Red Rising by Pierce Brown
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Genre: Sci-fi
Trilogy. Continues into a second 4 book series.
Rated 4.44 Average on Goodreads between all 3 books
My Rating: 5 Stars across all 3
A series I told myself: “I won’t read it because it’s Sci-fi”. Red Rising by Pierce Brown is a highly rated trilogy that continues into another four books. Considered to be a thrilling, gruesome, and devastating adventure, Red Rising has taken the heart of many fantasy and sci-fi readers. Did it live up to the hype?
Spoiler-free Plot Line
In the Red Rising original trilogy, you meet Darrow Au Lykos. He is 16 at the beginning of the book and is considered a “red”. The series stands on a hierarchy of colors, red being the lowest and treated as slaves. Darrow lives on Mars as a “Helldiver”, a drillman used to mine resources in a suit and reach into scorching temps with dexterity and precision.
Darrow is married to a woman named Eo, who Darrow adores with his entire heart. She is a candle waiting to be lit, a believer in freedom. Their main slavers are “Golds”. Golds are beautiful people with light, sharp, and striking features. They are viewed as “Gods” by many due to their rein and beauty.
In order to keep this spoiler-free, I will skip ahead to say Darrow ends up being mentored to pose as a Gold through cosmetic surgery. He believes in Eo’s goal to allow freedom for everyone, and sets the goal to take down the Golds from the inside.
Throughout the series and Darrow’s journey, you meet beautifully written characters like: Sevro (My personal favorite), Pax, Fischner, Mustang, and Cassius. These characters play important roles in helping and compromising Darrow in his mission as a spy.
My Takes On Red Rising
Ahhh!
I don’t even know where to begin. I loved every bit of this trilogy and I am currently reading the first book continuing the series.
This was my first six star read in years. I loved the characters, the plotline, the setting, and the gruesome battle scenes.
Pierce Brown did not fall short to gory details. There are very graphic scenes through out which involved sensitive topics like: Sexual assault, war violence, torture, and murder. What was so great about having this detail is that you didn’t expect it. You would think something would interfere, but instead it carried through like a nasty promise. It gave me a rush, but maybe I just like reading about severing body parts to make a point, I’m not sure.
Even the slow parts of the story, mainly book one, didn’t feel like a drag. They were slow, but they always gave important information and something was always happening, Things like politics were talked through with dark humor, or debate and I was not “truly” bored.
I think my favorite details about this series were the characters. There wasn’t a character I really hated. I hated characters I was supposed to hate, but they were still characters with realistic traits. Each character really felt like a person and had their own flaws that made them more real. Although most characters are flawed, they were still likable. Perspectives and decisions were not questioned or confusing to me.
Darrow as a protagonist is unforgettable. He was so fun to read about. I am genuinely sad this series will come to an end when Red God (Book 7) is published. He was very likable, very broken and cares so much for so many people. He was one of those characters that saw the good in all and made this so much more fun.
10/10 read this series, read Red Rising.
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