Did you love the "Red Rising" series? Buckle up, buttercup, this is the big boy version.

Here's the thing - three books into this 7 book series of 800+ page books - I'm starting to realize I just can't "love" a 5,600 page space opera. Dune was fantastic primarily because of it's prose and philosophical atmosphere. This lacks that - this is space ships and lazer swords and big battles and duels and intrigue. I guess I'm just not at that place in my life right now.

If I were interested in reading the above, this book would be fantastic. The prose is smart, servicable, and perfect in it's execution of those ideals. The battles are big - the plot thicks. I'm finally understanding why this series has so much praise. If you're interested in the above, this is the book in which you realize this series is for you.

I'm having a good time, now. I'm interested.

I hear the next one is dark AF, and I'm here for that. We'll see how it goes. But this will most likely be the last "soft" science fiction epic I read. This does not bend your brain, which is what I think I expect if you're going to go the scifi route in your novels. It's just big guns, big swords, big brains and "chosen one" tropes.

Well done Ruocchio, I get it.