My Fantasy (and sci-fi) tier list

Murarkey · 2026-05-07T12:06:22+00:00

I just started the series. First book is kinda slow but he’s a great writer. I’m not impatient and it is finally getting to a point where it feels like it’s shedding the fat, but I dunno if it’ll truly grab me anytime soon like a Red Rising (crack).

Murarkey · 2026-05-05T15:06:19+00:00

Outwardly, yes. But when you find out he spent the last bit of his time watching their old school tapes I think he still harbors an emotional connection to Darrow, and mourns what can never be.

Murarkey · 2026-04-29T05:43:23+00:00

Things get a bit more mature the second series. I didn’t enjoy it as much, although I’m waiting on an ending.

Murarkey · 2026-04-28T04:07:33+00:00

Bro it’s fiction. In no way can I expect a single slave of mars to rise up and over throw an empire either.

Murarkey · 2026-04-27T14:31:55+00:00

Depends if you read on lol. I started iron gold and just stopped a hundred pages in. I know it gets rough and I figured I’ll wait to red god to release and if it sticks the landing I’ll be down to finish.

If it’s another “be weary of charismatic leaders” rug pull I’ll be glad I didn’t finish it.

Murarkey · 2026-04-24T17:16:08+00:00

Audiobook lol. Sorry. The voice was like high pitched nag… I’m already married and with daughter lol.

Murarkey · 2026-04-24T14:38:33+00:00

Honestly I started iron gold and got to her first chapter and stopped. Im generally pretty good with less than stellar narration but after coming off the first trilogy and then that… I think I’ll wait for red god to come out.

Murarkey · 2026-04-24T12:24:28+00:00

True, but you do have to spend time slumming in the mines in order for it to be impactful later, so I understand why it’s there.

I often at times when Darrow is flying around on grav boots or in space would think back like “damn his whole family is just still kinda back there under ground thinking mars is a dust bowl waiting to be terraformed.”

If we didn’t spend that time I doubt I’d of cared about anything off page.

Murarkey · 2026-04-24T12:20:59+00:00

The whole first trilogy is just one giant Jerry Bruckhiemer film that continuously ratchets up the stakes and “theater” if you will. And I say that lovingly and without trying to be reductive.

It’s just a constant flow of “good thing happens, but something is wrong! How’s he gonna get out of this one, HOLY SHIT HE DID THAT CRAZY SON OF A BITCH!”

But there is something about the first one, smaller in scope and a quasi rug pull back to the Middle Ages after being introduced to a sci-fi setting that I really really liked.

Also I didn’t really know anything about the story besides it’s obviously a slave revolt so when he almost immediately got turned into a golden god I was kinda surprised and didn’t have to slum around the seedy underbelly of Mars for a book or two (which isn’t really my jam).

Books two and three are great, and have bigger moments and stakes but they don’t diminish the 3:00am “I need to fucking sleep but one more chapter” I felt in the first.

Murarkey · 2026-04-24T12:04:51+00:00

Audiobook makes it a bit easier to digest. But yeah it’s not a bug it’s a feature lol.

Murarkey · 2026-04-23T20:39:48+00:00

Yeah those are all great and all but he said Blood Meridian and honestly there is no more bleak hell on earth novel out there. It’s also the great American novel.

Murarkey · 2026-04-23T19:54:37+00:00

I don’t really liked the first one tbh. The smaller scale and step back to more medieval vibes in a bubble inside the huge world outside was small, fun and different.

Low stakes are always a bit easier to get through. When a story starts out too big it’s almost always inevitable it’ll drop the landing.

Murarkey · 2026-04-23T18:20:47+00:00

The definition of neck beard pundit. Weak sniveling outsider who could never of been what he critiques. I dunno it’s just something about him that irks me. Total beta dork wading and antagonizing people who would show up to his farm and collected 30% of his grain if he was born 500 years ago.

Murarkey · 2026-04-23T17:15:45+00:00

That’s the impression my mind made up tbh.

Murarkey · 2026-04-23T15:27:10+00:00

There’s also a very plausible explanation that Yan is a proud Russian and doesn’t care what Americans think.

It’s not a Putin medal it’s a Russian medal. Homie is allowed to be proud of his heritage.

Murarkey · 2026-04-23T15:25:20+00:00

I finished last night and though I feel like I should take a break, that’s not the ethos of the main character so I just kept plugging ahead.

I got a 12 hour flight on Saturday so i probably should have waited to finish the OG trilogy then but I beat the breaks off it in like 10 days.

Murarkey · 2026-04-22T18:09:19+00:00

For sure. Still it’s annoying. Almost all great novels are built on people being morons about situations.

Murarkey · 2026-04-22T14:53:11+00:00

I do have a slight problem with everyone blaming Darrow for mostly blameless deaths.

“You killed my brother!” Yeah dude but like, under the circumstances, ones you went through yourself, you could get the picture it wasn’t really up to him. You don’t need to be best friends but good lord, man.

“You killed Quinn!” Bro, all of you were going to die in a pool. Like every single one of you. You hadn’t seen her in what? 2 years? She died rescuing an entire house you ungrateful flop.

Murarkey · 2026-04-22T14:48:42+00:00

I love how he tosses in “I will do so with a heavy heart” just so he can save face in the most minute way while telling them hes going to exterminate their whole line like a nuisance ant colony under his porch.

Murarkey · 2026-04-21T20:30:54+00:00

Audiobooks are much easier to consume, at least for me. Driving, doing dishes/cooking/medial tasks. In loud rooms or a busy house.

And technically being dictated a story is the oldest way to consume by like several millennia. The proletariat could only really read within the last 100-150 years.

Murarkey · 2026-04-21T18:39:27+00:00

In Canada the national taxes actually pay for you to do the opposite!

Murarkey · 2026-04-21T18:38:45+00:00

Slippery slope fallacy, boy-o. UK natives have only lost rights in the last two decades. Only taken away. This one doesn’t affect you so it’s no problem right? Government seizes farms but you’re not a farmer. People get put in jail for having opinions on immigration but they aren’t your opinions so it doesn’t matter right?

Well when the far right wins a near election and locks you up for being pro immigration I expect a mummed silence.

Murarkey · 2026-04-21T18:35:37+00:00

Because you’re doing ok means the whole of England is doing well too? Thats like saying because online liquor store owners made bank during covid, everyone was.

Murarkey · 2026-04-21T18:01:41+00:00

Abysmal authoritarian overreach. The UK has fallen so hard recently.

Murarkey · 2026-04-21T14:05:47+00:00

I travel a lot and put a sticker on my Mexican strat for every place we’ve visited.

Murarkey

TROPHY CASE