Red Rising by Pierce Brown is a fantastic book. It is a Sci-Fi story set in the future and based on Mars. The society of that day is split into different castes based on colour. The Society is ruled by the Gold’s, people of almost God-like beauty, strength and intelligence. Below them are various other colours that determine your station in life, pinks are to give pleasure, blues are to work computers and ships, etc. At the bottom of this society are the reds.
We begin by focusing on Darrow, a 16year old Miner on Mars who, with his wife and family, work towards making Mars hospitable for those who have to flee Earth due to it being destroyed by war. It is a hard life, but a honourable one. Well it is until Darrow finds out his life is based on a lie, Mars is already terraformed and above their heads is a thriving society built on their hard work, sacrifice and death. Darrow is given the opportunity to infiltrate this society, to rise up in it and to bring it down.
The first third of the book focuses on the Mining world on Mars and then it changes as Darrow infiltrates the Society of the Golds and it is at this point that the book really ramps up. The World that Pierce Brown creates is a thrilling, vicious world that hooks you and doesn’t let go.
At this point the book switches again, focusing on a coming of age trial that all young Gold’s who want to rise to the top of society must endure. This trial is a large wargame, where every character must fight to win. They can't trust their teammates and the other teams are trying to kill them. At first there are attempts by those overseeing the games to prevent deaths but as the stakes build this soon goes out the window.
This “game” has understandably drawn comparisons with The Hunger Games, but this is not a YA Book. The game soon descends into anarchy, containing Rape, Torture and Murder. While the book doesn't focus on these things, they are there so please consider this if they are triggers for you. With this in mind I felt the book had more in common with Battle Royale or the Long Walk by Stephen King.
Brown’s strongest skill is that he can write a fantastic action sequence and the plot moves at a pace that leaves you on edge at all times and you truly fear for the characters that we focus on.
Darrow is the main character and the story is told from his 1st person narrative. This means that we get to see and hear his thoughts and experience his feelings. Darrow is an angry young man. He hates the society he is now a part of and his job is to tear it down. This obviously means that a big part of what we see and hear comes from a place of anger which can be hard to read at times. Anger isn't the only thing we experience though, Darrwo truly begins to care for the friends he makes and his love for them and anger at the society is a major source of conflict for him.
The secondary characters in the book, in particular Sevro, Pax, Cassius, Mustang and Roque are also well written and you begin to care for them. As his friends start to fall you do experience tension and worry as no character, other than Darrow as the POV character, is safe.
The world building in this book is also really good. While I thought the Society of the Red’s was a little lazy, for want of a better word. The Gold's society is fantastic. The Red’s are poor, hard working, song singing, and family people. The Gold’s are vain, believe they are Gods amongst men and have to act like it at all times. The society is also heavily influenced by Roman Culture and it was good seeing little things from our history referenced.
In summary, this is a great book. It is fast paced, full of action and a brilliant start to a series that I have heard only gets better. If you like Sci-Fi action and dystopian worlds then I would definitely recommend it.
