Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday – a weekly feature from The Broke and the Bookish, now hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl. Expect a new top ten list every week!
| Top Ten… Books with Red in the Title |
Having had little to no free time over the past week or so, my blog posts have taken something of a dive. However, having started preparations for next week’s post in which I will be exploring books with the colour black in their title (and seeing as this week is a freebie), I managed to pull together this post based on the colour red!
With books I’ve read, books I’ve reviewed and books that are firmly planted on my TBR, scroll down for this week’s Top Ten… Books with Red in the Title
| 1. |
Book One of the Book of the Ancestor
by Mark Lawrence
| My Thoughts |
Red Sister is a thrilling start to an action-packed and mesmerising series by Mark Lawrence. The world-building and magic system are unique and well-balanced, Nona and her fellow sisters are brilliant, if a little terrifying, and the plot takes a hold of you at the start and refuses to let go. Red Sister is most definitely one of my favourite reads of the past two years.
Rating
| Synopsis |
At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.
But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.
Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive…
| 2. |
Book One of The Traitor Son Cycle
by Miles Cameron
| My Thoughts |
The opening to The Traitor Son Cycle is an action-packed epic full of knights, mercenaries and nuns, with and inordinate number of battles, skirmishes and duels to see you through to the closing chapter. Don’t be fooled by a slow start, The Red Knight is a brilliant fantasy novel that will have me reaching for The Fell Sword in no time.
Rating
| Synopsis |
Twenty eight florins a month is a huge price to pay, for a man to stand between you and the Wild.
Twenty eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern’s jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders. But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men – or worse, a company of mercenaries – against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder.
It takes all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil to do it.
The Red Knight has all three, he has youth on his side, and he’s determined to turn a profit. So when he hires his company out to protect an Abbess and her nunnery, it’s just another job. The abby is rich, the nuns are pretty and the monster preying on them is nothing he can’t deal with.
Only it’s not just a job. It’s going to be a war…
| 3. |
Book One of the Red Rising Saga
by Pierce Brown
| My Thoughts |
Red Rising now needs little introduction. This stunning debut introduces us to Darrow as he begins a quest against a classist and racist ruling elite following generations of lies and oppression. This is an action-packed novel that had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end.
Rating
My review of Red Rising can be found here.
| Synopsis |
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars liveable for future generations.
Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.
But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.
Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilisation against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
| 4. |
Book One of the Mars Trilogy
by Kim Stanley Robinson
| My Thoughts |
Red Mars charts the colonisation of Mars in this descriptive science fiction epic. In a narrative where personal politics reign supreme, the petty dramas and squabbles acted out by numerous characters could cost the hundred the very success of the mission. With worldbuilding and description on an epic scale, Red Mars is a solid and science-heavy read.
Rating
My review of Red Mars can be found here.
| Synopsis |
For eons, sandstorms have swept the desolate landscape. For centuries, Mars has beckoned humans to conquer its hostile climate. Now, in 2026, a group of 100 colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.
John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers & Arkady Bogdanov lead a terraforming mission. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage & madness. For others it offers an opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. For the genetic alchemists, it presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life & death. The colonists orbit giant satellite mirrors to reflect light to the surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth. Massive tunnels, kilometers deep, will be drilled into the mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves & friendships will form & fall to pieces–for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.
Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope & ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in evolution, creating a world in its entirety. It shows a future, with both glory & tarnish, that awes with complexity & inspires with vision.
| 5. |
by Joe Abercrombie
| My Thoughts |
Red Country is a witty and gritty Abercrombie offering set in the same world as the First Law. Styled as a western fantasy, this stand-alone novel is full of brutal, bloody action, where humour and a heavy dose of sarcasm take the edge off the grim and the dark. Another brilliant offering from Abercrombie and another solid five stars!
Rating
| Synopsis |
They burned her home.
They stole her brother and sister.
But vengeance is following.
Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried.
Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into an alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust . . .
RED COUNTRY takes place in the same world as the First Law trilogy, Best Served Cold, and The Heroes. This novel also represents the return of Logen Ninefingers, one of Abercrombie’s most beloved characters.
| 6. |
Book Two of the Gentleman Bastard Series
by Scott Lynch
| My Thoughts |
Red Seas Under Red Skies is a fun and exciting sequel which continues the story of Locke and Jean as they once again attempt to pull of the impossible using their wits alone. Generally considered not quite as good as The Lies of Locke Lamora, the second in the Gentleman Bastard series is a thoroughly enjoyable romp full of humour, beautiful architecture and a whole host of liars, swindlers and cheats.
Rating
| Synopsis |
After a brutal battle with the underworld that nearly destroyed him, Locke Lamora and his trusted sidekick, Jean, fled the island city of their birth and landed on the exotic shores of Tal Verrar to nurse their wounds. But even at this westernmost edge of civilisation, they can’t rest for long—and they are soon back doing what they do best: stealing from the undeserving rich and pocketing the proceeds for themselves.
This time, however, they have targeted the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele – and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behaviour…and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house’s cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire. Brazenly undeterred, Locke and Jean have orchestrated an elaborate plan to lie, trick, and swindle their way up the nine floors…straight to Requin’s teeming vault. Under the cloak of false identities, they meticulously make their climb – until they are closer to the spoils than ever.
But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo’s secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that may not be enough.
| 7. |
Book One of The Murderbot Diaries
by Martha Wells
| My Thoughts |
The Murderbot Diaries are a new addition to my TBR and the first book, All Systems Red, has already made its way onto my Kindle after reading numerous glowing reviews.
Check out this review by Maddalena @ Space and Sorcery to find out more!
| Synopsis |
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
| 8. |
by Kim Stanley Robinson
| My Thoughts |
After reading Red Mars many moons ago, I have been eager to read more of Kim Stanley Robinson’s beautifully descriptive writing, and Red Moon, a political science-fiction thriller, may just fit the bill!
| Synopsis |
American Fred Fredericks is making his first trip, his purpose to install a communications system for China’s Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival he witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding.
It is also the first visit for celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu. He has contacts and influence, but he too will find that the moon can be a perilous place for any traveller.
Finally, there is Chan Qi. She is the daughter of the Minister of Finance, and without doubt a person of interest to those in power. She is on the moon for reasons of her own, but when she attempts to return to China, in secret, the events that unfold will change everything – on the moon, and on Earth.
| 9. |
Book Nine of the October Daye Series
by Seanan McGuire
| My Thoughts |
The October (or Toby) Daye series is a wonderful and fae urban fantasy by Seanan McGuire. Having read books one to four, I still have some way to go before A Red-Rose Chain but I’m sure it’ll be a magical journey along the way!
My review for Rosemary and Rue, Book One of the October Daye series, can be found here.
| Synopsis |
Things are looking up.
For the first time in what feels like years, October “Toby” Daye has been able to pause long enough to take a breath and look at her life—and she likes what she sees. She has friends. She has allies. She has a squire to train and a King of Cats to love, and maybe, just maybe, she can let her guard down for a change.
Or not. When Queen Windermere’s seneschal is elf-shot and thrown into an enchanted sleep by agents from the neighboring Kingdom of Silences, Toby finds herself in a role she never expected to play: that of a diplomat. She must travel to Portland, Oregon, to convince King Rhys of Silences not to go to war against the Mists. But nothing is that simple, and what October finds in Silences is worse than she would ever have imagined.#
How far will Toby go when lives are on the line, and when allies both old and new are threatened by a force she had never expected to face again? How much is October willing to give up, and how much is she willing to change? In Faerie, what’s past is never really gone.
It’s just waiting for an opportunity to pounce.
| 10. |
Book Three of The Long War
| My Thoughts |
The Red Prince is the third novel in The Long War series by A. J. Smith. Having now read several wonderful reviews for this series, it has been firmly attached to my TBR!
| Synopsis |
Between the desert plains of Karesia and the icy wastes of Ranen, there once lay the kingdom of Ro. Its lands were fertile. Its men and women were prosperous. Their god – the One – was satisfied.
But then the men of Ro grew unwatchful, and the armies of the south took their chance. Now the Seven Sisters rule the Kingdom, enslaving their people with sorcery of pleasure and blood. Soon, they will appoint a new god. The Long War rumbles on … but the Red Prince has yet to enter the field of battle.
ALL THAT WAS DEAD WILL RISE.
ALL THAT NOW LIVES WILL FALL..
Stay tuned for next week’s post:
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten… Books with Black in the Title
Which ‘Red’ book is your favourite?
If you would like to join in with Top Ten Tuesday, head on over to ThatArtsyReaderGirl and sign up!
Books by Proxy 
