Science Fiction Annotation: Red Rising

Red Rising

Science Fiction Annotation

By Pierce Brown

Publication Date: 2014

Number of Pages: 382

Setting: Mars and other Planets

Time Period:  Future

Synopsis:

Darrow is a sixteen-year-old, miner, and he is a Red.  Reds are the lowest caste, and they have been told that they must mine/terraform Mars in order to make it livable for future generations.  The Reds have sacrificed—living in terrible conditions underground—not knowing that it is all a lie.  The ruling classes live off of the slave labor and care nothing for their suffering.  Darrow’s wife Eo discovers that Mars surface has been livable for centuries and sacrifices her own life to inspire Darrow into action, knowing there is a better life and it is worth fighting for.

Darrow joins the organization the Sons of Ares who assist him in his transformation into a Gold—the ruling class.  He must undergo a complete body transformation while proving himself worthy to enter the Gold training academy, which is only reserved for the society’s elite.  If he is able to complete the training, he will be in a perfect position to infiltrate the Gold’s leadership leading to a revolution for his people.  However, the training is more brutal than he could ever have believed possible.  Although their society is advanced technologically, the training places the students in a setting similar to medieval times.  Divided into groups, they must conquer the other “houses” by any means they see fit playing at “war”.  The brutality can include maiming, murder, and betrayal of all kinds. Darrow may not have grown up in a society that prepares him from birth for this type of training, yet he has a more important mission—freeing his people and avenging Eo. 

Characteristics that fit into Science Fiction:

• Set in the future
• World-building—a new world is has been created in and on other planets
• Series based—currently has one sequel, Golden Son, but is intended to be a trilogy.
• Dystopian—The Golds would have everyone believe it is a utopia, yet Darrow knows differently.
• Advanced technology plays a part in the narrative.

Read-Alikes:

Mind Storm by K.M. Ruiz

God’s War  by Kameron Hurley

Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead

Sten by Allan Cole

The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick

We Few by David Weber

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Anthem by Any Rand

My Take:

I had been hearing about this book recently with the publication of the sequel, Golden Son, and one of my coworkers highly recommended I read this.  I had heard that it was a grown-up version of The Hunger Games, and it was very reminiscent of that book.  However, it is much more brutal. 

At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book.  It didn’t seem very original—people arranged into a caste system by colors; the lower class realizes the ruling class lies to them; a revolution is in the works.  However, I was surprised by the direction that the story took.  The training academy for the Golds is meant to find only the best in that caste, and if that involves eliminating the weaker Golds, so be it.  The war game that the students must play places them in a situation where they are stripped of all luxuries and must learn to conquer each other.  The lessons they are to learn in this “game” are bigger than just becoming a victor: How do you get others to follow you? What inspires loyalty? What’s more important, brains or brawn?  The setting for the game is what I imagine Scotland or rural England to be—castles and miles of fields and forests.  At times, that was difficult to picture. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, and I’m eager to read the next book in the series.  Darrow is a very interesting character.  He is also very successful at his infiltration and I’m interested to see what he will do to overthrow the ruling class.