Didn't finish; photo included to remind me not to try again

Red Rising
by Pierce Brown

I'm going to do myself a favor and give up on this. Give me credit for trying.

So many people gave it five stars, including JP whose advice I respect, that I felt it had to be worthwhile and didn't read any details about what I might be getting into. I put the first volume on reserve at the library, picked it up, and began reading.

From Page One I was finding the reading experience difficult due to the excessive number of made-up constructs he felt the need to clutter on the page. Helldiver--good; I liked it. Haemanthus--a little trickier, but after saying it out loud a couple of times, it felt familiar. Then bloodydamn; clawDrill; rockmelting; holster seat; scanCrew; headTalk; argh! Argh! Argh! I guess these words were supposed to be so evocative that I'd fall into his world headfirst and never look back.

But I'm not that quick on the uptake. Unfamiliar words slow me down; too many of them and the story starts to drag. When I got to the part where they went up to the planet surface and looked at the sky--so very Hunger Gamesey--I thought it was getting better.  But then I did what I should have at the start--went to the reviews.  Other than the many people with the five star reviews, there were a few who had pretty harsh things to say. Like "boring", "slow", "overly wordy", "kills off too many characters," "inexplicable personality swings of the main character." And no one mentioned the main reason I'm giving up on this--

The Red Rising Saga is up to six books already, each 400-500 pages long, and I don't see a end in sight. As Danny Glover says, I'm too old for this sh*t.