Red Rising by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
You’ve probably heard that RED RISING is like THE HUNGER GAMES set on Mars. And you’d be right, to a point. This is a great book, don’t get me wrong. But there are so many changes to both the main character and Mars itself that this story sometimes seemed like it could take place anywhere.
We first meet Darrow in his strictly defined, no-one-ever-gets-out life as a Red, a miner on Mars who works to get a mysterious substance that will allow colonists to live on the surface of the red planet. Of course, his entire life is a lie, and after a horrible execution of someone he loves, Darrow finds out that he could (after a long and tortuous transformation) break out of his Red status and become a Gold, the race that has colonized Mars to its liking and regards the Reds as little more than slave labor. The whole bit in the mines is almost unrelentingly bleak, save for the romance between Darrow and his wife. At times, Darrow seems very young, taking risks the older miners wouldn’t dare. And other times, you forget he is a teenager, married young so he can experience life before he dies in the mines.
Once Darrow leaves the mines, he enters the slums of the surface, where he basically un-becomes everything he used to be. Even his brain is changed. His only constant is remembering his purpose, and indeed, one of the tensions in this part is if he will fall into the indulgences of the Golds or continue to subvert their goals. It’s not really Darrow who takes on the Golds–just his purpose. The Golds are stronger, smarter, faster than the other “colors” of Mars, and there’s no way Darrow could join their ranks as he is. So he is changed, and it’s not an easy transformation. This part is intense, maybe too intense for some readers.
After all this, Darrow is finally able to take on his oppressors. In order to change the way things are, Darrow will have to get to the very highest echelons of society, where he can influence the military. To do this, he has to make it through a ruthless culling period (so ruthless, it has repercussions throughout the rest of the book) and into the section that seems lifted from a different year of THE HUNGER GAMES. Of course, you have to keep remembering these games are taking place on a terra-formed Mars, presumably under a giant dome of artificial atmosphere. The kids (and they’re all teenagers, which is exactly what I hated about THE HUNGER GAMES) run around in a forest, with castles (some with bakeries! some without!) and deer and giant wolves, and everyone goes all LORD OF THE FLIES. Our hero has to win this event, even with the powers that be (they give themselves the names of Greek gods and fly around with grav-boots) trying to block him since he’s not their chosen favorite. here, the novel delves into politics, bloody war, and survival at any cost.
RED RISING had a ton of hype, and it is worth it. It’s a frenetic read, almost too intense, frequently gory, sometimes romantic, and supposedly taking place on Mars–but you’ll forget that while you’re rooting for Darrow and wincing at the choices he has to make. There will clearly be more to this story, and I’m pretty interested to find out how it goes.
Received as a free digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.
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