Mustang’s Bitch @virginiaoflykos - Tumblr Blog

What to read after Light Bringer? (Series similar to Red Rising)

August 2023 update!

Red Rising is my favorite series of all time, and since I first read it, I have sought series and books similar in both spirit and execution. Some of these recs are books I haven’t read personally, but have often come up in discussions with other users!

1. The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

Status: ongoing, expected 10 books in total, 4/10 out at the moment

Book 1: The Way of Kings. The Way of Kings takes place on the world of Roshar, where war is constantly being waged on the Shattered Plains, and the Highprinces of Alethkar fight to avenge a king that died many moons ago.

2. The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone

Status: finished, 6/6 books out.

Book 1 (in publication order): Three Parts Dead. Comprised of 6 standalone books set in the same universe, the Craft Sequence tells the tales of the city of Alt Coulumb. The city came out of the God Wars with one of its gods intact, Kos the Everburning. In return for the worship of his people, Kos provides heat and steam power to the citizens of Alt Coulumb; he is also the hub of a vast network of power relationships with other gods and god-like beings across the planet. Oh, and he has just died. If he isn’t revived in some form by the turn of the new moon, the city will descend into chaos and the finances of the globe will take a severe hit.

3. Hierarchy by James Islington

Status: ongoing, 1/3 planned books out

Book 1: The Will of the many. The Will of the Many tells the story of Vis, a young orphan who is adopted by one of the sociopolitical elites of the Hierarchy. Vis is tasked with entering a prestigious magical academy with one goal – ascend the ranks, figure out what the other major branches of the government are doing, and report back. However, that isn’t quite as easy as Vis or anyone else thought it was going to be…

4. Suneater by Christopher Ruocchio

Status: ongoing, 5/7 books out

Book 1: Empire of Silence. Hadrian is a man doomed to universal infamy after ordering the destruction of a sun to commit an unforgivable act of genocide. Told as a chronicle written by an older Hadrian, Empire of Silence details his earlier adventures and serves as an introduction to the characters and the setting.

5. Dune by Frank Herbert

Status: completed, 6/6 books out

Book 1: Dune. Set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which various noble houses control planetary fiefs. It tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose family accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis. While the planet is an inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland, it is the only source of melange, or "spice", a drug that extends life and enhances mental abilities.

6. The Expanse by James S A Corey

Status: completed, 9/9 books out

Book 1: Leviathan wakes. Set hundreds of years in the future, after mankind has colonized the solar system. A hardened detective and a rogue ship's captain come together for what starts as a missing young woman and evolves into a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.

7. The First Law by Joe Abercrombie

Status: completed. 3 books in the original trilogy + 3 standalone books + 3 books in the newest trilogy

Book 1: The Blade Itself. The story follows the fortunes and misfortunes of bad people who do the right thing, good people who do the wrong thing, stupid people who do the stupid thing and, well, pretty much any combination of the above. Survival is no mean feat, and at the end of the day, dumb luck might be more of an asset than any amount of planning, skill, or noble intention.

8. Cradle by Will Wight

Status: completed, 12/12 books out

Book 1: Unsouled. Lindon is Unsouled, forbidden to learn the sacred arts of his clan. When faced with a looming fate he cannot ignore, he must rise beyond anything he's ever known...and forge his own Path

9. Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons (one PB’s favorites)

Status: completed, 4/4 books out

Book 1: Hyperion. The story weaves the interlocking tales of a diverse group of travelers sent on a pilgrimage to the Time Tombs on Hyperion. The travelers have been sent by the Church of the Final Atonement, alternately known as the Shrike Church, and the Hegemony (the government of the human star systems) to make a request of the Shrike. As they progress in their journey, each of the pilgrims tells their tale.

devilsroost

Get you a woman that’s both hard and soft on you

#guitarspear

madeofplasma

Did an animatic from the beginning of Red Rising chapter 20 for my portfolio. I had a lot of fun doing this and it reminded me how much I love storyboard!

virginiaoflykos

WHY HAS NO ONE DRAWN THIS SCENE YET??

filipinosamflynn

Nobody drew this yet? Damn fine, guess I'll do it (featuring Darrow & Sevro in the back).

virginiaoflykos

Finally!!

#pax au telemanus #red rising

virginiaoflykos

I don’t think I ever did it before, so here are @merwild ‘s red rising bookmarks.

virginiaoflykos

WHY HAS NO ONE DRAWN THIS SCENE YET??

virginiaoflykos

I used a random quote generator on RedRising characters. I don’t know why but they all fit perfectly 😂

#this thing had no right to be so funny

bloodydamnredrising

virginiaoflykos

WHY HAS NO ONE DRAWN THIS SCENE YET??

howlljenkins

The First Family of the Solar Republic

spagh-eddie

this year I am enjoying THEMED INKTOBER RAAAH. Not only am I doing CRINGETOBER but also it's RED RISING THEMED!!! MY MOST BELOVED BOOK SERIES!! Anyway, here's day 1: Heterochromia with my beautiful boy sevro.

#my boy

HAVE YOU READ THE WILL OF THE MANY I JUST FINISHED IT AND IM SCREAMING IM CRYING IM DYING I DEVOURED THAT AND NOW IM A HOLLOW HUSK

I haven’t yet, but it was on my tbr even before coming out. I chose to wait until the trilogy is finished: Islington takes usually 2/3 years to write sequels. I don’t have the patience to wait that much

#the will of the many

virginiaoflykos

More Dark Age memes!! (spoilers btw)

virginiaoflykos

I’m not sure if you like asks or not but!! I saw your post about how Darrow and the reaper are different people and tbh I love that idea, physically they ARNT, but to me it feels like there’s a switch in darrows head that switches him to the reaper..it’s almost like a trauma response for him?

Which is an extremely intriguing and fascinating idea!

SPOILERS FOR MORNING STAR

I feel like after Darrow was saved out of the jackals prison at the start of morning star he switched pretty much fully to his reaper persona, conscious or not! It feels like, up until then he had been fighting for his family and for his people, but then when he was stuck in that small room it traumatised him so much he had no other mental option than to become the reaper permanently, which lends to him ‘abandoning’ mustang and pax, I KNOW it was the right thing to do, but it goes against darrows pats want to be a farther and a husband, that is my long special interest rant over :)

Enjoy your morning/afternoon/evening

Darrow and Reaper are not two different people, because the Reaper isn’t a person. The Reaper is only a symbol, and a mask Darrow dons to fight his enemies. And he embraced the idea of the Reaper way before the table.

Let’s start from the beginning. In Red Rising, “The Reaper” was only a nickname given to Darrow by Virginia; a silly, mocking nickname bestowed on him only because - and Pierce said it himself - he liked the idea of a character being known as “The Reaper”. At that point, Reaper was only a name: it meant nothing to Darrow, and it meant nothing to us readers or the members of his House. Darrow is a person: he is compassionate, angry, determined, he has his highs and lows, he suffers and laughs and cries, he is full of rage. Reaper is just a cool title he got because of the circumstances.

And then, Darrow starts to like the idea. We can first see this with his famous (and one of my favorite) quote: “I am the Reaper and death is my shadow”. Here is when the myth of Reaper begins: not when Virginia calls him that mockingly, but when he embraces this idea of himself, that he can be lethal and chose whom deserves to die. This is a topic for another post, but Darrow choosing to be the Reaper is another beautiful anti-parallelism with Adrius. Adrius becomes the Jackal because Lilath likes the name, and it eventually stuck; he however loathed the title, a title that only his boneriders (which he hated as well!) adored and cherished.

With the Institute being broadcasted to all of the Peerless, the myth of the Reaper spread. The Reaper became Darrow’s face to the public, a scheming commander with a penchant for chaos. When he became a member of house Augustus, the media started to spin his myth. It is at this point that we see truly a divide between man and symbol. Darrow is loving, compassionate, gentle and loyal; the Reaper is fucking war machine, full of rage and determined only to destroy. It’s not a coincidence that the Holo spits bullshit like the fact that Darrow eats glass: to them, the Reaper is way more appealing than the reality of Darrow, and so they constantly double down to make him look like a monster. I think it was at this point that Darrow started to use the Reaper as a mask: he could be Darrow in private and don the Reaper as a cloak, a shield, when confronting his enemies. When Darrow challenges Cassius at the Gala, Mustang asks him straight up if he was insane. Because that wasn’t truly Darrow, he was wearing the his bloody mask of rage, he had gone full Reaper. When Darrow cut Cassius’s arm, he was on the verge of decapitating him, but Mustang stopped him on his tracks. And what did she say when he halted? “Here is the real you”. Because the bloodthirsty monster, the Reaper, was only a mask.

As you can see, The Reaper was an part of Darrow way before Morning Star. On the contrary, I think Morning Star is the time when Darrow fully understood the ravine between himself and his Reaper persona. In MS, the Reaper of Mars is a literal god: the red who defied gold, the red who bested gold and died for his cause. The Reaper was a myth had inspired millions to join the Sons, to the point even Sevro was pissed when Darrow came back as only Darrow, not the Reaper. There is a direct quote from the book I posted a while ago about this moment. Darrow had abandoned the Reaper in the table, and only used it again when needed. The capture of the Colussus is truly the moment when Darrow became the Reaper again. On Phobos, he used his eloquence to inspire millions. On the Colossus, he used his rage and cruel ingenuity to destroy on of the brightest strategists alive. It is only on the Colossus that Darrow asks Eo to avert her eyes, because the Reaper is coming. And he would not spare anyone.

Ten years of war undoubtedly required him to be the Reaper more than Darrow, and slowly he started to lose himself. In IG, Darrow goes full Reaper, or as Sevro said, full Iron Gold to ensure a future for his family and Republic. However, even if Darrow wants desperately to live with his family, it was not his rage that lead him to Mercury, it was his duty.

I hope more answer was pertinent to the question. I really liked responding but I fear I might have gone off on a tangent!

sad-endings-suck

pierce brown really did end the first red rising trilogy with the female love interest becoming the new ultimate leader and his male protagonist becoming what is essentially her trophy husband, and honestly he’s so real for that.

sad-endings-suck