Red Rising – Pierce Brown – Episode 22
The Buddies read (rising) an all-time favorite, as the they launch themselves into the gory damn world of Red Rising, by Pierce Brown. They are joined by good buddy Mikko (@mikko_mcdonald) and discuss this being the first book he’s EVER read cover to cover. Red Rising combines all of the buddies favorite elements of Braveheart and Hunger Games, which is why it was crowned the #1 book by Dylan, Keith (and Mikko by default), which book can supplant it?
Intro: (0:00-2:53)
Favorite Scene (2:54-7:51)
Stock Up/Down w/ Mikko (7:52-46:44 )
Favorite Character (46:45-50:12)
Love/Hate (50:13-1:02:08)
Casting the Movie (1:02:09-1:06:21)
Conclusion (1:06:22-1:08:30)
Next Book: PROJECT HAIL MARY by ANDY WEIR
Transcript for SEO Purposes 🙂
All right. Welcome to Buddy Book Club. I’m Dylan here with the Primus of the Pod. Keith, what’s up, Goodman? How are we doing? Fucking love this book. We’re breaking down some bestsellers, and this week we’ll be discussing Piercebrown’s 2014 Dystopian science fiction novel. The book is Red Rising. If you like to recommend a book for us to read or to reach out to us about this episode or any past episodes, you can visit our website, Buddybookclub.com or sign to our DMs on Twitter or Instagram. Buddy Book Club podcast you can listen to on itunes and Spotify, so please download and subscribe. Let’s get into Red Rising Keith. Red Rising is. Well, let’s just start off with it as a great opening line. All Men are not created Equal just peeled right off. What is it, the Declaration of Independence? Yeah, that sounds right. As an American, I should probably know that. Except instead of All Men are created equal, flip the script in a reverse card. All Men are not created equal. Red Rising, which is set on Mars, follows 16 year old Darrow, son of Dale. I like a good son of it reminds me of Lord of the Rings. Darrow, son of Dale, the Hell Diver of Lycos, who, after the death of his wife, goes on a quest to infiltrate the ruling class and bring the entire society down from within. I can give you my brief overview as well. By the way, I wrote one down because I liked yours, but I wanted to add my two cent. Oh, please add three. It’s a young adult book that delves into lighthearted topics of slavery, horrific violence, the deprivative of war, and the importance of using upper class slang words. It’s Raveheart, plus 2000 years, plus Hunger Games. That’s how I would describe it. That’s hilarious, because I have written down Hunger Games plus Braveheart. Okay, I appreciate you doing that. A little light hearted one, because I didn’t have a light hearted summary. I just went right for the meat. We’ve got a lot of categories to get through. We get some stock ups sucked down, which we’ll have a guest on for our buddy. Miko is going to be great. We get some love hate, Castle movie, favorite character, all that good stuff. But before we get into that, we like to do a libation, which we like to enjoy during the podcast. And you guys should hopefully enjoy one as well. We could drink wine, but that’s for the bloody damn gold. I’m thinking something more along the lines of Swell, which is the drink of the Red, specifically the Lambda clan. They say it’s fermented from a bacteria, so I imagine this is like moonshine or whatever they drink in the Matrix. But since I don’t want to go blind, I’m going to spin it back in the summer and have a white cloth tea. So you, I think, have like twelve different drinks, including water, coffee, and a Bushlight. So Congratulations. Bushlight, raspberry tea, coffee and water. There we go. Favorite scene. We’ve been through a lot of books that lately. I feel like that don’t have specific scenes that are enjoyable or the favorite. They all kind of like meld together. This is a cinematic book. It’s almost written, like it’s ready to get put in the can. So I assume we’re going to have some good favorite scenes here. What did you have? Yes, I had a lot from the Riddle at the beginning. I love riddles. Just love riddles to get into any clan. What was the Riddle? It’s was the two pieces of paper and said if you select the right one, you’ll get in. If you don’t eat the piece of paper, forking the road picking up. Yeah, exactly. I love any Riddle that’s, like, you can’t get in here unless you solve this puzzle or Riddle to the reveal the actual world to the one be one death match to Storming Olympus. I think the book just took you on tons of roller coasters. A lot of good scenes. But my favorite was the handling of the whipping and how he basically got whipped himself, and he was like, I am the army, so therefore, anyone does anything bad. Basically, I did something bad. I fucking loved that. He basically put in the prisoner’s dilemma and somehow solved it. Just was like, yeah, this is the answer to that equation. I remember reading that the first time being like, what would I do as a leader? I had no idea. Even the second time reading it, I was like, oh, shit, that’s still. Yeah, well, to be clear, because you said reading it again, this is the second time we both read this book. I read it. I think last year it was one of the best books I read. I’ve been waiting to do this on the pod, and it had reached that perfect pinnacle for a second read where I kind of knew the beats but forgot all of the detail within that because just like any book I read, I immediately forget it, of course. So I’m glad we hit it now because I really enjoyed it the second time around. My favorite scene, though, I had a few as well. The initial assault on Minerva, that was great because I feel like up until that point, we didn’t get a lot of action. It was more like world building and setting the stage and then moving the pieces on the board. It was almost like in StarCraft, once you build up your forces and get to finally execute the plan you’ve been working for. Did you ever play, like, StarCraft or. Oh, yeah, red alert. Red alert. That’s the other one I was thinking of. Command and conquers. Yeah, those are freaking great. You just get all the dogs in your dog kennel and you just unleash them on the Ruskies. It’s great. So I like that one. I also liked. This is pretty short, but the Severo Darrow reunion several has one eye now, and Darrow hasn’t seen them in so long. He gives Darrow back his sling blade, which is. It’s like Elrond giving Aragorn on Dural in Lord of the Rings. It was just like, that’s the part. It’s almost part of him that Slingblade. So when he kind of unfurls it and gives it back to him, he was like, oh, yeah, let’s go, let’s go. And the whole Jackal chapter, we spend most of the book just, like, hearing whispers of the Jackal. And then finally the Jackal is revealed. But it’s in a really interesting way where he was in disguise. It was all a ruse. Like the whole drinking of the wine stuff, Darrow’s whole house or his whole army just, like, gets up off the floor, which I don’t think a bunch of 17 year old kids are going to be able to fake drunk, but I’m allowing myself to suspend disbelief because maybe the other kids wait 1 second. The last pod, or maybe two pods ago, you said they used to drink one or two beers and then pretend you were hammered. So what are you talking about? I did. I got to call you out here. Remember you said you used to split a 30 between eight guys or ten guys and then go meet up with girls? And you were like, oh, I’m hammered? Yeah. I mean, we’re talking like, high school, but yeah, I guess maybe that’s true. Yeah. That’s the auditor comes out here. Come on. But in that chapter, we also get some 127 Hours action with the arms sawing off and then culminates with PAX dying. Like, what the fuck? That hurt. Yes, that one did hurt. I forgot he died. I was like, oh, and then PAX. And then the sequels, I remember. And then great. And then I was like, Wait a second. What? He dies? Yeah. So we didn’t mention that this is part of a three book series, but I also forgot that PAX died and was like, Wait, isn’t PAX the front of his force in the second book? But I’d be like, the crazy Irishman dying in Braveheart. It’s Moin Island. Yeah, Ireland. It’s Moin. All right, Brownie, you’re talking crazy. Also, when he throws that sword. That’s such a great scene in Braveheart. Fuck. I got to rewatch that movie. All right. I think that pretty much covers it. I mean, there’s so many good scenes you could pick out of, but how is this not a movie? That’s really what it comes down. It’s written like a movie. It’s amazing. Yeah. I mean, more importantly, why isn’t it a series? If it was a movie, I feel like you wouldn’t be able to cover it. Yeah, I guess that’s true. It should be a Game of Thrones series. We’re going to jump into some stock up. Stock down. But for this section, we have a special guest, our buddy Miko, who I think is on. And I also think this was the first book he ever read. So before we get into Stuck Down, I would really like to ask him about that. Thanks for having me. I love all things BBC. Yeah. Welcome to the Buddy Book Club. Another buddy. Love to have you. So let’s clear it up. Is this the first book you ever read? I was confused. I would like to declare exclusively here for the first time that up until this book, I have never read a book cover to cover. How did you get their high school? Listen, I’d like to give a shout out to my mother if she’s listening. I’m really sorry for all the times I lied to you about those book reports. Summer reading assignments. I never did them. You guys reviewed Hatchet. I remember the cover of that book, and I remember never finishing it. So sorry, mom. Wow. I let you down. But then you read this book in like three days. How do you possibly do that? Well, I know how to read, if that’s what you’re asking. Thanks, Keith. Well, first off, speaking for one of us here, I don’t. So let’s not start pointing fingers here. I see how you subtly work that question in without actually asking it. But no. Yeah, it was a page Turner. For the first time in my life, I was actively sitting there with my wife while she watched TV and I was reading a book. It was mind blowing. Wow. You’d love to see that. Yes. Really? I’m glad we’re influencing people somehow, even one. It starts. It’s crazy. I now understand how high and mighty those people feel when they say, I don’t even own a TV. You know, those people. I feel like that. And learn this line. Also, the book was better. Yeah. That’s important. Every time, no matter what it is, you say that and you might have the opportunity with this book. So I’m excited for when this eventually comes out in some sort of media format. And you can just say, no, it was good, but the book was better. So your bookcase at home now has like one book in it. Yeah. It’s a world saddest bookcase. Wonderful. Okay, well, thanks for joining us. And specifically for stock up, stock down. I have no idea where you’re going to go with this, and that’s kind of the point of stock up, stock down. We’re buying and selling stocks that may or may not have anything to do with the book, and it can really mean anything at all. So I guess, Keith, you kick it off to give a vibe and then migrate. You can go from there for me. Pierce Brown, the author stock up here at the Buddy Book Club. We don’t believe in objectifying women. So, Miko, I know you’re on here to do that, and I just want to stay up front. We’re not about that here, so just leave at the door. However, I’ll just say that now we are about objectifying men. And let me tell you about Pierce Brown. I looked him up on Instagram just so I was going to see if maybe he’d. Come on. This dude is a dreamboat, an absolute stunt. So take your time right now. Look him up. This dude is gorgeous. But not objectifying. Them, but objectifying. But I just wanted to say that stock up to him. And it’s also bullshit that if you’re a good writer, you can actually be attractive. That’s bullshit. You should look kind of like George R. R. Martin. No offense there. Or, like, a nerd, right? No. Pierce Brown looks like Dennis from all the Sunny, but he has pictures on IG of him in model poses. I was like, oh, it must be the wrong guy. So I kept on looking like, Wait a second, this is actually him. What’s going on? Reminds me of Sam Hunt, the country artist. He’s got a great voice. Catchy singer voice. But he’s also attractive, tall, and was a D one quarterback. You can’t have all those things. It’s bullshit. So stock up. Pierce Brown. But I’m also pissed. So that’s how I’m going to start. He’s pretty dreamy. I’m not going to lie Myco with Jeffrey stock up. I wanted to start off with stock up. Yeah, I think I only have one stock down. So most of my stock ups, I was in a positive mindset when I read this book, when I wrote down my stocks. Stock up. Number one, gravity. Oh, I don’t know if you guys know this about me, but I grew up on Earth, and here on Earth, gravity is literally holding you down, right? You could fall. You get hurt, fall out of the tree, climbing as a kid, whatever. But turns out, thanks to gravity, I would be jacked on other planets. And weren’t they operating at, like, .3 gravity or something like that? Exactly. So they’re, like, jumping, throwing boulders around and doing all this shit. And if we stepped on to Mars, we would have fucking crushed it in that Institute. I mean, I just stock up on gravity. It’s underrated. I think I’d be a pink. I think I’d be a pink. You know what? Fair point. Touche you’d be a pink. And quick shout out to Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered gravity even though he died. Is that right? Tough. Really an Fu to Isaac, because the gravity he found just doesn’t matter because we’re on Mars now. And also virginity. Not a good look. Just ricochet shots left and right at Isaac to use my first stock up is going to be dancing. It used to be people would know dances like the Charleston. And people would be like, oh, of course, everyone waltzes. Everyone knows how to waltz. 12312 three. Yeah, everyone knows that. But nowadays, dancing is like, for Tik Tok videos. It’s a flash in the pan kind of thing. But who would have thought that’s that dancing actually prepares you for war? Similar to Stanley Ipkiss when he puts on the mask and is able to Dodge bullets and shake the moroccas? I mean, it’s a stock that’s trading high on the Brazilian stock market since they invented Cappu era. But outside of that, we have no dance fighting. And it turns out that Darrow, he knows this ancient dance from his uncle. And because of that, he’s a superior fighter than everyone else. Doesn’t matter about all the body modifications. He’s like, no, I learned this cool dance, so now I can fight. So dancing Stock up. I had the exact same thing I had dancing and singing Stock Up. But I also gave a caveat there that the prerequisite for those to be stock up is six to ten years deep. But that’s just me. But I like that one. I liked it a lot. You cut rugs at weddings, Keith. I have two dances. The chop it up, which is just me not moving anything other than my hands and chopping up and down. That’s the chop it up or the basketball. That’s like if you’re in a dance circle and you’re supposed to do it, everyone’s doing their own dance bottle thing. Yeah. If you have that, I go in there and I pretend I’m bouncing a basketball that I start spinning it and then headed off to someone. It’s super cringy. What about you guys? Wait, what you’ve seen? It’s not cringe. I’m actually getting blowback or mines. Back to the first bar Mitz that I went to where Scottsky shout out to Scott. Did the invisible ball blowing up and passing around thing. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that, but it was quite basically like the invisible basketball. But then when you pick it up, you like, fake blow it up. It’s like half mime, half dancing. It was extremely uncomfortable. I mean, we’re doing bar mitzvah shout outs. Shout out to Jonathan Rosenberg. First bar mitzvah I went to, I don’t remember them doing that, even though they had great DJs. My dance move is a lot on the shoulders, and it’s just jumping. A lot of jumping shoulders and jumping, too, especially as a large man. And by large, I mean tall, not rotated. Yeah, it’s fine, but jumping is. You could scare some people off the dance floor. Yeah, it separates the boys from the men on the dance floor, for sure. And that’s what I’m looking to do. When I go to weddings, you wake up the next day and have a calf workout. Your calves are burning because that’s how you know you hit the dancer hard. My feet are torched, especially in those Brown leather shoes. The blistes totally worth it, though. I will say the women have really figured that out when it comes to dancing, how they’ll bring, like, flats as well as their heels for the dance floor. It’s really genius. And I started just bringing tennis shoes to weddings and wearing tennis shoes. After the dinner is over, no one noticed. Everyone’s beer is deep, no one notices, no one cares. And you’re just way more comfortable. Where do you bring them? Like, how do you store them? I just tie them to my belt, and then I walk around like that, like a little satchel. I have tennis shoes. No, I mean, it depends what kind of wedding situation you’re at. But if you can get into the reception early, you just throw them under the table or just put them somewhere. No one’s looking at some shoes that are in a corner. Just put them somewhere. And if someone asks you, why are you carrying shoes around? Oh, I’m but to carry up with a dance part. They’re like, nice. The man’s at a five star hotel and a restaurant and carrying around his sweaty gym shoes like, oh, where do I put these guys? I was on the table. Don’t worry about it. Yeah, I bring gym shorts, too. And I cut off. No big deal. Keith, what else do you have for stock up? I already alluded to this, but stock up young adult books. So I think in general, and I’m in a Reddit young adult group. Careful with that group. Book group. Okay. I think it gets a bad rap. It’s basically about angsty, teenagers complaining, and basically love triangles and romance novels. That’s basically what people think of A-Y-A. But this book is considered Y a. And we get brutal hand to hand combat and murders. We got rape, torture, Gore, Cory, damn stabbing eyes out to kill someone sowing off limbs. If this is Ya, I’m in Ya all day. I don’t really get how this gets defined as that, but this is definitely a huge stock up and win for the Ya section. Yeah, it’s almost like Y Isha if someone had got this in middle school or something, I feel like a teacher would find it and read it and be like, no, this should go in the forbidden book section or something like that. Shout out Harry Potter. But yeah, this is a little too much for ya. But I agree. This is almost a spy in the Ya section. And if I happen to find this, I’d be like, oh, my God. Yes. Finally, something that is more interesting than Katniss. Oh, PETA love you. Yeah. Isn’t there, like, always protests, like every year somewhere in the Bible belt of Catcher in the Rye or some book like that. I feel like this is way worse. Yeah, we do those on the weekends. Have you not been coming to this? Yes, we’re like Westborough Baptist Church people. You didn’t know that got you. I must have missed that invite. No, but I do remember in 6th grade when the Harry Potter thing was around people like, oh, have you read Harry Potter? Yet. If you’re in Harry Potter, the backlash with Christian groups because of the wizardry and whatnot Miko. What else do you have for stock up? Stock up. Reading. Reading is pretty cool. Guys, I don’t know about you. I mean this podcast obviously is any evidence. You guys enjoy a good book. And apologies again to my mother. We love you, mom. I finally came back to the old reading is cool at age 30. I skipped out on the first 30 years. But yeah, it’s cool. I will buy that stock. I feel like these trends are cyclical where TV and movies took over and maybe now those are dipping and now books are going to make a comeback and books are going to be cool. So I’m just saying buy it early while paper and everything is down and we’re going green or whatever and get a Kindle listen to audiobooks. Buy Bookstock now because it’s going to be the next game. Stop Barnes and Noble. We’re coming for you. Start open brick and mortars. Yeah. I’m actually going to be moving into my new house in less than two weeks and I have a giant fireplace and I’m very excited to sit in front of it in a big comfortable leather chair and read books. It’s going to be great. So you were going to burn books for a second there. Now you said that you’re hooked. It took you three days to read The Red Rising. What’s the next book now? I don’t know. So I’m this way with music. I love music but I don’t go out and seek new things. I’m horrible at like learning whatever the new song is and new artist. Yada yada. I need somebody to tell me. So I think I will turn to the BBC. I’m going to look the BBC right in the eye and ask what do I do? What’s next for me in the yard? I would suggest going to Buddy Book Club.com and seeing what we’ve read. I think you would be a big fan of City of Thieves, written by Bendioff. Is that who did it? David Benioff? Yeah, I think so. The showrunner for Game of Thrones. He wrote a pretty interesting novel there. Good quick read too. Page Turner, I think. At least it was an earbud Turner. So my next stock up is grip strength. So Darrow goes through an entire body transformation. But for some reason it’s his grip strength that sets him apart, even though he’s had that since he was a child. Like becoming a red or being a red. Being a hell diver on Lycos gave him incredible grip strength, which also in the future if you’re operating heavy machinery, I feel like it wouldn’t have a lot of recoil or like you wouldn’t have to be super jacked. Like I don’t remember Ben Affleck on Armageddon having these giant hands like Mason hands, but irregardless. He has incredible grip strength. And as a society I feel like we’ve forgotten about the importance of grip strength. Remember how everyone had those grip strengtheners? That was just a thing that everyone had when you were growing up. If you had no other weights, you had those metal with rubber grip strengtheners, right. No one has those anymore. And I think that the grip strength stock used to be, oh, give someone a real strong handshake. And I think maybe because of the men becoming a little bit softer, it’s like you don’t have to squeeze someone else’s hand, which I’m appreciative. Nothing is worse than when someone just tries to squeeze your hand to that. It’s like, cool, dude. You got good grip strength. But maybe I’m wrong. Grip strength. I think the stocks back up. Darrell approved it. I’m buying. I like that. Yeah, that’s a good one. I lived in an apartment building with a Fijian family on the floor that I lived on. And when I tell you that this man’s hands were literally ballpark Frank fingers, the biggest hands I’ve ever seen, whatever Shaq has, but, like, thick. That’s what I was imagining. Darrow’s hands looking like just some thick meaty ballpark Frank fingers. So Fijian are people from France, right? Just for our listeners, yes. They border Germany, so they are their neighbors. Keep what else you have to stock up. Plastic surgery. Stock up. I just picture that scene where he’s getting chopped up is basically the Captain America scene where he’s like, this puny dude, and then all of a sudden he comes out like this Jack, muscular guy just ready to go to war. That’s what kind of. I assume the one thing, though, that I did have an issue with is that they’re like 1000 years in the future improving every single thing. Can they just do brain surgery at this point to make people smarter? They did, though. They had brain tools they were using. I mean, it was like stuff that they were taking. And then also you do that along with brain games to increase your knowledge, things. I think that was part of the book. Right, Miko? It is. I know they’re doing sleeping stuff, but, I mean, I was thinking the other way around is like making the Reds be subservient, doing brain surgery on that. Making people dumber. Oh, very Hitler review. Yeah. All right. Not the first time. Even compared to Hitler, you and the Kellogg family and Hitler can all get together and do brain surgery on the other people and enslave them. Well, it’s funny you say that, because I had body modification as one of my stock ups, because, yes, the stock is already up in 2022. We have lip fillers, we got Botox, we got calf implants. We got liposuction. We even have the Lizard Man. And if you don’t know who that is, you just Google them. But we’re talking about the ability for full body and brain transformation that they have here. Mickey the cutter. It’s funny you said Captain America because I was thinking more about Minority Report. When they do the I switch thing, they cut the guy’s eyes out, put eyes in it’s like that on steroids. Literally. They give our boy Darrow HGH and steroids to get all jacked up along with the body modification. It feels like we’re almost there. But with this potential, he shits on Fitchner for just not getting the fat sucked out of him. Like he just eats metabolizers as opposed to going to the cutter and just cutting it off because it’s that easy. And I’m big into healthcare and nanobot transformation in the next 20 years or so by the stocks. So I’m buying these stocks. I’m already in on healthcare in my actual portfolio, so why not for body modification? I’m there. I’m with you, Keith. Let’s buy. All right. I like it. Mick, what else do you have for stock up? What else do I have for stock up? Stock up accents. So I read this book myself. I wasn’t listening to the book, which is kind of a bummer. I feel like I missed out. But anyways, I think that I found out later that the accents that I was doing were similar to kind of what was actually being done for these characters. But what I was doing was I was reading the Reds, and they were Irish. It just worked for me. I don’t know why. And then the golds. I was going aristocratic inbreeding Brits. English people like a Stewie Griffin off a family guy, that sort of vibe. So that, for me, made the read more enjoyable because I felt like I was portraying all these different characters as I read in my mind, I don’t read aloud. Just to be clear in accent. Imagine the wife while she’s watching TV and you’re running aloud in accents next door. She’s like, I’m just trying to catch up with the Kardashians. And what the fuck are you doing? Oh, Uncle Narrow, how are you doing? There we go. Miko, you are a natural reader. Do you know why you are? Because Pierce Brown said that he was inspired to write this book by the plight of the Irish immigrants in the 19th century and the disenfranchisement of the working class. So the Irish men in this book are really the Reds, so you are on top of it. And who are the Irish fighting? They were fighting the fucking shitty Brits. Check out Peeky Blinders. Piki. Fucking Blinders. So you are on top of it. Gory. Damn, Nico. Good for you. Thank you. You know what I do? You know what my mnemonic device is to get into the Irish accent. It’s season one. Peeky Blinders. It’s the cop that’s after him when he says the main guy’s name Shelby, he goes, Mr. Shelby. And then I go into the Irish accent from there. So it’s Master Shelby. This is important insight. I mean, Brad Pitt wouldn’t even give us this insight. And Brad Pitt did it in what movie was that with Harrison Ford? That was a good one. He plays like an IRA guy. I don’t know. I was thinking Snatch. No, also a great movie. But no, he’s like a Gypsy in that movie. You can’t understand half the things he says, but Patty Wicker Bluetooth, Brad Pitts and a porno, but good movie. And also that guy in Peeky Blinders is a guy from Jurassic Park, which we also love. Nico, did you have any other stock ups? Stock up red Weddings? I know that’s a trigger or microaggression. Probably saying that phrase for some people, other book franchises. The Red Wedding a horrible thing. But here’s the thing. Darryl basically goes on this journey to join the sons of Aries and Yada. Yada become a gold go through all this shit because of his wife and the sacrifice and her martyrdom and whatever. But I looked it up. They were married for, like, six months. Okay? I’ve been married for eight or nine months. I’m not doing any of that for my wife. I’m Uncle Narrow in this scenario. I’m just drinking and just trying not to get bit by whatever pitfiper. That’s how I’m spending the rest of my life. I’m not going on this Mickey the Carver through all this crap, with all these people dying and getting every fucking bone in my body broken for the next foreseeable future. What happened to this red wedding that they’re married for six months? That he wants to go do all this for her? So stock up Red Weddings like a Minx? No, I agree with you. There’s one point in the book where he’s with Mustang or whatever, and he realizes that EO has been dead for longer than they were married. And I was like, yeah, buddy, close the yearbook. Mustang is hot. Get up. Ride that. Mayor, what are you doing? So I’m with you, obviously. Rip, we miss you. We love you. But, Darryl, build me a bridge and get the fuck over it. All right, my last stock up is razor blades and food. Yes, it was a big thing in the 90s, around Halloween. It was. Oh, that’s when I was trick or treating. Don’t accept anything that isn’t wrapped. There could be razor blades in it, but with the Internet, it turned out to be an old wives tale, and it fell out of public consciousness, not unlike the Dark Lord Sauron’s ring. But now these industrious kids on Mars are stuffing bread loaves and apples with rusty nails and shrapnel. So I feel like razor blades and food is back. Watch out when you go to your local bakery. I’m buying razor blades and food. I’m going to tell my kids, hey, watch out. Interesting purchase, but okay, you’re definitely getting flagged by the ATF or somebody with those purchases. If the ATF came knocking on my door, I would be proud. I’d be like, oh, you guys are listening. Awesome. Really. Thanks for downloading and subscribing, Buddybook.com. Really appreciate it. Let’s jump into stockdown. Keith, what did you ever stock down? Draft analysis. Stock down. I’ve been following the NFL draft for about 15 or 16 years now. Has a long history. Draft Analysis.com, no big deal. But Finchner, come on, buddy, you got to take some draft notes at this point. So Mars is basically the Cincinnati Bengals of old where they were just drafting all these terrible character issue players. And he keeps doing it year over, year over year. They’re like, yeah, Mars always fizzled out in these competitions because they draft like aggressive dudes that end up sucking at the end. So why don’t you change your draft strategy, buddy? What are you doing, Fisher? And they say that the proctors get all the credit if their team wins. So why would you not be drafting guys that are more team chemistry guys and people that are like different attributes rather than all these conniving, aggressive people? It doesn’t make any sense, buddy, figure this out, right? Also, why are you drafting two siblings on the same team if you know one of them is going to end up getting killed by one of your other better people? That’s a terrible, terrible draft strategy, Fisher. Figure it out. Draft analysis, stock down. Well, so with this draft, this is actually a really interesting point. I feel like we’d have an entire podcast on this draft strategy because with this draft, it’s almost like you pick the top 50 and then your 2nd 50 are just dead. Like you’re just assuming those 50 are dead. And I’m going to defend Fitchner here because he somehow was able to Peel his own son with a 100th pick and several. I don’t know, he’s a second round pick. He can’t necessarily be a first round pick because he’s not the leader. You want your Tom Brady as your first round pick. Granted, he went in the 6th, but several he gets with the last pick who fucks up. What’s the guy’s name? Primitius prime. Yeah, he fucks up. Prim like, no problem. And then he’s exactly what Mars is looking for, though. He’s got all that aggression, but he’s just a psychopath. He’s just ready to go off. What’s his name? Riggs from Rigs. From Lethal Weapon. He’s good at what he does, but the X Factor is what really makes him a stud. So I think we’re giving Fitchner not enough credit yet. It didn’t work year over year. But you know what? He pulled Darrow out and he got him. So, Mercury, you fucked up. You should take in Darrow. So, yeah, I agree with you. But at the same time, they’re working on incomplete information. It’s not. You have the McDonald’s all Americans out there you don’t really know. And people are pumping up their own kids. They have a combined beforehand. I mean, that’s what it is, right? It’s just a combined. Yeah, but the combine is like a Little League try out. You really don’t know. You really don’t know what you’re going to get. So I kind of picture like that when all the dads are sitting around in their cargo shorts and tucked in shirts and TVs and socks on. Like they don’t know what the fuck they’re drafting. So I’m going to give Fitzner a little bit of credit. If I was picking, I picked the cycle ofats too, because you just never know. Because at the end of the day, this is a bloody and gory and fucked up school. So you might as well get all the crazies. And if they can form together, you got something. You got a team like this year. Cincinnati Bengals, Joe Burrow. What’s up, Joey? Back doors. Let’s go. Yeah. I mean, Darryl and Jackal are basically two massive psychopaths, I think. Yeah, for sure. Those are normal people. What are you talking about? Mega. Yeah. So we’re going to agree to disagree on there. But I like it. I like it. No, I think you draft a psychopath, you draft a leader, but then you fill it with guys that are team chemistry player. So I like the rogue pick. He’s like a philosopher. He’s the knowledge base guys. I like the cyber pick. Yeah, there’s a lot of good picks. But then you also pick on other people that are going to be backstabbers or challenge the leadership of the number one pick. You can’t have it. It’s like dropping like three quarterbacks in the same draft. It doesn’t make any sense. You got to spread out. Miko, would you have a stock down? Stock down. I had education and we’ve had that before, so that’s good. Glad I could help. Yeah. Look, we’ve already admitted or I’ve already admitted to my lacking in reading and not taking that part of school. Serious shocker that extended out to other classes and other areas of my education growing up. And turns out in this world again, I should just be on Mars. I should be a red or gold or whatever. I don’t care. I just want to be in the society because your point, Keith? When he was with Mickey the Carver, there was one point where he basically Darrow just takes a limitless pill and overnight he, quote, absorbs 3000 years of literature and history. That’s my dream. If I don’t have to go to school and you just give me a pill and I know everything perfect. We can just cut out the 13 years I wasted doing nothing. I took French for 13 years. Okay. From the Fiji. You took French for 13 years? First grade. I started French all the way through high school. I kept it going. I had Fijians living down the hall from me. I could have gone over there and cut it up with those French Fox. But I didn’t. I didn’t use it ever. Every year it was the same shit over and over, just relearning everything. What a waste of time. I could have just taken a pill limitless, been like, Darrow and just fucking moved on with my life. So stock down education. It’s bullshit. So do you not speak French? Yeah, I can throw a little accent up there. I don’t say croissant. I say koissan
Participant #1:
speaker. Yeah, I could cut it up with the Parisians. I could get over there and get after it, but I’m not using it. I should have taken Spanish at the very least. At least then I would have some Amigos and Armanos to cut it up within this country. But where the fuck am I going? I agree with you, though. I mean, where is the Matrix style plug into the back of the neck and just learn everything instantly. I think we should be having that by now. I completely agree with you. Talk to Elon. Well, Interestingly enough, one of my stock downs was getting accepted into a prestigious school, because that’s like the thing when you’re in high school, it’s like, oh, did you know that one kid in your class is going to Yale? Going to be the next brain surgeon is like, good for him. But it turns out if you get accepted into prestigious school, you can get murdered on your first day. Like, literally murdered. You go into school, half of the people are dead. So everyone is super excited for Julian. Oh, my God, Julian got accepted to school. This is amazing. It’s like his dad sitting there being like, yes, Julian is going to fucking die. Whatever. So maybe it’s not that cool. Like, let’s not get excited when someone goes to Brown. I mean, it’s also poop. So why would you be jazzed about that? Pass. Prestigious schools, go to a state school, save your money, become a doctor a different way. Simple. I’m with you 100%. Also, how do all these kids go through their lives not knowing what takes place at this Institute? That really made no sense. No one knowing what the passage is or knowing what the school entails. You’re telling me that these gold parents who want their kids to be the best, they want their kids to be primates aren’t, like, secretly telling them, okay, here’s actually what’s going on there. So be prepared for this and the other thing. And I know they said Julian worked on his fighting and whatnot, and I know the whole thing was kind of a way for the Bologna to fuck over the Andromeda family, or whatever that family’s name is. I understand how it ties in, but there’s just no way that these parents aren’t leaking some information as to what exactly is going to happen and giving some strategic tips. Yeah, there isn’t some College scandal where Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin of the Red Rising aren’t giving their kids yacht scholarships or they get into the Institute and throw the money. Exactly. That’s a great reference. Thank you, but I think it’s also there supposed to be like the Roman or whatever. The 300 society. There Spartans. Yeah. Their son isn’t good enough. Then he should deserve to die kind of thing, right? That’s like the mentality of the society. Yeah, the Spartans were Greek, but you’re close. It’s fine. Good education. They’re all the same. Keith, what else do you ever stock down? Don’t take that out of context. The Germans are loving that line. I had relegation stock up or down depending, but I actually didn’t think the society was that bad. A few issues here and there, but the way we fix this is relegation. So if you want to move up in class as you put them in this Hunger Games type thing, and they win, they move up, they lose, they die. And that’s how you kind of allow people to go up and down the food chain or the class structure. I just didn’t like the fact that you couldn’t change class. Other than that, I think it’s fine. I don’t think there’s a big issue other than that big fact that you are stuck in your class. The Untouchables in India might have some issues with that. You can move. Yeah, that’s the problem. You get bored in a class, you should be like, oh, I want to move up. It’s like, all right, well, you’re going to have to go to this deathifying game. It’s like, all right, that’s the price you have to pay. Shout out to episode one, because Keith is over here digging himself a hole, if you know what I’m saying. Little BBC kickback. We like it. My stock down is pelotons. Everyone’s got one now. Stocks way up. I mean, the literal stock is way up, but instead of a peloton, we need constant traction machines, which is what Darrow was in when he was hanging out with Mickey. It’s immersive. It works the entire body. Plus you can race against Panthers. It’s not like, oh, you want to take a bike ride through the Alps and the timing is not really right and you can’t look left or right. It’s just like we’re on a bike path. It’s like, that’s not very exciting. No, you can step into this constant traction machine and work your entire body as you race against a Panther. That sounds phenomenal. I would do it. You’re in the Jungle Book. It’s you and Bagheera hanging out. Why not? I get exercised that way. This idea of a peloton. Oh, you have an iPad in front of you that there’s someone on it saying, oh, you’re doing great. Look at Keith. He’s moving up in the pack like, no, that’s boring. I want to be in the jungle. I want to be running with wild animals. And that’s why I prefer to get my exercise. So pelotons, you’re out. Constant tracking machines. You’re in. When I was, like, eight, I used to go to the gym with my dad and I would go on the rowers and they had a thing where you would basically race another rower. And that was I hated rowing, but I was like, oh, I have to do this because it’s the best thing ever. So if you make that more immersive. Yeah, of course I’m into that. Yeah. It’s like, you’re the Cox. Was that the Coxman Coxon. You’re the Coxon. That’s the kind of exercise I want someone else that’s on the rowing machine, and I just sit in front of them and they go yellow. Speaking of gyms, going to gyms as a kid, a lot of balls, right? The men’s locker rooms, a lot of balls. I mean, only now do we know about pedophiles. I feel like that wasn’t discussed when we were kids, but there’s no way those guys just hanging out in the locker room. And I really do mean hanging out weren’t, like, doing that on purpose. It was disgusting and boorish and uncouth, and I don’t support it. When we were on the swim team, I was like, ten. We had a locker room monitor that was a dude that was like 50 with a beard and just would watch us change. And I remember even at that age, I was like, what is up with this fucking dude? This is really fucking weird. Nowadays. You imagine being like, yeah, we just need someone that goes in there and just watches these kids change to make sure they’re not around. Like, wait, what? That is wild fuck you talking about. All right, well, tell us about the second time you were touched. Yeah, it looked like Santa. So, I mean, it was all fine. You told me to get presents for it. Yeah, now they would do that. Remember when the FBI gave away free tickets or whatever to the Washington Redskins games and it was just to collect people that had outstanding warrants? That would be the thing now would be like, oh, we have an open job opening on LinkedIn for locker room attendant. They show up there and it’s like, all right, yeah, cool. Get in the van, you’re fucking pedophile. Speaking my night report, that’s like Precog. Like, these guys put them all in jail. Yes. Pricogs right there. Miko, you did have another stock download, correct? Yeah, I did have a serious one. If I can bring it back to a more serious note. Stock down asparagus. So I love asparagus. I love eating it, throw it on the grill, throw it on a sheet and throw it in the oven or whatever. 425 I do. But, like, the first ten pages of this book, they scarred me because the only downside to asparagus is the smell after you eat asparagus. And I’m talking about urine, piss. Pierce Brown, he’s a good looking dude, but what is going on? Well established. He’s got some kind of hidden fetish here that is not so hidden because in those first ten or more pages, the way that he weaves this golden tapestry of smells is just like, I’m going to Puke. Thinking about the piss sweat combination in Darrows and suits. I think he says at one point they’re like basically astronauts or whatever, right? In that sort of a get up. And you can’t wipe suits. Yeah, thank you. You can’t wipe the sweat from your brow. And the first couple of times you try to do it before you learn that, obviously you can’t get in the suit or whatever. It just like stinging in your eyes when you put sunscreen on your forehead and then you’re sweating because it’s hot and it gets in your eyes. I don’t know. It really bothered me and really kind of ruined asparagus for me. So stock down on asparagus. Yeah, that’s a good point. Although the asparagus having your P smell is actually a gene thing, so like some people, it doesn’t smell. And also more Interestingly is you being able to smell asparagus. Piss is a separate gene thing. So you could think that, oh, when I eat asparagus, my pee doesn’t smell, but it might smell, but you don’t have the other gene monitor which allows you to smell that. So it’s kind of a weird catch 22 things. You really have to have a bunch of people in a bathroom and everyone hangs out and smells each other’s piss, and then someone will let you know. Sounds like my Friday night. But yes, he did paint a very beautiful picture of the smells of the underworld of Mars, and I appreciated that, Pierce. So thank you. So real quick on the genes, though. If I have those genes, I’m a higher form of life or where do I fall? You’d be a pink. I still think pink. You know how they like, they got rats to be able to sniff out minds and diabetes and stuff like that. You’re basically one of them. One of those African rats. They’re pretty. But actually, you might have a side gig where if you can smell the asparagus pea, if people don’t know, they could just hire you to come in and smell their pee. Awesome. I could have my dream job of just working in a bathroom. A boy’s locker. You could work in a little boy’s locker room in a pool. That would be great. Stop doing it for free, Keith. Oh, good God, Keith, do you have any other stock downs? No, that’s it. All right, Miko, I don’t know what your plan is, but you’re more than welcome to hang around if you want, and we can go through the rest of this. Or if you got stuff to do, feel free to log off. Cool. I might hang around for a little bit. Just listen in. Just creep a little like the guy in Keith’s locker room growing up. I’ll just be in the corner.
Participant #1:
Keith, let’s get into pick your character. Who is your favorite character from this novel? That is Red Rising. Yeah, I think the obvious one is Several. He’s the best. I don’t see myself as him, but I also see myself as him. I want to be him. I would never be him because I’m not that type of person. I’m too much of a pussy. But I was like, that’s the guy. The guy that’s just like the loyal. I’m going to go off and get things done. Just like the scavenger. I loved him. I liked PAX, too. There’s a lot of people I liked in this book, but I think Several is the number one for me. Yeah, I’m with you. He’s like, Eureka from Princess Mononoke. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that wonderful film. Bless you with that. Fijian. You just stick in there. No, she’s a girl in Princess Mononoke. She’s raised by Wolves. She wears a Wolf pelt. She’s always covered in blood. She’s phenomenal. But his loyalty is endearing. He’s willing to do all the dirty jobs. Allah Mike Rowe. He pulls in Andy DuFran and climbs through a shit tunnel to get Darrow a Castle. He also pulls a Luke Skywalker and spends a night inside a dead animal. Plus, once he loses an eye, he must look so badass. Like, just this one eyed eyepatched, Wolf skin covered boy just in mud and shit and just ready to do whatever it takes. That’s the last guy I want to fight. I would rather fight Cassius. I’d rather fight PACs. I’d rather fight anybody than Several, because he’s just got the crazy eyes. Oh, yeah, it reminds me of that quote that’s like, I always used to think I wanted to be boxed until I met someone that actually wanted to box. That’s him. Like the guy that’s like, oh, no, I live for this. I’ll die for this game. And I’m like, yeah, what I was upset about, too, is that this is going to be more than hate. But when he at the end of book signs on with the arch governor or whatever, I feel like that would only be contingent on my boys riding with me. These guys are all agreed, I’m not leaving. That was also something for me where he just kind of left several in the dust there. Like, didn’t you can’t do that or something? And really, it should be like, hey, as long as I can have several at my side, I know that no one is going to be able to sneak up on me. But also, my other favorite character was Paxo tomatoes, which Miko didn’t read the or didn’t listen to the audiobook, but the guy did a phenomenal job doing his Paxo telemolos. And PAX is from New Zealand, so he’s just a big rowdy rugby bro. That’s what I pictured him as. I pictured him as not to burn one of my characters later, but Gronk. I just thought he was Gronk the whole time. He’s like this big happy, but like, an absolute beast of a dude. It’s like about partying and killing. Yeah, for sure. I mean, he cries when he has to whip Darrow, which is just, like, so cute. It’s like one of those big Rottweilers that is actually just, like super cuddly. And I was actually just super pissed when he died. We’ve already touched on that. But it turns out Pierce Brown was too. He just pulled when he was writing the book, he just pulled all the characters names. He put all the characters names in a hat and pulled one out. Besides Darrow and Mustang. He left us the side, and he pulled out packs. And supposedly he had this big story arc where Darrell was going to join the telemonicas and fight the arch governor’s people. But he was like, you know what? I got to do it. I pulled it out. He was like, I could put it back in and just pull another name. But he was like, no, I got to do it. And so that’s how he decided to kill PAX. But he’s such a good writer to be able to do that and be like, all right, I guess I’ll just do a poll, change my current story arc. Okay, let’s jump into some love hate. We’re running long, so we’ll try to kind of blow through this, but at the same time, I don’t really want to because this book was so good. We could have should have dropped this into, like, four different podcasts. It was such a good book. So love hate. Or as I’d like to call for this pod prime slag. What was prime? What was flag? Let’s get into prime first. What do you got for prime? Prime for me, how the world expands and things just get bigger and bigger. When I first read this book, I didn’t read any descriptions and read anything, and I thought it was about an Uprise in a drilling community. I was like, oh, that’s kind of cool. And then it becomes a huge Star Wars type world with politics, everything. I was just amazed at the imagination of the world and society, the politics of everything, the language. Everything is amazing to be in this. I also think that you could have just done the typical trope of fish out of water. Hey, I’m in this new gold society. I don’t know what’s going on, and I have to just constantly protect and be in fear that I’m going to trip up and give away that I’m not really a gold. That could have been done, and that could have been the Ya book, right? Yeah. And that’s been done a thousand times. But instead, the book is about war, leadership, anger, and love. That’s what it’s really about, which is amazing. That’s just a side part of it. It just becomes this whole other thing. So I love that. Yes. One of the things I love is the conquest itself, and they really just briefly talk about it. And I love lore with all this stuff and Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and all these kind of fantasy books, more Sci-Fi. I mean, we talk about doing whatever, but I love the lore that is kind of talked about, but you don’t ever see it. And that’s why Star Wars was so good until they decided to dive into the lore and they just fucked it all up. But The Conquest, I see it like the opening of Lord of the Rings when Kate Blanchett’s narrating, but it’s basically iron gold from Luna battling against the Earthlings to create the society that we know today. And it could be just like Lord of the Rings, the beginning there where it’s just kind of like smash cut, but just that little. Even though it’s probably only a couple of pages, it was just like, oh, okay, I get how this society came to be. And he did it so concisely, so well done. And I saw it in my mind, and just like people battling and grab boots and stuff like that, it seemed really fucking cool. So even though it was a little bit into the book, it really kind of set the idea for the society. So I really like The Conquest. What else do you have? The villains. The villains were awesome. From the Jackal to Titus to the Proctors to arch governors, it wasn’t just like one enemy or one bad guy. Everyone kind of had a shade of bad guy next to them. Really appreciate that. Also like the twist with that sister being the sister, the Jackal. I didn’t realize that in the first one. I was like, oh, shit. But he lays the groundwork, like, throughout the book. It was very obvious when I re read it, I was like, oh, yeah, I don’t know how I didn’t see that. It was so obvious. Yeah. And then just overall turning things around in the Proctors, I really appreciated that. And just. It felt like a real war. The hunger, the fear, the pain, the smell, which Mika talked about earlier. He describes the smell of Thor a lot. Well, to tie into yours, the Titus read reveal when he says bloody damn and kind of like what you were alluding to in terms of a reread. This book is a great reread. There’s so much there that you didn’t realize upon the first time. Reading not only Titus, but like Jacob and the Mustang being siblings, several being Fitchner’s kids. It’s so well done that when I read it the first time, it was like, oh, these are great reveals. But then when I read it the second time, I was like, oh, my God, it’s all right here. And the reveals aren’t made in this book to be like some of the other thrillers we’ve read. It doesn’t depend on it exactly. The story isn’t based around these reveals. The story is separate, but then includes these fun reveals throughout, and he just does it in such a good way that Pierce Brown stock up. Love you. Good job. I’m going to go for another one because you went through like ten. But my other love is the passage itself, because up until that point, this is a Ya book. Obviously there’s a hanging. But Besides that, it’s like, okay, this is Ya. And when the passage comes around, you’re like, oh, it’s like Harry Potter and the Sorting Hat. He’s going to find out what house he’s in, but then he’s brutally murdering Julia and there’s eyes getting popped out of their heads and you’re like, Holy shit, this is not Harry Potter. Fucking Harry would be curled up in a ball crying if this ever happened to him, even though he’s all about courage and Gryffindor. Like, no, this is some fucked up slithering shit. So the passage was up there for Milo because it definitely set the scene for how the school is going to work. And by the time Titus starts raping people, you’re like, yeah, duh. Yeah, I had that in my favorite scene. The one V one Death Match is when you really flip the script, you’re like, oh, shit. Wait, what? Yeah. Because I thought it was going to be like, oh, this school is all for like, what? They’re all gold. But it’s like, no, we’re doing handhand compat you’re naked and you’re not walking out of this room unless someone died. It’s like, oh, okay, yeah. If you read Hunger Games before this and you’re like, wow, someone got shot with an arrow that’s fucked up. And it’s like some crazy shit smashing someone’s head against a wall until it pops. It’s like, oh, all right, I’m in a different realm here. What else do you have for love? The song, the song at the end, that’s oh in the audiobook. Yeah. Don’t turn the audiobook off until after the song because you get a little drop on that song. Time do that. It would be phenomenal. But the song is in the book. At one point, he sings it to Mustang, which I thought for because he’s kind of like. I’m like, all right, buddy, it was a little bit much. I agree. But then at the end, I was like, oh, this is the title track for the TV series. This is fucking awesome. So, yeah, if you listen to the audiobook, definitely don’t skip the end. And if you didn’t listen to the audiobook, I’d say download it and just listen to the song. I wonder if they have that song on itunes somewhere. It must be, right? It’s got to be somewhere. I loved about this book, how the romance isn’t overplayed. And I know we’re kind of shooting on The Hunger Games here, but I like The Hunger Games, or at least the first book. But this is no Hunger Games. That was one of the things that bothered me about it was just like, oh, petal catness. The romance, it builds into a nice place, and it’s not really a storyline. It’s just like, you know, these people have feelings for each other. You can tell that through their actions, through what’s going on. There’s no reason to have this weird teen angst first pube belonging. I don’t need that when I’m reading this book. So I appreciate how he didn’t overplay it. He let it kind of figure itself out throughout the book. So, Pierce, once again, thank you. Agreed? Yeah. Okay, let’s jump into hate. What do you hate? Yeah. So I said I basically like every character in this book. The one I do not like is Cassius. Cassius is a huge bitch. Hated him. He’s just a bitch. He whines about his brother. Darryl didn’t kill your brother. The game did. That’s what happened. You don’t blame someone that didn’t. Actually, he had to do what he had to do. So are you saying don’t hate the player, hate the game? Absolutely. Goddamn right. Yes. That really just annoyed me. And then when he comes to him and he’s ready to apologize, even though you just stabbed this dude, you know how they did the one on one match up? Yeah. He gets stabbed, and then Darrell’s there about to apologize. Darrow should go there and cut his head off. But instead, he’s like, you know what? I killed his brother. I understand his anger. And then he’s like, all right, there’s a blood feud after that. Why? What? No. Darryl should be mad at you all the other way around. That’s bullshit. So fuck Cassius. Fuck you, Cassius. Yeah. Good name, though. Cassius is a good name. Yeah, Cass. Decent nickname. One of the things I hated, actually, really, the only thing I hated was the book itself. I found it hard to visualize, and that’s the problem with books in general, as opposed to other media functions, is you can’t really see what’s happening. So you have to do it in your own mind, which is good and bad. Usually it’s good because Lord of the Rings, it’s like, okay, there’s horses. I know what a horse looks like. And there’s horses in this, too, but, like, okay, there’s a Goblin. There’s a troll. I can figure that out. But in this book, they got all this technology. Grab boots, force fields, punch fists. And that’s not even to mention what these gory damn highboards look like. And then the setting itself, I was just picturing people in my head, like, when they were fighting or whatnot? Or when they’re talking. I didn’t picture them as these giant, golden haired, tanned, golden eyed people. I just pictured them as people. Right. So I think it’s hard to really visualize exactly what the people in the setting look like. And that’s why I think this would be such a good video product where you’d be able to say, like, oh, shit. Okay, now I see it. And if I reread this book afterwards. Even if the book is better, you’d still be able to take some of those pictures and put them to paper. That wasn’t a big issue for me, but I can see that and that’s a video format would be amazing. What else do you hate? I didn’t care for Darryl getting tricked twice by the whole waking up in the middle of night and, hey, come outside the Castle quick by yourself. There’s something needs to get saved. I can understand it the first time with Antonio or whatever doing that. The second time, the exact same thing happens with Cassius. He’s like, Cassie’s, like, come outside. I need you right away. And he does the same exact thing and then gets into that duel with him. So I was like, bro, Phool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice. Like, come on, kid. No, the line is fool me twice. Never going to fool me again. Yeah,
good. J. Coulson. Yes, I’m with you there. Darrow is too smart for that. So the only thing is like, oh, he trusted Cassie. So maybe that’s what we’re supposed to believe. But the only other thing I hated from this book, and once again, these are such light hates. But the Jackal climax. I mean, we talked about this a little bit. The build up was so big that then the whole thing with the Jackal happened, which was great when he killed Packs and cut his own arm off. Like, that stuff was great. But then it’s like, that’s it. He goes to see Mustang, and she’s like, no, I was actually Truthful to you, like, here’s the Jackal standard. And here’s the Jackal. Like, I got him. He’s my brother. Yeah, I got him. And it’s like, oh, okay, the game is over. You won. I was just like, oh, I thought there was going to be, like, some sort of crazy duel or something like that where he would have had to use his sling blade in some way. And I know that the first one was fun, but I just thought because the whole thing, he was like, I should have never let this guy go. Like, I can’t believe he cut his own arm off. This was a big mistake. And then you realize, oh, Mustangs got some sort of relation to him. And then Fishner is like, it’s his sister. And you just give half your army to him. And then she shows up and she’s like, no, I was on your side the whole time. No problem. Yeah, I can see that. I actually kind of like it because it kind of bucked the trend. I’m more of a fan of books or movies that have the immediate either death or just no big climax where all of a sudden it’s like, all right, we’re going to fight to the duel, and it’s this long battle. It’s like, no, just make something quick. Make it something like, you’re not seeing coming, so I’d have a big issue with that. But I could definitely see how it was like a build up to like kind of a fizzle. So you’re saying you hated Death of the Fate or whatever that song is in Phantom Menace, like the only good part of that movie when QuiGon and Obiwan fight due to Faith dual, the fates, the only redeeming quality of the first Star Wars or the prequel there you’ve just done a 90 minutes movie of Darth Maul fighting people up and they go, all right, that’s fine. Let’s cast the movie. The rights for this movie, as in Red Rising, was sold to Universal Pictures in 2014, but the project was scrapped. Thank God our boy Pierce Brown started developing Red Rising as a TV series in 2018 and supposedly has secured a director and a showrunner. This is as of September 2021. So exciting stuff ahead. I think this is way better as a TV series than it would be a movie, which we kind of discussed earlier. If they’re not casting, then they’re about to be. So who do you got? Yeah, for Darrow. I had Lucas Hedges. I don’t know who that is. He’s in a few movies. He looks kind of young, I think. Still, he has some crazy eyes. So that’s the problem is you need to get actors that are like a little bit crazy for all these parts. I’ve seen him in Manchester by the Sea in Honey Boy. He’s only in it for a little bit, but he’s like a crazy person. That’s what I was thinking of. What about you? I had and I think you kind of need a big name for this if you’re going to do a three part series. And so I had Tom Holland, and maybe this isn’t perfect, but I think he fits the age range and he can play younger, and he also plays the part of being like a hard nose but like scrawny person. So the transformation thing would be pretty good for him. So he’s beautiful. I’m taking Tom Holland. I think he can pull it off for several. I had Thomas Brody sinkster he’s in Game of Thrones, but he’s also kind of plays a crazy dude and other things, too. Oh, really? When you say Game of Thrones, I thought you’re talking about the guy who cuts people’s skin off. But you’re talking about the. Oh, that would be a good one. Wow. You change my answer. That’s the right answer. I apologize. Yeah, you’re right and I’m wrong. That’s 100% what it should be for several. I went, Talk about Honey Boy. I went Chile of Booth. I feel like he’d be a good Chevrolet mangy, but ready to fuck you up. If they made this with 30 year old, it would be much easier to cast. They can. Yeah, really? They can do that. You’re right. Good point. Who else did you have for PAX? Having Gronk as the acting debut. No, please note. Yes. All you have to say is one line. He’s like, Hodor, based on his Navy credit Union or whatever I’m out on. I didn’t castrate all this one. I think this is on you here. So I didn’t have Pac, so I’m glad you filled it with Gronk. But Fitchner, I had either. Gerald Butler. Oh, nice. I’m talking like Den of thieves. Gerald Butler, where he’s fat and drinks a lot and smokes a lot. Just overdone not 300. Gerald Butler. Yeah. I’d also accept Ron Perlman, who played Hellboy and was in, like, I think Sons of Anarchy. Right. I think he’d be really good as Fisher as well. And then for Mustang, I had Anya Taylor Joy, the girl from Queens, Gambit, who is beautiful but also has this Regal but cunning vibe to her. I think she’d be really good there. It looks like a gold. Really? Yeah, exactly. She already looks like a gold. So you can save some money in post production that you don’t have to do too much. And then Octavia Aloon, who’s the sovereign of the society, she’s not really in this one. And she’s a little bit in the second one. I don’t know about the third, actually. I’m not going to get any spoilers, but I want Kate Blanchett for her, not only because Kate Blanchett is beautiful and Regal and could totally just dominate that part, but I do want Octavia Aloon, aka Kate Blanchett, doing the voiceover of the Conquest, which is really just what I want from Lord of the Rings. And that was all I had for Cast and Mum. But I mean, hey, we really have a full cast here. For the Cutter, I had Jared Leto. They described Jared Leto. Wow. Yes. That’s the only good casting, I think. And I want Jared Leto from Dallas Buyers Club. Not HIV positive, but, like, skinny and sickly. We did it. It’s pretty clear from this whether we would recommend this book. I mean, just the length itself. If we were going to shit on a book for this long, I would hope someone would stop listening to us because we don’t want to bring that sort of negativity into our life. But Keith, would you recommend this book? You know what? When you read a book and you think it’s amazing and then you’re like, nervous to read it again because you’re like, maybe I was just in a good mood, or maybe I was nervous for this book. Reread it. I loved it. It rivals Harry Potter for me. That’s how good I thought it was. At Botany is my number one of all the books we’ve read? I think it’s my number one so far. I mean, I agree with you. It’s my number one as well. Like we said before, it’s Hunger Games meets Braveheart meets Harry Potter. What else do you need in terms of the world building, the storyline, the characters? It not getting too full of itself. No, preachiness to it. It keeps the themes understated. It’s like, hey, enjoy the ride and if you take anything out of it, then good for you. And I don’t take anything out of anything because I’m a Dullard, but I really just enjoyed the ride. Keep you guessing at all times. It really does. That’s all you can ask for, really. The fact that it’s a three part series. I’ve read the second one. It’s not as good as the first one, but definitely after reading this again, I’m like, okay, I’m reading the second one again. It’s just guaranteed. So I loved it. Vaults up to the top of our list, which is exciting for the buddyballclub.com. We’re going to get some fresh names there and the top five and maybe we might have more because next week or next two weeks we are going to be reading another book, which is oh, no, are we diving back in? Are we giving it another shot? Project hail Mary by Andy Weir. We’ve already read one anywhere book wasn’t his best, but this one has a 4.5 out of five on Goodreads, which is I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book this many reviews that is that high. So by comparison, red rising is a 4.2 and I think that’s pretty well received. I’m expecting big things. We’re hoping for big things and we may or may not have a guest next week. We’ll see. Until next time. We’ll see you then. Thanks for checking us out and bye now. Bye now.
