Red Rising by Pierce Brown turned out to be one of those books I couldn’t put down, but it took a while for me to realize it.
It caught me by surprise. Red Rising came to me on the wings of an eMail from amazon.com. They felt it was something I might like and it was on sale! Amazon has me pegged for a fool. They put something on sale and tell me I’ll like it and expect me to buy it. Well… it worked. I bought an eBook version.
Even then, I tossed it into my digital library and didn’t give it a lot of thought. It weeks later when I was looking at my library for something new to read that I gave it a chance.
I put it down after the first chapter.
I don’t know what was going on that day. Maybe I was distracted or maybe I just wanted something else, but the book didn’t grab me. Nothing about it seemed bad, but nothing about it made me want more.
For more reasons I can’t explain, I tried again a few months later. This time the hook set firmly, and I was in.
Red Rising is set on Mars. Our hero and main character, Darrow, lives and works under the planet’s surface. He, and everyone he knows, lives a humble life working toward the greater good of civilization. Their efforts will one day make Mars habitable for the rest of the human race. This is what they’ve known their purpose to be since they were born. Or at least it’s what they’ve been told. Darrow his family are “reds”, the class at the very bottom of the society’s ladder and everything they hold to be true has been fed to them to keep them there.
From start to finish, I felt like Darrow was a close friend that I was watching go through a gamut of trials, victories, tragedies, and relationships. When he liked someone, I did too. When someone betrayed him, I got angry. I hung on every word and action of this young hero and wanted more.
Fortunately for me, and everyone who enjoys a good dystopian ride, Mr. Brown is not done with Darrow’s story. Sequel Golden Son is available now, and Morning Star is coming in February of 2016. I found this book much later than I would have liked, but late is better than never finding it at all.
If you liked The Hunger Games or Ender’s Game, this one is a no-brainer.
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