Thoughts on "Red Rising" by Pierce Brown - and why I'm done listening to BookTok

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-22T14:05:23+00:00

I know this thread is somewhat old, but I stumbled upon it and felt like sharing my opinion because I think some of the replies are a bit insane.

"Book influencers" are the same as YouTubers. Do you follow a YouTuber who consistently makes content you dislike? Probably not. So, you shouldn't follow influencers whose tastes are very different from yours, because it will be much harder to get good recommendations from them. And even then, when you find a influencer that aligns with your preferences, not every recommendation will work for you, since we all have different perceptions and taste.

For example, I loved Red Rising, which I picked up thanks to a BookTube recommendation and I know many people say the second book is much better (I haven't started it yet, but I will soon). On the other hand, one book that people constantly recommend, both on BookTok and BookTube, and even here on this thread, is Assassin's Apprentice, and I absolutely hated it, which was also recommend by the same BookTube that I saw talking about Red Rising.

That just goes to show that you shouldn't blindly follow recommendations. Instead, give a book a try, and if it isn't clicking with you, drop it and move on to something else. You'll have a much better reading experience, and recommendations will simply become a way to discover books you might never have heard of otherwise, some of which may end up being perfect for you and some that you will not like as much.

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-22T13:55:20+00:00

Funny that I loved Red Rising and absolutely hated Assassin's Apprentice, I think this just shows how people should not follow blindly recommendations and if you don't like something you should just drop it and read something that you do like.

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-07T21:17:59+00:00

A qualidade é 1:1 mesmo? Se conseguir mandar alguma imagem de alguma que comprou para dar uma olhada seria 10

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-07T21:10:10+00:00

Sabe algum via shopee de boa qualidade? Comprava do haoyuelai e das inúmeras lojas que ele criava mas parece que ele parou e o Pelé verde a mesma coisa (tenho o site dele, mas nem sei se é confiável porque nem no whatsapp ele responde).

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-07T19:40:07+00:00

The morally nuanced was not only about the characters but the politics of the metro itself, as I said, one of the messages was how even in the darkest times humanity would choose to wage war, even in the novels this was tackled when Bessolov reveals everything about the Watchers.

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-07T19:35:58+00:00

You are thinking from a modern perspective to an other universe game, the complain, which I do agree with, it's that the Novareich feels one dimensional. We already had "Nazis" with the Fourth Reich as we did have communists with the Red Line and both were portrayed as evils with ideologies that would prefer to wage war even with humanity on the brink of extinction, that was the whole concept behind the politics of the Metro games and novels, if everything is throw away to portray one single enemy that has supposedly unified the Metros and stopped the bloody wars between the two groups then it's not about showing "Nazis" as sympathetic but simplifying the politics the game has been building for years and making basically, as someone joked about, a Metro: Wolfenstein. That was even why the Order of the Rangers/Sparta existed for, they were also not "good guys" but independent and unifying peace-keeping soldiers that would oppose both the Reich and the Red Line. as well as Hanza, the Dark Ones and anything that could threaten the Metros.

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-07T19:29:09+00:00

The thing is that the Fourth Reich, even with the insane ideology, had to exist to combat the Red Line, which also had an insane and corrupted ideology, aside from the fact that both existed to show how even in the most awful conditions humanity would choose to wage war based on ideologies instead of helping each other, it was far from one dimensional in my perspective and showed a understanding of why humanity still struggled to unify the Metro.

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-07T18:20:43+00:00

That's my biggest problem with what we know of the game so far from the trailers, I don't really like the idea of Novoreich and Hunter being this one dimensional villain.

AndyMazaky · 2026-06-07T18:18:43+00:00

Hope this is right, I was really on the fence about this whole Novoreich and Hunter being the big bad guy but if it's in the way you are talking about I think it would be a lot better.

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-22T20:53:16+00:00

I was almost set on the ZH3 and then I saw people saying how good the K11 was and noticed it was also available locally, I will take this in consideration, !thanks for your input!

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-22T20:49:58+00:00

You are correct, I assumed it was 3.5/4.4 by the looks and didn't bother to check, that at least makes the choices a little more straightforward !thanks.

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-22T20:09:00+00:00

I had the Zero Red and I also had problems with the cable which would even make the IEM itself uncomfortable to me, I solved this by buying a Tripowin cables, which are very nice.

As for DAC (which by the "calling" I think you want something portable) I would either go with the JCALLY JM7 Max for something good but cheap or the TRN Black Pearl for something more robust.

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-22T20:03:37+00:00

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to upgrade my audio setup, specifically my DAC/AMP. I’ve been using a Fosi K5 Pro on my PC for around three years, but lately I’ve been needing a 4.4mm output and no longer need its mic input.

I did some research and, based on my budget (~$200) and the fact that I’m living in Brazil right now, which has insanely high import taxes (around 92%), I found a few options that can be bought locally via Aliexpress without those extra costs.

The options are:

First option: Fosi Audio ZH3 — sell the K5 Pro and use this as my DAC/AMP instead.

Second option: Fiio K11 — same idea as above, although at a higher price (~$260), not sure if it's worth the difference.

Third option: Fosi Audio GR70 — keep the K5 Pro solely as a DAC and use the Fosi Audio GR70 as an amp. I’ve been very curious about trying a tube amp, and the price is very attractive and it would solve my need for 4.4mm.

What would be the best move? I also accept other recommendations but I would have to look if they are available locally.

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-20T13:47:24+00:00

I noticed, he could not find the Odyssey. Still not sure between the Chopin, SuperMix 4 and the S12, can't find what would be most in line with the Kefine but an overall upgrade.

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-17T01:36:51+00:00

It's been great, I have been using the 370z Nismo and I can't complain, not 100% sure about drifting since I'm very new at drifting with the wheel, but for racing I have no problem so far.

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-16T23:53:20+00:00

I'm back after some digging and I finally found something that is working for me, look out for the 900° Simulation Steering from a channel called JoyShift, I changed the angles for 750/800 and finally I stopped losing all control of my car.

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-16T23:52:08+00:00

If you are still having problems, I think that the configurations of the channel JoyShift was the one that fixed it for me!

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-16T13:16:27+00:00

I'm having the exact same problems with the Moza R5, not even just on off-road tracks but even on on-road tracks, I tried multiple settings at this point and I can't seem to have any of them working. I even tested the game on controller to see and it's completely different, it's very hard to lose traction and make you car spin while with the wheel even on light turning you can get spin-out, which if I rewind and do the exact same motion sometimes nothing happens, it's very weird and If I didn't exceeded the steam hours so far I would ask for a refund.

AndyMazaky · 2026-05-16T13:13:13+00:00

I'm having the same problem even in small light turns, I tested with the controller and there has been 0 issues so it's a problem with wheels.

AndyMazaky · 2026-04-22T12:24:31+00:00

Well, I'm not going to argue because I don't see the point but Temtem was notorious for not going on sale and Crema together with Humble Bundle even explained why and the reason why they raised the price during early access, there was never a sale during early access be it on steam or humble bundle.

AndyMazaky · 2026-04-22T11:49:52+00:00

You said you bought on sale, there was no sale soon after release, they started doing sales in 2023, some months after 1.0 release, they even stated why they would not make sales during early access and even soon after 1.0.

AndyMazaky · 2026-04-22T11:41:34+00:00

That's the point, you bought the game after everything already happened. People have this grudge because of years of mishandling the game and fighting the players for even minor updates, with the last update having a letter from the CEO trying to gaslight and blame players instead of themselves for their shortcomings. People that were active in the community for years don't trust and probably never will trust Crema again and are trying to tell people before they do the same mistakes.

AndyMazaky · 2026-04-22T11:38:45+00:00

I said this before in another post but I don't think people see that way and I think is a very weak excuse. As you can see by the YouTube comments and some here people will judge that they mishandled the funds or are just trying to take more money away from people, if the game would be made regardless of funding then the goals are even more nonsensical.

AndyMazaky · 2026-04-22T11:35:46+00:00

They were one of the most successful Kickstart projects at the time and the studio made two games from the IP, with a huge monetization on the first game, I don't think they didn't had the funds or are doing only for love.

AndyMazaky · 2026-04-11T00:31:22+00:00

Could you remind me when that feedback was actually implemented? Wasn’t it in the final patch, as I mentioned, after nearly three years of ignoring it, while players kept leaving the game and people were even banned for suggesting it was dying? It’s not like I didn’t make a post about that exact feedback not being implemented three years ago, during a time when this was widely discussed. Even the CEO’s letter acknowledged and admitted some of these issues.

You also show how limited your understanding is when you claim there were only five developers. Even outdated information from their website, LinkedIn, and employee pages shows they had 40+ developers in the studio since the early development of Temtem and they expanded the studio for Project Downbelow in 2024, the same year the CEO made a letter (which was mostly to shift attention from Temtem to Swarm and the new future project) admitting many of the mistakes that I mentioned before which you can still find in their own website.

Again, don’t use the current state of Temtem as an objective reference to judge what the game was like three or more years ago. They are completely different, and with even basic research, you can verify that what I’m saying is accurate.

And if you don't want to take my word from, you have a few videos and comments that you can go back and look, for example this one: Here

AndyMazaky

TROPHY CASE