Red Rising: A Review (Spoiler-Free)
Red Rising: 4.5 stars
Golden Son: 5 stars
After many pushes from friends to finally start the Red Rising saga by Pierce Brown, I’ve sat down and read the first two books. And WOW. Where do I begin?
To avoid spoilers of the story moving forward, this review will mainly focus on Book 1, Red Rising.
A quick plot review for Red Rising: Main character (MC), Darrow, is a Red, a class of people who live at the center of Mars mining for precious materials in the hopes of one day taming the surface of Mars to live on. They are the pioneers and saviors of the universe. UNTIL…Darrow learns that surface of Mars, and the rest of solar system, has already been tamed. And inhabited. FOR CENTURIES. By the ruling class, more of a species, of people know as Golds. And that everyone is separated into a Color class (there’s Reds, Golds, Blues, Grays, Obsidians, and more). A string of events leads Darrow to a rebellion group, who task him with disguising himself as Gold and infiltrating the Gold training school, The Institute. But The Institute is brutal, deadly, and far more complicated than Darrow could ever imagine. Darrow has to navigate politics, friendships, his morals, and his life on the battlefield of the Institute.
Red Rising is technically classified as science fiction, which is not really my go-to genre of book, but this was able to capture my attention quickly and felt more like a fantasy world like other books I love. The world-building is very in depth and can get confusing at the beginning, but after a couple chapters in, I was set. Lots of lingo and terms specific to the world are integrated, which I find always helps me immerse myself.
Even more, the cultural lore and norms of Darrow’s world are intricate and feel like the author actually researched how environment, standard of life, etc. influences cultural practices. Darrow’s home colony, Lykos, is really giving Lucy Gray Baird-era District 12. With music, dancing, and blue collar work. This book felt like a space, adult-version of The Hunger Games and I’ve been chasing the high of that book since sixth grade lol. I find that it’s often difficult or challenging for fantasy/sci-fi books to have satisfying and beautiful prose, which makes sense because so much of the page needs to be devoted to plot or world building. BUT, Red Rising’s literary style is devastatingly stunning. Just read the first line of the book:
“The first thing you should know about me is I am my father’s son. And when they came for him, I did as he asked. I did not cry.” (pg.1)
I mean, C’MONN.
Darrow’s character is complex like those of Ned Stark and Katniss Everdeen, and I love the idea that he doesn’t want to be ‘the hero’. He’s not annoying or insecure about it though (which some MCs are guilty of) but more so, he is grappling with the decisions he must make and if the mission is even possible. There’s always the big question of: Do the ends justify the means?
I was really impressed with this book and it left me excited for the remaining books in the series. Wholeheartedly recommend this book and can even say the second book, Golden Son, was EVEN BETTER!
(I would definitely suggest checking out some trigger warnings prior to reading, as there are a lot of tough subjects included)
