Disclaimer: While reading the third entry in this series, it was brought to my attention that the author is potentially zionist. While I could not independently verify this claim, there is a noted silence about the atrocities taking place in Gaza. While many may claim that bookish spaces should remain apolitical, books are inherently political. Pierce Brown, specifically, is a dystopian author that writes about injustices in an unjust society. That one so well-versed in the topic should stay silent in the face of injustice speaks volumes. In light of this, I will be posting my written reviews of the first three entries in the series and will not finish the rest. I cannot tell readers that they must research every author that they come across, but I will encourage them to engage thoughtfully with any information they happen to come across.
The Hunger Games meets Gurren Lagann meets Game of Thrones. That’s probably the best way I can describe Red Rising by Pierce Brown. The story follows Darrow, a Helldiver (miner) in the mines of Mars. He and generations of his kind have spent their days working to move materials necessary to teraform Mars and make it habitable for future generations to enjoy together.
Darrrow exists within a caste system that assigns colors and ranks to people that determine not only their lot in life, but the rights and freedoms afforded to them. Darrow is a red, the lowest of the low, and at the very top reside golds.
However, we eventually learn that his people’s life work is a complete lie, as Mars has been terraformed and populated for nearly 700 years. It just wasn’t important to tell the reds that.
Books that revolve around “everything I’ve ever known has been a lie” are normally my bread and butter, so this revelation had me SAT. The revelation leads our protagonist on a road to revenge as new allies set him up to infiltrate gold society to bring it down from the inside. He just needs to rise the ranks. A task that doesn’t prove so easy as he finds himself enrolled in an institute meant to cull the weak and pit students against each other in cruel war games.
The overarching story checked a lot of boxes for me, but didn’t quite fall far into the science fiction that was promised (though later entries DO deliver on this). The narrative does a good job of getting you invested in the characters while the plot pushes them along, however you can’t help but feel that despite Darrow suffering occasional pitfalls, he sports a LOT of plot armor.
If you can stomach a MC who either conveniently survives every trap or somehow outsmarts everyone, you might find this book intriguing. I found this book middling, but set up enough story to warrant my interest in the second entry.
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