Book Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Brilliant! I’m in awe. I have seen this book recommended many times and always dismissed it as a fad I wouldn’t be into. How wrong I was! This shows again that making quick, uninformed judgments is the ruin of one, meaning me. Red Rising is the best book I have read in ages. I have been unable to read series for a while, finding them uninteresting, tedious, and repetitious. Yet, I have already started with the second book of the Red Rising Saga.

Red Rising is a sci-fi book about rebellion and unjust society. It follows Darrow, a red, who loses everything just because the higher colors see fit to punish him and his loved one, Eo, for breaking into a garden. The public flocking sets him on the path to becoming the tool for the Reds to rise from the mines to claim the society they belong to. The book follows Darrow’s training and transformation to become who Eo wants him to be. He struggles between morals, violence, and survival, all in a society where it is acceptable to enslave people and kill others for rank; a society quick to sacrifice the lower colors for the amusement and training of the high-ranking colors.

The book is borderline between juvenile fiction with a young protagonist and adult fiction with its theme and prose. It mixes space operas, dystopian, and military fantasy books with duels, wintery keeps, electric shields, spaceports, and recordings. The book feels somewhat familiar with following the hero’s path with Darrow while playing into the usual dystopian future where the rich and powerful can behave and do whatever they want at the cost of the lower ranks. There’s nothing revolutionary about the book, yet it feels like it has. The book feels novel even when it feels familiar. I’m constantly waiting to see what happens next and how Darrow will work around the obstacles thrown into his way. The book is pure political and military intrigue with a heavy dose of the human psyche. It’s done so well that I’m in constant awe of the writing and storytelling. I have tried to figure out why the book resonated with me this much, and I think it is because the book is so well executed.

The prose is beautiful. It suits the military sci-fi and fast action scenes, yet it’s fitting for the environment of the medieval keeps and the hand-to-hand combats in the snowy fields and Ancient Roman-like atmosphere. The familiar moral lines feel powerful when they come from the characters in the situation they face. They feel real.

The characters are archetypes, seen in so many books, yet they are who they are and feel like themselves and not a loan or an empty cardboard. Darrow has such a strong voice that it’s hard not to like him. One of my favorites is Sevro, the leader of the Howlers.

And then there’s the story. We all know it: the hero’s journey: love, growing up, and fulfilling one’s destiny. But it’s Darrow’s destiny: the obstacles he faces, the choices he has to make, and the loyalties he is bound to.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a magical day!