BOOK: Golden Son (2015)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Golden SonYear: 2015Author: Pierce BrownLength: 1,143 minutes / 19.05 hours After reading this book (or more accurately, listening to it), I'm on the edge of whether I'll continue this series. I thought Red Rising was OK for what seemed like a Hunger Games rip-off. Perhaps my problem with this one was trying to listen to it while caring for an infant. Or it was that it's been three years since I read the last book. Maybe the genre (or what's become of it) really doesn't appeal to me. At any rate, I had trouble engaging with this book at all. It didn't help that I only vaguely remembered the main character and what his goal was. This sequel didn't seem to have any of the recurring characters from the previous book, or at least it didn't pull from that cast of characters very much. I understood the need for a revolution against the higher classes via infiltration, but the motivation of the...
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BOOK: Red Rising (2014)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Red RisingYear: 2014Author: Pierce BrownLength: 400 pages It is difficult to review a book like Red Rising without noting the heavy comparisons to The Hunger Games. Perhaps this speaks to the strength of The Hunger Games’ format, but there are almost too many parallels to ignore. Dystopian class-separated society? Check. A skilled lower-class individual who defies the odds? Check. Violence and a romantic subplot? Check and check. About the only difference between the two is that Red Rising takes place on Mars and over a few years instead of a week or so. Of course, it’s hard to tell the timespan since important details always seem to be missing from the first-person narrative. If anything, I’d peg Red Rising as the gritty, over-violent, and over-sexualized version of The Hunger Games. If The Hunger Games appeals to girls and women, Red Rising should appeal to boys and men. A lot of the content in this book felt a bit over the top and...
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MOVIE: Parasite (2019)

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Parasite Year: 2019 Rating: R Length: 132 minutes / 2.20 hours If you haven’t discovered South Korean cinema yet, Parasite (2019) is a fantastic introduction for the uninitiated. Director Bong Joon-ho has been hard at work over the last 20 years, helping craft films that are thoughtful and horrifying. Movies like The Host (2006) and Snowpiercer (2013) give a sense of his artistic style. Parasite merely takes his ability to shed light on class conflict and molds it into a masterpiece that’s half heist-comedy, half horror-drama, and all suspense. If it weren’t for the somewhat lackluster ending, I’d give this film the full five stars it deserves. At the base of Parasite is a conflict between the impoverished and the rich. This theme could be easily applied to any country with a wide income disparity, which is probably why it works so well in the United States as well as in South Korea. To survive in these environments, the poor must do their best to...
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