What happens when a member of an oppressed class learns that the world he knows is naught but an illusion? In this sci-fi dystopian series, the lowborn Red miner from Mars, Darrow, experiences massive personal trauma and then has his world turned upside down as he learns how the Gold elites have been lying to his people about their purpose for generations. He must rise up to help his people, and he shakes the solar system to its core along the way.
I started reading Red Rising after seeing multiple positive reviews online and seeing a new board game being developed based on it. I have not always been a huge fan of modern dystopian books, but I was a bit curious about this one because of the positive chatter and the interesting-looking board game.
This first trilogy in the Red Rising series was written by Pierce Brown (author’s website and Amazon profile showing his other books). It contains Red Rising, Golden Son, and Morning Star which were released between 2014 and 2016. This initial series is followed by a second trilogy called the Iron Gold Trilogy which is still in development with the third book not yet being released. Combined, the two trilogies make up the Red Rising Saga. This review will focus on the first trilogy, the Red Rising Trilogy.
Note: Since this review is for the entire trilogy, I will not be able to include as many details per book as I usually do. I wish I had written individual reviews as I went along (because these books contain enough for that), but I got a little behind on my reviews. Read on for a detailed breakdown, or click here to jump to the conclusion.
Funny thing, watching gods realize they’ve been mortal all along.
Plot
Overview
Overall, the plot of Red Rising follows what you may expect from a dystopian book: an oppressed class sees their oppression, rises up against it, and overthrows the existing order. Red Rising roughly follows that formula, but it does enough unique things and does them well enough that the plot does not feel stale. The first book sets up a tragic backstory for the main character, Darrow, after which he is biologically reshaped to infiltrate the ruling elite class, the Golds. He enters the Institute where the Golds are trained. The Institute can be described roughly as Ender’s Game meets The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter’s House Cup.
The stressful, violent situation the youth are thrown into leads to a complex webbing of loyalties that keeps the plot moving along at a good clip. The main hiccups come from over-reliance on a single motivator whenever things do seem about to stall out. Multiple times, Brown relies on sexual violence against friends/allies as a way to motivate his characters. After a few times, it feels like he is cheapening a terrible act and is using it as a crutch. Another plot issue comes from the twist at the end of the book. Though it is a good and satisfying twist, it seemed quite predictable to me.
The second book, however, does not suffer from the same plot issues. Brown seems to have gotten his feet under himself and picks things up through the rest of the series. Darrow has moved up into the heights of the Gold aristocracy and starts turning their games back on them. He soon has stoked the flames enough to start a small-scale house war. Like the first book, this book ends with a large plot twist. Again, I felt like it was telegraphed a little too much, but I could not predict the details of this one like I could in the first book.
The third book continues the plot from the second book. The war has spread beyond the few houses initially involved and encompasses practically the entire solar system. Through the second book and definitely by this point, the book moves beyond the typical dystopian structure and has become a full-blown space opera with strong influences from military sci-fi and political thrillers.
Other plot thoughts
I compared the first book earlier to The Hunger Games and Ender’s Game. I agree with that comparison because it takes the team/house competition from Ender’s Game and pairs it with the battle royale of The Hunger Games. However, this series goes well beyond the YA style of those books with more brutal and bloody violence and more backstabbing with the house structure.
Basically, I am trying to warn you that beloved characters can and will die. Protagonists will behave in ways that shock and violate moral norms. Friend/enemy classifications are gray and fluid. This series is not a light read and is not suggested for kids or teens.
For my final plot thought, I want to review the progression from book to book. In the first book, the conflict is between different houses in a single training school. It grows into a conflict between houses and a single planet in the second book, and it expands to include the entire society in the third book. I find this style of progression through a series to be very satisfying. The conflict ratchets up with each book without losing sight of the individual characters navigating their way through the upheavals.
Worldbuilding
While the plots were satisfactory and unique enough not to be stale, they are overshadowed by Brown’s worldbuilding and character work. The worldbuilding in these books is definitely what sets it apart from other similar works. I hate constantly comparing this series to The Hunger Games, but I need to compare them once more since many people will view them as similar stories. Personally, I felt that the big downside of The Hunger Games was its poor worldbuilding. I struggled to suspend disbelief and take the world as it was written; I did not buy the idea of a region-separated economy like that. On the other hand, I did not struggle as much in Red Rising. While it also requires some suspension of disbelief, I found the world created to be more believable within its context. I thought that it led to more believable character actions.
In this series, Brown sets up a world where the different classes/roles of society are filled by people of different “colors”. The society is structured with Reds (like the main character, Darrow) at the bottom and Golds at the top with multiple other colors in between. What makes it a little more believable is that this society emerged once humanity had spread to the stars (physically separate and more able to be controlled), and each color is distinctly physically different. I cannot explain exactly what makes it easier to get lost in, but the world of Red Rising is crafted so well and so compellingly that it is fun to explore.
Characters
The character work is definitely the highlight of the series. Brown takes Darrow on a journey from immense tragedy to the heights of society. However, unlike some “hero’s journey” stories, this path is not a straightforward tale of progression with a likable hero. Darrow makes major missteps, and he often does things that will make him unlikable to most readers. Overall, his story feels authentic–like the way a typical person would react when thrown through so many stressful situations.
Darrow is surrounded by a rather large set of intriguing secondary characters that mostly have their own perspectives, drives, goals, and skills. Depending on personal preferences, each character (like a real person) has the potential either to gain trust or grate on nerves. Regardless of your thoughts on the characters or whether you would want to be friends with them or not, they are well-developed and good characters for a book series.
The only issue I take with the character work is how often Brown is willing to kill off favorites or fun characters. He puts his characters through misery so be prepared to hit an emotional low right in the midst of an emotional high. He has no mercy and throws them in the deep end with sudden and dramatic shifts in fortunes.
Prose
Brown’s writing is simultaneously beautiful and frustrating. He has a flair for the dramatic and gives his characters these epic speeches and eloquent arguments. However, if you think about it too much, those same speeches will seem incredibly artificial for the age/background of the characters and make them seem unrealistic. Also, they sometimes descend weirdly into the base and vulgar which contrasts the philosopher tone even more. My advice is to suspend disbelief in this area and simply enjoy being surrounded by tons of characters that sound like they could be dialoguing with Socrates–if Socrates were occasionally to break spontaneously into bathroom and bedroom humor.
Brown’s writing is also wonderful in the ways he draws on mythologies. The obvious areas are the use of Greco-Roman mythological characters in the Institute, but he also weaves in Norse mythologies later in the series. These little connections to our cultural heritage give his world a link to our own which adds just a bit of flavor. I found that it helped me get more immersed in his world and enjoy the story more.
Conclusion
As a series, I can recommend Red Rising. Though the first book has some rough edges, the series as a whole is completely engaging. This series hooked me more than almost any other book/series I read in 2021, and I plan to read the sequel trilogy once the third book is released. Once you get past some of the plot stumbles of the first book and the sporadic weirdness in the dialogue, I figure you will enjoy the colorful characters and empathize with Darrow’s struggles as much as I did.
You should read this if …
What happens when a member of an oppressed class learns that the world he knows is naught but an illusion? In this sci-fi dystopian series, the lowborn Red miner from Mars, Darrow, experiences massive personal trauma and then has his world turned upside down as he learns how the Gold elites have been lying to his people about their purpose for generations. He must rise up to help his people, and he shakes the solar system to its core along the way.
I started reading Red Rising after seeing multiple positive reviews online and seeing a new board game being developed based on it. I have not always been a huge fan of modern dystopian books, but I was a bit curious about this one because of the positive chatter and the interesting-looking board game.
This first trilogy in the Red Rising series was written by Pierce Brown. It contains Red Rising, Golden Son, and Morning Star which were released between 2014 and 2016. This initial series is followed by a second trilogy called the Iron Gold Trilogy which is still in development with the third book not yet being released. Combined, the two trilogies make up the Red Rising Saga. This review will focus on the first trilogy, the Red Rising Trilogy.
Note: Since this review is for the entire trilogy, I will not be able to include as many details per book as I usually do. I wish I had written individual reviews as I went along (because these books contain enough for that), but I got a little behind on my reviews.
Read on for a detailed breakdown, or click here to jump to the conclusion.
Funny thing, watching gods realize they’ve been mortal all along.
Plot
Overview
Overall, the plot of Red Rising follows what you may expect from a dystopian book: an oppressed class sees their oppression, rises up against it, and overthrows the existing order. Red Rising roughly follows that formula, but it does enough unique things and does them well enough that the plot does not feel stale.
The first book sets up a tragic backstory for the main character, Darrow, after which he is biologically reshaped to infiltrate the ruling elite class, the Golds. He enters the Institute where the Golds are trained. The Institute can be described roughly as Ender’s Game meets The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter’s House Cup. The stressful, violent situation the youth are thrown into leads to a complex webbing of loyalties that keeps the plot moving along at a good clip.
The main hiccups come from over-reliance on a single motivator whenever things do seem about to stall out. Multiple times, Brown relies on sexual violence against friends/allies as a way to motivate his characters. After a few times, it feels like he is cheapening a terrible act and is using it as a crutch. Another plot issue comes from a twist at the end of the book. Though it is a good and satisfying twist, it seemed quite predictable to me.
The second book, however, does not suffer from the same plot issues. Brown seems to have gotten his feet under himself and picks things up through the rest of the series. Darrow has moved up into the heights of the Gold aristocracy and starts turning their games back on them. He soon has stoked the flames enough to start a small-scale house war. Like the first book, this book ends with a large plot twist. Again, I felt like it was telegraphed a little too much, but I could not predict the details of this one like I could in the first book.
The third book continues the plot from the second book. The war has spread beyond the few houses initially involved and encompasses practically the entire solar system. Through the second book and definitely by this point, the book moves beyond the typical dystopian structure and has become a full-blown space opera with strong influences from military sci-fi and political thrillers.
Other plot thoughts
I compared the first book earlier to The Hunger Games and Ender’s Game. I agree with that comparison because it takes the team/house competition from Ender’s Game and pairs it with the battle royale of The Hunger Games. However, this series goes well beyond the YA style of those books with more brutal and bloody violence and more backstabbing with the house structure.
Basically, I am trying to warn you that beloved characters can and will die. Protagonists will behave in ways that shock and violate moral norms. Friend/enemy classifications are gray and fluid. This series is not a light read and is not suggested for kids or teens.
For my final plot thought, I want to review the progression from book to book. In the first book, the conflict is between different houses in a single training school. It grows into a conflict between houses and a single planet in the second book, and it expands to include the entire society in the third book. I find this style of progression through a series to be very satisfying. The conflict ratchets up with each book without losing sight of the individual characters navigating their way through the upheavals.
Worldbuilding
While the plots were satisfactory and unique enough not to be stale, they are overshadowed by Brown’s worldbuilding and character work. The worldbuilding in these books is definitely what sets it apart from other similar works. I hate constantly comparing this series to The Hunger Games, but I need to compare them once more since many people will view them as similar stories.
Personally, I felt that the big downside of The Hunger Games was its poor worldbuilding. I struggled to suspend disbelief and take the world as it was written; I did not buy the idea of a region-separated economy like that. On the other hand, I did not struggle as much in Red Rising. While it also requires some suspension of disbelief, I found the world created to be more believable within its context. I thought that it led to more believable character actions.
In this series, Brown sets up a world where the different classes/roles of society are filled by people of different “colors”. The society is structured with Reds (like the main character, Darrow) at the bottom and Golds at the top with multiple other colors in between. What makes it a little more believable is that this society emerged once humanity had spread to the stars (physically separate and more able to be controlled), and each color is distinctly physically different. I cannot explain exactly what makes it easier to get lost in, but the world of Red Rising is crafted so well and so compellingly that it is fun to explore.
Characters
The character work is definitely the highlight of the series. Brown takes Darrow on a journey from immense tragedy to the heights of society. However, unlike some “hero’s journey” stories, this path is not a straightforward tale of progression with a likable hero. Darrow makes major missteps, and he often does things that will make him unlikable to most readers. Overall, his story feels authentic–like the way a typical person would react when thrown through so many stressful situations.
Darrow is surrounded by a rather large set of intriguing secondary characters that mostly have their own perspectives, drives, goals, and skills. Depending on personal preferences, each character (like a real person) has the potential either to gain trust or grate on nerves. Regardless of your thoughts on the characters or whether you would want to be friends with them or not, they are well-developed and good characters for a book series.
The only issue I take with the character work is how often Brown is willing to kill off favorites or fun characters. He puts his characters through misery so be prepared to hit an emotional low right in the midst of an emotional high. He has no mercy and throws them in the deep end with sudden and dramatic shifts in fortunes.
Prose
Brown’s writing is simultaneously beautiful and frustrating. He has a flair for the dramatic and gives his characters these epic speeches and eloquent arguments. However, if you think about it too much, those same speeches will seem incredibly artificial for the age/background of the characters and make them seem unrealistic. Also, they sometimes descend weirdly into the base and vulgar which contrasts the philosopher tone even more. My advice is to suspend disbelief in this area and simply enjoy being surrounded by tons of characters that sound like they could be dialoguing with Socrates–if Socrates were occasionally to break spontaneously into bathroom and bedroom humor.
Brown’s writing is also wonderful in the ways he draws on mythologies. The obvious areas are the use of Greco-Roman mythological characters in the Institute, but he also weaves in Norse mythologies later in the series. These little connections to our cultural heritage give his world a link to our own which adds just a bit of flavor. I found that it helped me get more immersed in his world and enjoy the story more.
Conclusion
As a series, I can recommend Red Rising. Though the first book has some rough edges, the series as a whole is completely engaging. This series hooked me more than almost any other book/series I read in 2021, and I plan to read the sequel trilogy once the third book is released. Once you get past some of the plot stumbles of the first book and the sporadic weirdness in the dialogue, I figure you will enjoy the colorful characters and empathize with Darrow’s struggles as much as I did.
