Red Rising by Pierce Brown is one of those books that I heard mentioned by people, but it never quite made it to my radar. At some point I heard another person talk about it and that must have been critical mass for me to decide I should probably read it.
Revolution can
be messy, but a little rebellion now and then is a good thing. In Red Rising, the
population is divided into strict classes defined by colors. No one steps
outside of their class boundary. Our hero, Darrow and his friends and family
are “Reds,” the lowest class. They are little better than slaves working in the
mines of Mars. They are lied to. They are horribly oppressed in ways that are
at times hard to read. But you need to read about it. You need to see how bad
it is, so it will be that much sweeter when he sets himself on a course to
right the wrong. He will fight the good fight.
Darrow is
recruited into a revolutionary group. His body in modified so he can pass for a
“Gold,” the elite, the ruling class, who know they are better than everyone
else. Yes, the Golds are easy to hate . . . at first. But Darrow gets to see the
world through their eyes and has to team up with some of them in a grueling
test of grit and leadership. The test lasts most of a year and takes on almost
a Hunger Games vibe. The ultimate prize: to gain a position of power.
For Darrow, this would mean he might have the means to change the system, to
throw the bastards out.
It is a good
story of revolution, or rather prerevolution. The events in this book are the
things Darrow has to go through before he can have his revolution. That does
not mean the events in this book are inconsequential or boring. There is
nothing boring about Red Rising.
Once I actually
started to read Red Rising, it was hard to put down.
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