Book Reviews: The Red Rising Trilogy

The Red Rising Trilogy, much like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, is really one long story spread across three books.  You can read none of them or all of them, but you cannot read one or two of them.  I thought the trilogy was exceptional, second only to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy from those I've read.  The books are emotionally moving -- at times I was exhilarated, angry, crushed, elated, moved, appalled, etc. Pick an emotion, and I probably felt it, strongly, at some point while reading these books.  They are part social commentary, and they are part inspirational.  One way to describe them is to take one part "The Hunger Games", one part "Game of Thrones", and one part "Star Wars (episode IV - VI)" and mix.  The overall trilogy gets a grade of A, but a few notes before closing:

1. The first book was very good.  It felt overly violent, but maybe that was necessary (I'm skeptical).  Grade: B+
2. The second book had the single worst ending of any book I've ever read.  Whoever made the tragic mistake of not moving the last 2 or 3 chapters to the start of book 3 should never be allowed to make such a decision again.  Grade: F-----
3. The third book saved the trilogy. Grade: A+
4. Obviously, the third book's grade counts more than the others.
5. The books are written first person, from the point of the protagonist, Darrow of Lycos.  However, it is a limited first person view because the reader does not always know what Darrow is thinking/doing.  This writing style is very effective for raising the emotional level of the books.  In retrospect, I found it both frustrating and interesting.