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Title: Red Rising
Series: Red Rising
Author: Pierce Brown
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 400
Format: Kindle Digital Edition
Our culture has stratified into Colors. Darrow is a Red, working in
the mines of Mars to make it habitable for the masses of Earth. When his
wife is killed and he himself smuggled out of the mines, change is in
the wind.
Everything Darrow has been taught has been a lie. Humanity spans the
Solar System and the Reds toil for the pleasure of the other colors.
They are slaves. Turned into a Gold, Darrow must now infiltrate Gold
Society and try his best to bring it to its knees. But first he must
survive the Academy and its no holds barred weeding out process. The
Golds rule because they are as brutal with their own culling as they are
in dominating the other colors.
Holy Smokes!! (long for me review ahead)
First things first. A huge thanks to
Dang Rover for
reviewing this trilogy and explicitly stating that this was NOT young
adult. I had seen glowing reviews, but everything led me to believe it
was YA and I just wasn't interested. However, Dang was right, this is
definitely not YA. I can see why I thought it was though. On the cover,
it has a blurb by that asinine author Scott Sigler saying:
"Ender, Katniss and now Darrow!"
Then the continual references in reviews to the Hunger Games. Also
the fact that Darrow is 16-18 during this book. All the YA tags too. And
the publisher promoting it as YA on various outlets.
So let's deconstruct WHY this isn't actually YA, shall we?
Darrow himself. While he is 16 at the beginning of the book, he is
already married and a skilled and ethical worker. He believes in what he
is doing and that the sacrifices everyone in the Red community is
making are worth it because it betters humanity. In other words, he has
already grown up by the time we meet him. The whole death of his wife
and revelations about society do not essentially change him. He is
already formed in his character. In this same vein, as he goes through
the Academy test, what he experiences is not something new, as it is for
other young Golds. Deprivation, violence, the hard knocks of life, are
all things he already knows about.
The violence level. I gave this my ultra-violence tag and it
definitely deserves it. It also pushes the book clearly into the adult
section. Violence is a huge part of this book, as it is the way the
Gold's weed out the weak. It is brutal, it is harsh, it is explicit at
times and it is unrelenting. There is rape. Thankfully, not graphic or
sordid, but it plays a large part in several instances and people should
be aware of that.
Finally, Darrow's focus on his mission. There are several times where
he lets things happen that are wrong because his job is to become a
high ranking Gold. He feels bad about it but knows his mission must come
first. As an adult, I can separate from that. I sure wouldn't want to
expose any young minds to that kind of thinking though. It is very much
a "Ends Justifying the Means" kind of philosophy being displayed. I
find the underlying philosophy to be highly questionable at best and
wouldn't want to expose a young mind to it before said young mind had
already had a solid base from which to judge for itself. Kind of like a
very dangerous rock climb. After some experience, or with an experienced
rock climber, you can let them have at it. But before? You'd be
criminally negligent in letting them try to navigate this by themselves.
So those are the reasons why this isn't YA. I also find it distasteful that the publishers are pushing it as such.
Now on to a more "regular" review.
Again, I say "Holy Smokes!!!"
I read this book in ONE sitting. I stayed up until 2am to finish it. I
paid for that the next day, and I'll keep that in mind for when I read
the next book. Probably save it for a weekend. It dragged me in and kept
me glued to my kindle until the very last page.
Darrow's narration could be at times a bit flowery and I did find
myself thinking once or twice "nobody is going to talk or think like
that". However, it worked out ok.
The action was incredible. The battle in the Academy was awesome.
Taking up almost a whole year, we get to see fighting from one on one to
group tactics. We also get to see the class take on the Proctors [the
Gold's assigned to oversee the whole process] because of their
corruption. Having the Proctor's be corrupt also added an additional
level of tactics, as Darrow not only had to overcome his classmates, but
the Proctors as well, who were experienced Golds.
I also enjoyed how Brown made Darrow think and choose between several
goals at once. Does he want revenge for the killing of his wife? What
does he do when finds out he isn't the only Red turned into a Gold? Can
he fall in love a second time? Can he put up with serving someone who
pretty much embodies evil to further his aims?
Loved this book and am really looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy as I get around to it.
