During the wars, the Spartans wear red clothes ... If one of the Spartans is wounded, it is not noticeable to the enemies, since the similarity of colors allows you to hide the blood. Plutarch
"Red on Red" is a rare case when the abstract tells the perfect truth about the book: Dumas Peer and George Martin under the same cover. Epic, large-scale, adventurous and avantage, gallant, scabrous, harsh and cruel, a steeply wrapped intrigue, vivid images, recognizable archetypal heroes in situations that the reader can apply to their own life realities, see if not themselves, then their loved ones.
So, the first part, the exposition, young people from many noble families come to the unar school - the local analogue of the cadet school. They are extremely heterogeneous in composition, there are nouveau riche "dung men", there is an old aristocracy "people of honor" - mostly impoverished. There are descendants of those who supported the current government, and families who were in opposition to it. There are those. those who have plans for restoration and those. who just wants to survive, get settled, serve. The school history is presented in detail, although faded, by the film adaptation.
The second part of "La Roue de Fortune" (Wheel of Fortune) elevates one of the heroes, Richard Oakdell, to the title of squire of the powerful Marshal Roque Alva, guilty of the death of his father. The young man grew up hating this man, hatched plans to kill him, and suddenly finds himself involved in the orbit of a brilliant courtier: a duelist, a player. a brilliant military commander, a philanderer, a rake, a handsome, a dandy, a wit. Collections of all the vices and virtues that nominate a person to key positions in any society, and even more so in a society based on the cult of power. Insanely charming and repulsive figure. Undoubted author's luck. Secondary storylines are also remarkably interesting, but to tell about them in detail I would have to write a longrid of ten pages, I will limit myself to the main one.
"Le Mat" (The Fool) the third part is such an extreme complication of the domestic and foreign policy situation, there are serious hotbeds of tension on the borders of the empire. The government assumes to divert the discontent of the masses with a small victorious one on the outskirts. Our heroes are sent to the active army. Everything is quite complicated there in terms of intrigues and building alliances in order to seize power in a war-weakened country. And, in general, it is interesting to read, although the second "secular" part is cooler.
And finally, the final, fourth, proper military unit "La Force" (Force) is unbearably cruel, bitter, sick, full of sympathy for the people who have fallen under the millstones of imperial interests. The brilliant Alva will appear here as an unprincipled and incredibly cruel military commander, who, however, knows how to complete a military campaign in a short time and with minimal human losses on his part, using terror, technical advantage, and skillful disinformation against the enemy. I will assume that this is to a large extent a rethinking of the experience of the Chechen wars. It's interesting to read about it now (although reading is hard, I warn you).
Cool and unexpectedly relevant reading, but I will refrain from continuing for years, which will take the unhurried Russian cinema to embody what I have just told you about.