Red Rising, by Pierce Brown

Red Rising

Publisher: Del Rey Books
Page Count: 382
Fiction Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Fantasy, War, Space
Dates Read: January 1-3, 2016

Reading Challenge: 2016 Reading Challenge 
Topic: A book you meant to read in 2015
Series: Red Rising, 1

Good Reads Summary
"I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."
"I live for you," I say sadly.
Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.  Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.  But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so. 

Review
After having read Red Queen, and reading a lot of reviews comparing this book to that one, I was hesitant to pick this one up.  SPOILER ALERT: I HATED RED QUEEN, WITH A RED HOT FIERY PASSION!  I did not want to get caught up in another book that I am going to consider throwing into my fireplace when I'm finished with it.  Thankfully, Red Rising is so much better than I could have ever hoped for.

Brown is a quality writer.  He builds a strong and beautiful world you want to climb into.  No detail gets missed in his creation.  He has developed a story that pulls you in and consumes you.  You are there fighting alongside Darrow and cheering him on all along the way.  It was refreshing to read a dystopian novel that is fueled by a love story, but does not revolve around a romance.  This story revolves around pure, good old-fashioned, revenge.  Though our hero is technically a teenager in the book, that is easily forgotten, and takes on the mind and maturity of someone who is years older and wiser.  This is what I would expect of a dystopian novel.  A child who has been working hard labor since they could walk does not have the care-free worries of our current day millennials, so why do authors constantly write them like that?

For me, reading Red Rising was a breath of fresh air.  It was a format that we have seen before in dystopian societies, but it was pieced together differently, and for once it didn't focus on a teenage girl stuck in a love triangle while being the only person on an entire planet that can be the savior of it all.  Darrow's number one concern isn't about saving anyone, his number one concern is getting even for the woman he loved.

Give them hell, Darrow

Ratings (based on a 10 point scale)
Quality of Writing - 8
Pace - 9
Plot Development - 8
Characters - 9
Enjoyability - 10
Insightfulness - 8
Ease of Reading - 8
Photos/Illustrations - N/A
Overall Rating - 5 out of 5 stars

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