protect.
I will protect Pax with literally everything in me. He soft boi.
Darrow is raising him right, even if he's never there. Like. His name means Peace. 
624 Pages

Star Bringer by Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft
It's not the Crave series. 😭
There was potential, but meh.
608 Pages

Morning Star by Pierce Brown

Darrow: We're getting old Sevro: ....we're 23 you idiot. Classic. I love the humor. 
I love Mustang. I love her so much. 

fgjkldfgjkldsfjkldfgdjkl;fgklds MUS.TANG. I. LOVE. HER. 
Also I'm cackling because of the scheming. I love the characters; the sense of humor. it's just. excellent. 
And I say again. I love Mustang. 
544 Pages

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

 *realizes that Red TV could totally be a song for this…or at least for the first book….
and my brain is hearing Fly by Nicki Minaj and See You Again by Wiz Khafia
Hey look at the racism.
Mustang is amazing. I love her. People make assumptions about her and like.. sigh
And of course it has more Hunger Games vibes.
I like...was expecting a thing to happen at the end and it didn't, and I feel like...There's probably a reason why it didn't
464 Pages

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

So this is the second book to make me cry today..and it's the beginning of the book. 
As soon as I found out there was a school on Mars:

So like....am I the only one who's like....this has Attack on Titan training camp energy...just me...cool. I'll just listen to the soundtrack with this...
Ohhhh some of these things are sketch and problematic
Ok so more than some of these things are problematic....
Did my brain compensate for the gruesomeness and trauma by saying "God, it's brutal out here" yes.
Alexa play Teenagers.
If you can get past the violence and like...despicable things that are happening to the characters--it slaps. 
It's like Hunger Games but with less direct killing, and more violence/cruelty against women and scheming and some teamwork involved.
416 Pages

Morning Star by Pierce Brown

Morning Star by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent finale to a brutal Sci-Fi trilogy.

Stop wasting time reading this review. Just go read the books.

Pages: 545

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Golden Son by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My brain explodes with awesome as I read these stories.

And terror.

Pierce Brown is like the Joss Whedon of YA Sci-Fi novels.

ME: This character is awesome!

PB:  *character dies*

ME: I love this character!

PB:  *character dies brutally*

ME:  THIS IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER OF ALL TIME!

PB:  *massacre ensues: character dies, as well as his best friend and sister*

ME:  I hate this guy. Worst character ever. So boring and blah. Whatevs.

PB:  YOU LIE. YOU LOVE HIM. *character dies, is resurrected, and DIES AGAIN*

Also, everyone is required to be happy in solidarity when the 2nd book in a series really delivers, because there's nothing quite so heartbreaking as reading book #2 and encountering. . . meh. This is as far from meh as a book can get.

Pages: 464

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This YA Sci-Fi is one of those books that packs so much wow, that I find myself internally questioning every 5 star rating I've ever given. I'd like a 6th star for this one, and a 7th star for the audiobook verson, which is fantastic!

The premise copied from Amazon: "Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet.Darrow - and Reds like him - are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity' s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society' s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies...even if it means he has to become one of them to do so."

Audiobook Narrator: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Pages: 416