So. Eon from Buddies Books and Baubles convinced me to pick this up again by writing the following in his review of Red Rising: 
 "If you have not read this book yet, drop everything and start reading it now. You can thank me after. (Unless you are reading a Brandon Sanderson book in which case you should read this after.)" 
 Unless you are reading a Brandon Sanderson book!!! 
 I guess my 
 is in place, Eon. 
 I was not reading a Sanderson book at that time, so I finished Red Rising instead and it blew my mind. 
 I love when plot manages to surprise me, when characters make me feel strongly about them, when a book just blows my mind again and again and when it is full of difficult decisions for a hero. 
 Red Rising did all of the above for me, and it is books like this that make me love reading. 
 The writing evolved so much from the first to the last page that I checked twice if I was still reading one and the same book. 
 The side characters were fantastic, Sevro and Mustang deserve special mention here. 
 Recommended to everyone. 
 Just go read this book now, would you? 
 Btw, I was strongly advised against reading the second part of this trilogy, Golden Son, before being able to follow up straight with Morning Star because of - I understood something like it was mental torture? 
 This was a buddy read with the awesome people at Buddies Books and Baubles.