Hi ForeverBookers,
How are you all today? I hope you’re good!
I’ve just finished “Red Rising” by Pierce Brown and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED it!!!
“Red Rising” is a sci-fi novel that takes our protagonist, Darrow on a quest to help save his planet, Mars from the ArchGovenor, an evil head of state character. Teenager, Darrow has lived on Mars for most of his young life. He was born on Earth, but now works as a “helldiver,”, a figure that prepares Mars, in this case for habitation. They are like road workmen with big drills on Earth. That’s how I saw them anyway. The main plot of Red Rising takes off when Darrow’s wife, yes, wife at 13 years old, is killed by the ArchGovenor for just singing a song! That was pretty unbelievable but in some countries, I suppose it can happen.
“Red Rising” is really a novel of discovery and change as well as of course revenge! Darrow isn’t aware of everything he is at the end of the novel at the beginning. He learns a lot throughout.
I read “Red Rising” for a few readathons. Those being:
Reading Rivalry - Genre Highlight - Sci-fi - “Red Rising” is a sci-fi novel.
Always Fully Booked Reading Challenge - A Book About Revenge - “Red Rising’s main plot focuses on revenge!
Always Fully Booked Reading Rainbow Challenge - Black - Most of the cover to “Red Rising” is black!
Genre Reading Challenge - Sci-Fi.
There are plenty of deaths so if you’re particularly sensitive to that maybe look up a more substantial trigger list, but “Red Rising” is YA so it never delves too deeply into the aspects of each death, apart from maybe the first one, the one that triggers the events of the novel.
Spoilers Below
“Reds were sent to Mars five hundred years ago. The other Colors came to Mars about three hundred years back, while our ancestors still toiled beneath the surface. They lived in paraterraformed cities—cities with bubbles of atmosphere over them—while the rest of the world terraformed slowly. Now the bubbles are coming down and the world is fit for any man.
“HighReds live as maintenance workers, sanitation, grain harvesters, assembly workers. LowReds are those of us born beneath the surface—the truest slaves. In the cities, the Reds who dance disappear. Those who voice their thoughts vanish. Those who bow their heads and accept the rule of the Society and their place in Society, as all Colors do, live on with relative freedom.”
He exhales a cloud of smoke.
I feel outside my body, as though I’m watching the colonization of worlds, the transformation of the human species, through eyes that are not my own. The gravity of history drew my people into slavery. We are the bottom of the Society, the dirt.”
This is Darrow, our main character throughout “Red Rising” realising that he has been tricked. He always thought that the Reds of society were quite high up the pecking order, but now he realises that they are low down and not worth anything. This happens quite early in the novel, earlier than I thought. I knew the basic premise of “Red Rising” before I started reading, but I wasn’t aware of all the intricacies of the plot. It gets quite hectic in parts and it doesn’t really slow down at any point. I liked this. Unless there’s a romance at the heart of a story, which there wasn’t really in “Red Rising,” I like fast paced plots, like this one. Having said there’s no romance, I feel there might be in book 2 or 3 in this series so I’m super excited to get to those at some point.
Our other significant characters really don’t come in to the story until about the half way point. One of those is Mustang. She’s our female protagonist for the majority of the plot. Our other female being Eo, Darrow’s wife, who’s only in the story for a few chapters before she’s killed off. Eo was more of a plot device than a character as she didn’t have any bearing on what I feel Darrow felt throughout. If I had been Darrow, I’d have been thinking about my dead partner or wife in his case, at all times in the plot of “Red Rising.” I didn’t feel that Darrow did this. That’s just an observation, though. It clearly didn’t alter my enjoyment of of the novel in any way.
Darrow has to become someone he doesn’t necessarily like in “Red Rising.” He has to aim to become Primus, a term for a leader. To do this he needs to become a Gold, rather than a Red. He has to go through vigorous training and adaptations, let’s say to do this. The Golds are higher up than the Reds in society. He doesn’t tell anyone in his House of Golds, House Mars about him being a Red. He needs to kill a character who is revealed to be a Red at one point. Can he? Or more to the point, will he?
Darrow needs to become Gold to compete with the Golds to take down the ArchGovenor, which is his main goal throughout the story and I believe the series as a whole. He doesn’t tell anyone of his goal in “Red Rising.” I was kind of surprised by this. I would have thought he’d tell Mustang but after the final reveal of the book, which I won’t disclose here, I can see why that would have been pointless and it would have made the book series, let’s just say an awful lot shorter!
There are several deaths in “Red Rising,” one of those being Eo, who is publicly killed, but also other characters too, like most of Darrow’s warband in the middle part of the book. Pax for example, who starts off as a bully but becomes a friend to Darrow. Darrow even goes so far as to kill a character after he’s made Primus, the Head of his House as an example to everyone else in House Mars which is his House. This is necessary to show us just what the context is like in this world. It’s dog eat dog, basically!
I love my romance in books, as you’ll know if you’ve been here following my blog for a while. While “Red Rising” is at the forefront an action/adventure novel, there are more romantic parts too. For example, Darrow kisses a character who he trusts at the time. Do they stay trustworthy throughout? Or does Darrow doubt them at any point? You’ll have to read to find out.
Finally, the main villain, other than the ArchGovenor in “Red Rising” is the Jackal, who is a mystical figure that the House’s need to try and find and defeat. Which House does this? Do any of the Houses do this? The Jackal is actually the ArchGovenor’s son, Darrow learns. What does this mean in the context of the story? You’ll have to read to find out for yourself. I was kind of let down by this part of “Red Rising” to be truthful. I thought there would be a big reveal, but that happens more towards the end. THAT reveal was shocking to me! I just didn’t think we needed the Jackal at all to be honest. It only added a goal for Darrow and the House’s to find. It wasn’t leading to anything else, unless in the next books we see more from this mysterious figure.
Overall then, “Red Rising” was certainly a hit for me! It had everything I love in a good book from witty/funny characters to serious, heartfelt moments to a fast-paced adventure plot. I can see why it gets so much love. If anything, I would have liked to maybe have seen a little more of Mars and how different it is from Earth, as that would have made it a true sci-fi novel to me, but we might get that in future novels.
Stand by for my next review, coming soon…
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