Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Title: Red Rising

Series: Red Rising #1

Author: Pierce Brown

Published by: Del Rey (Randon House) on January 28th 2014

Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy

Format: Hardcover

Source: Public Library

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Goodreads Synopsis: The war begins...

Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars. Generations of Helldivers have spent their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that one day people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.

Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. Mars is habitable - and indeed has been inhabited for generations by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. The Golds regard Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

With the help of a mysterious group of rebels, Darrow disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside.

But the command school is a battlefield. And Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda...

My Review: As soon as I heard about this book I knew I had to have it, but it is so damn expensive and I am a poor student. Then praise be, my library got it and I was the first person to check it out in all its shiny and new sexiness.

I first heard about this book from an Adventures of a Book Junkie post where she recapped an interview at a Red Rising book signing. I enjoyed Pierce’s answers, especially where he says he likes Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon, two of my favourite people. Then I may have fallen in love with him a little bit and I may or may not have cyber stalked him but I definitely did go and find out more about the book.

The book follows Darrow, he and his people are miners on Mars, mining for the element that will make the red planet liveable, so when life on planet Earth is no longer sustainable, humanity can survive on Mars – or so they think. In truth, Mars has been liveable for many years and Darrow’s people have been lied to. Mars has a caste system and each caste is colour coded, with Golds at the top and Reds at the bottom. Darrow is a Red. After his young wife is killed by a Gold and the truth has been revealed to him, he joins a resistance group. After some physical alteration, training and lessons, Darrow is given a new identity as a Gold. With this new identity he is entered into a school that sorts the wheat from the chaff, a survival of the fittest battle school and those who survive will be the future leaders of Mars and her colonies. Darrow’s goal is to win and make his way to the top of Gold society, so he can bring it down.

It is dark, it is brutal, it is at times heart-breaking and it is definitely not YA. I BLOODYDAMN LOVE THIS BOOK and I am itching to read the next one, Golden Son. I don’t even know if I can do the book justice with this review, I don’t think I have the words to describe how great it is. Also this book has so much going on that I don’t want to give anything away that will spoil it, but I will do my best.

Darrow is a great, well developed character who goes through so much growth, from a simple miner to a leader of men. Darrow is not perfect, he is very human and he makes mistakes but he learns from his mistakes to become a better person and thats one of the things that I love about him.

Darrow isn’t the only wonderful character in the book, there are many, but that’s all I will say about the characters because they and their interactions with each other are so complex it’s hard to talk about them without being spoilery.

I love the world that Pierce has created and I feel that how humanity got to where they are is plausible. There is still a lot to learn about the world, its history and political system, but I am sure all that will be developed in the other two books.

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The story starts out quite slow but its not too long before it picks up and gets to the really good stuff. So, if you start this book and wonder if you have the same book every one has been raving about because not a lot is happening, keep going. Trust me it is worth it.

I could go on and on about this book but I won't, because then this post will be too long and you dont want to read that. What you do want to read is Red Rising - what are you still doing here? Go my lovelies and get your hands on this book. Happy reading.

ALL THE BLOODY DAMN STARS