I recently saw a post on red rising Reddit asking what do you think are some of the strengths and weakness of Pierce brown as a writer. And I thought I would ask the same here about this serie to see what the community thinks .
I’ll go first : I think Azalea writes serendipity so well the way the mythos of the raven queen develops has been a blast to read. The overall world building is really well done (even if the world still seems rather small but the main city is full of life) as well as the magic system.
on the weaker side I feel like powerscaling might be an issue. For instance the main joke is that S is not as competent as her reputation implies yet she does in fact punch above her weight class on many occasions and gets away with it overall scot free. That puts into question the skills and competence of everyone else in the story. Which leads to the second small critique : are there true stakes to all the risks S is taking ? Because, I cannot think of a true defeat that S took, that is an event that is not a secret boon for the protagonist be it in knowledge or personal power, since the end of book 2.
Tell me what you think of these as well as your own thoughts.
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I really enjoy dramatic irony, which is a large part of the story. It’s amusing when Siobhan is struggling to get by, while everyone else has a completely different understanding of the situation.
It is interesting reading about a world with monsters, where monster-fighting is such a non-issue. Siobhan’s enemies are all other people or Aberrants. And the inevitable downfall of humanity, I suppose. I like how so many problems are dealt with through social power instead of pure force.
I’ve read stories with OP main characters that go overboard on ‘this person is Special™’, but Siobhan’s perspective shows enough of a struggle, and build on known worldbuilding, that the wins in PGTS don’t feel contrived or inevitable. It also helps that some of Siobhan’s advantages are mysteries in and of themselves (and that I enjoy a non-overboard amount of ‘this person is Special™’).
I can see what you mean about powerscaling. There is surprisingly little losing for someone who’s so consistently outmatched. Also, it does feel a little ridiculous reading Lacer pondering the folly of making assumptions, then making assumptions about The Raven Queen 2 pages later.
In his defense, ‘this is all an elaborate hoax’ seems implausible from the outside when Siobhan is demonstrating genuinely unprecedented abilities. Also in his defense, it’s required for the plot. In the plot’s defense, it’s more fun this way.
I don’t think Siobhan will ever completely fail, and I don’t want her to. But her fight with Lacer shows a loss that definitely makes her life harder. Siobhan fears Lacer now, but Sebastien shouldn’t fear him, so she has to hide that fear or risk triggering another fight. I could see other secret reveals causing similar complications in the future.