Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Blurb:

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”
“I live for you,” I say sadly.
Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power.  He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so

Review:

"Funny thing, watching gods realize they've been mortals all along."

After much peer pressure, I finally started my journey into the Red Rising world. I was guaranteed that this would become my next obsession. Was everyone right? Freak yes! Red Rising injects you into a Mars-based dystopia filled with god-like rulers and a vicious, deadly underdog who makes you want to Howl in defiance.

"I am the Reaper and death is my shadow."

Red Rising begins in the underground Red mines where the population is told that they’re mining resources necessary to allow for the eventual migration of the human population to a more hospitable Mars. Darrow is of the lowest caste in this brave new world: a Red. Within a few chapters, we see the brutal world that the Reds live in and how expendable their lives are to the ruling Gold class. After a harrowing, earth-shattering decision, Darrow is transformed from an extremely skilled Helldiver who is decidedly submissive when challenged by those of higher castes to Darrow au Andromedus, a cold, deadly killing machine. The Reaper. 

I had heard so much about Darrow before going into this series that I was really surprised when we first met him, and he was so reticent to challenge authority. Pierce does a fantastic job of transforming Darrow, both physically and emotionally, from who he was as an arrogant Helldiver to where we leave him at the end of Red Rising.

When you strip Red Rising down to its bare components, it is an average concept that mirrors other popular stories that emerged around this time, most notably The Hunger Games. But the fact that this series’ scaffolding is so average is just the black velvet that allows for the genius of Brown to shine through like a diamond. The characters that Brown has crafted are deep and multifaceted and fascinating. There are so many phenomenal characters. Darrow. Sevro. Mustang. Pax. Cassius. The list keeps going. Just as The Carver took a LowRed and made him Gold, Brown has taken an average concept and infused it with so much bloody heart that it has jettisoned itself through the stratosphere of dystopian science-fiction into legendary space.

"You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do."

I tend to be a rather cold reader. I appreciate scenes and character interactions and all the things that make a novel memorable. However, it’s rare that I have lots of reactions while reading. But for Red Rising? I was writing out favorite quotes, laughing out loud, feeling my heart break, and pumping my fist throughout this book. Olympus? Let’s freaking go! I can’t wait to continue this series with Golden Son. As vehemently as I can express:

“My pleasure, Good Reaper.”