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Red Rising (Red Rising #1)

by Pierce Brown (Goodreads Author)

4.25 · Rating Details · 105,245 Ratings · 13,665 Reviews

"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 t ...more

Hardcover, 382 pages

Published January 28th 2014 by Del Rey (Random House)

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Best Science Fiction of the 21st Century

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Community Reviews

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Feb 14, 2016 Navessa rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: EVERYONE WITH EYEBALLS

Shelves: favorites, fantasy, myths, arc, badass-mc, non-ragebeast-male-lead, saved-the-genre, mc-you-can-root-for, believe-the-hype, dystopian

*I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review and honestly? I BLOODYDAMN LOVED IT*

You think you’ve read a dystopian book? Quit lying to yourself. That was teenage angst wrapped in a shiny new package, cashing in on the popularity of this genre.

You think you’ve read about evil futuristic regimes? Nope, those were one dimensional villains that will look cartoony compared the assholes in this book.

You think you’ve seen hurt and suffering and despair and heartache? You’ve seen nothing.

You th ...more

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Dec 28, 2015 Rick Riordan rated it it was amazing

(Minor spoilers follow) Red Rising introduces us to Darrow, a sixteen-year-old miner who toils deep in the mines of Mars a few hundred years in the future. In Darrow's world, humanity has spread across the solar system, and has been organized into a strict caste system of colors, with Gold at the top and Red at the bottom. Darrow is a Red, but he is making the most of his hard life in the mines. He is good at his work. He has a beautiful wife Eo (they get married young and die young down in the (Minor spoilers follow) Red Rising introduces us to Darrow, a sixteen-year-old miner who toils deep in the mines of Mars a few hundred years in the future. In Darrow's world, humanity has spread across the solar system, and has been organized into a strict caste system of colors, with Gold at the top and Red at the bottom. Darrow is a Red, but he is making the most of his hard life in the mines. He is good at his work. He has a beautiful wife Eo (they get married young and die young down in the mines) and though the Reds live in abject poverty, they are a proud tough clan. They appreciate songs and drink and family. They also hold on to the idea that they are sacrificing for the good of humanity at large. They have been told that they are pioneers on Mars, making the planet habitable through their hard lives mining helium-3, and some day the surface of the planet will be able to support life thanks to their efforts. Some day, the other colors will join them on Mars.

Then Darrow's life is shattered when he and his wife are arrested for trespassing in a garden that is restricted to the Bronze administrators. Soon Darrow finds himself alone, bereft and marked for execution. He is plucked from the jaws of death by a resistance group known as the Sons of Ares, who show him the Big Lie of his existence: the surface of Mars is actually already inhabited. The other colors have formed great cities, and are allowing the Reds to keep toiling as slaves while the Golds and their minion classes live lives of relative ease. The Sons of Ares have a plan for Darrow: because of his dexterity, constitution and quick mind, he is just the right double agent they need. Using advanced genetic manipulation, they will make Darrow a Gold and send him to infiltrate the Institute, the training academy which produces all the top leaders of the Society that controls the solar system. Darrow's job is to rise as high as he can within the Gold ranks so he can assist the Sons of Ares in their eventual revolution. The only problem: Darrow first has to survive the Institute.

I found Red Rising absolutely compelling. I tore through the book and am anxious to read the next two books in the trilogy. You will recognize many ingredients from other YA/fantasy series. The tone, especially at first, reminded me of Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go. The big discovery of society's true nature was reminiscent of the Matrix. The caste system is like Divergent. The Institute sorts its students into houses like Harry Potter. The cutthroat competitions among the Golds is very like The Hunger Games. And the nature of the training is described as a year-long deadly game of capture-the-flag, in which the houses (all named after Roman gods) fight one another while the proctors float about them and watch from a levitating mountain called Olympus. That, too, seemed oddly familiar.

And yet Red Rising is more than the sum of its parts. Pierce Brown manages to craft all these elements into something new, something believable and exciting. I couldn't help getting swept away in Darrow's story as we follow him from the lowly life of a miner to the very heights of Olympus (literally), wondering along the way if his secret identity will be discovered, or if he will 'go Gold' and forget his rebel benefactors and his mission. The book is satisfying in itself, but it leaves a lot of tantalizing questions for the second volume, which I have already started reading. If you like YA adventures, like the ones mentioned above, this is definitely a book you should check out! ...more

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Feb 06, 2014 Khanh (the Grinch) rated it it was ok

Shelves: ya, dystopian, action, sci-fi, boring-main-character, try-hard, social-issues, gary-stu

Actual rating: 2.5

“Darrow. Come here. Come.” He grabs my shoulder and pulls me in. “Others may have failed. But you’ll be different, Darrow. I feel it in my bones.”

I'm sorry, was I supposed to feel something?

I suppose boredom is a feeling. Not a single tear was shed. Not for a single instance was a single emotion heightened. It was by no means a bad book, but the message got lost in the telling, and there is just. So. Much. Telling. The writing is fantastic, but the plot just didn't work for me. I was bored out of my mind for much of the book.

This book tries to be grand. It tries really, really hard to make a lofty, awe-inspiring political message. It read like a rousing Communist propaganda, the sort that would get a crowd of common men fired up, ready to launch an uprising to bring down the almighty ruling class that has long oppressed them.

Wait, this book is trying to make a political message? Something about freeing the oppressed? What the fuck? No. It is a story about how Darrow is better than everyone else at everything because he is The One. His life is saved by the act of God, or shall I say, the act of deus ex fucking machina every single fucking time.

It wants to be the story of a common laborer, a sheep, one who is content with his hard-working life, who is proud of the products of his toil because it supposedly means something. Darrow is the Everyman, the ordinary worker, the common man to whom we all can relate! Not.

If Darrow were a female, I would not hesitate for one millisecond to slap a "Mary Sue" label on him. He is bloodydamn perfect. An Everyman, he is not. The common man, he is not. Average, he is most definitely not. Fine, Darrow is meant to be perfect because he's the SYMBOL OF HIS PEOPLE. He's so fucking special. He was plucked from the mires of obscurity to save his people.

His perfection raises a lot of question, and this book left me largely unsatisfied.

The Bad:

Darrow: The main character is Darrow, and he is so perfect as to be improbable, unrealistic, and completely unbelievable.

Meet Darrow.

He is a 16-year old worker. He toils. A life of hardship is all he has ever known. He is a Red, the lowest social class, the dregs of society. He is an uneducated minor, and a miner (I make no apologies for the pun, I've been waiting to ues that one for ages). As the mad scientist who has been told to turn Darrow into a Gold says...

"Say we make his body perfect, there’s still one problem: we cannot make him smarter. One cannot make a mouse a lion.”

That's right. Darrow is not stupid, but he is uneducated. He has not had the privilege of a life's worth of highly selective education. His body is hard, strong, but unhoned in war.

And he dares compete against the Golds, the highest echelon of Society. The strongest, the most powerful, the most intelligent.

Only Darrow dares. And he succeeds beyond anyone's wildest imagination. He is so fucking perfect, and I hate him for it. Despite a complete lack of education, he is brilliant. Just fucking brilliant.

I don’t know the math, but I know the pattern. I solve it and four more puzzles, then it changes once more in my hands, becoming a circle. Mickey’s eyes widen. I complete the circle’s puzzles and then toss him back the device. He stares at my hands while working his own twelve fingers.
“Impossible,” he murmurs.

He succeeds at everything. Lack of knowledge? Fuck that shit, just drink a fucking INTELLIGENCE TONIC AND BOOM! INSTANT GENIUS.

Before I sleep, I drink a tonic laden with processing enhancers and speed-listen to The Colors, The Iliad, Ulysses, Metamorphosis, the Theban plays, The Draconic Labels, and restricted works like The Count of Monte Cristo, Lord of the Flies, Lady Casterly’s Penance, 1984, and The Great Gatsby. I wake knowing three thousand years of literature and legal code and history.

Where was that stuff when I was cramming for my finals in school? :|

Which begs the question, if Darrow can be artificially enhanced like that, why hasn't everyone else? What makes Darrow so special that his artificial physical and mental enhancements haven't been used to make the actual Golds better than they are?

It doesn't work.

The Plot: It just plods on, and on, and on. There was not a whole lot of bad in this book except for the fact that the message got lost along the way, and it was so incredibly boring. My friends promised me it would get better at the 15% mark. They promised me it would get better at the 30% mark. I just kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and things never really inproved. The first 15% of the book had my head spinning as we are introduced to the immensely boring and confusing world building. The next 20% was better, because hey! Darrow got ripped apart and put back together. The rest of the book was like, The Hunger Games in that you pitch a ton of elite students together in to a Lord of the Flies scenario until one emerges, victorious.

Maybe. The message got somewhat lost in between the whole "Hunger Game" survival scenario at a leadership training school, the Insitute.

My name, three bars beside it now, floats nearer the Primus hand.
Cassius has risen too.
But there can be only one Primus.

There's the hardship of survival, the fight to be the victor...the, um, battle against pimples?

People remain hungry because we’ve yet to build a fire in the castle, and hygiene is quickly forgotten when two of our girls are snatched up by Ceres horsemen as they bathe in the river just beneath our gate. The Golds are confused when even their fine pores begin clogging and they gain pimples.

Seriously, I can't even tell you what the latter 25% of the book was about because it was such a confusing, boring mess.

The Good:

The Setting: I thought this was well done, despite the massive amount of infodumping without definition. If you want sci-fi, you got it. The reader is instantly immersed into the world on Mars, the underground, the mining world.

There is a tremendous amount of terms that the reader doesn't know at first. The good is that the book doesn't try to spoon-feed its readers. The bad is that OH MY GOD SO MANY TERMS WHAT THE HELL DOES IT ALL MEAN?! The first 10% of the book had my head in a tailspin.

Frysuit, helldiver, Tinpots, clawDrill, scanCrew, headTalk, randomlyCapitalizedWords, etc. It was tremendously confusing.

The good is that the setting is eventually explained. The system of castes on Mars based on colors is explained, and about damn time, too.

The Gray soldiers prowl the cities ensuring order, ensuring obedience to the hierarchy. The Whites arbitrate their justice and push their philosophy. Pinks pleasure and serve in highColor homes. Silvers count and manipulate currency and logistics. Yellows study the medicines and sciences. Greens develop technology. Blues navigate the stars. Coppers run the bureaucracy. Every Color has a purpose. Every Color props up the Golds.

The technology is slowly revealed to us. The reader has to WORK in order to understand the setting. I like that the background of the book is incorporated into the story, there is no stupid "Once Upon a Time blah blah blah" shit type of dystopian background building here.

The fact that the book takes such an easy view of randomly killing off its elite citizens was well-explained, too. I usually take offense at random killing of your best and brightest, but I have to admit that this book gave me an adequate explanation.

“And you may think it a waste of good Golds, but you’re an idiot if you think fifty children make a dent in our numbers. There are more than one million Golds on Mars. More than one hundred million in the Solar System. Not all get to be Peerless Scarred, though, eh?

Darrow's Physical Transformation: My Fair Lady to the fucking EXTREME, man. Darrow is a Red. He is trying to be a Gold, in order to achieve that, he has to undergo a very far-out sci-fi transformation process. Bones are rebuilt. Skin is peeled off. Synapses are formed. There is a TON of blood and pain. It is fucking awesome.

The agony is beyond language or comprehension. I watch videos of it afterwards to distract me from the residual pain. He uses a vibroScalpel to slice the flesh of my thigh down the middle. He parts my muscle and skin with clamps to expose the bones of my legs. Then he peels off layers of the bone with a bonepeeler and paints new layers with his improved-bone recipe.
“Someone has to dot God’s i’s.”

The Political Message: This is meant to be a political parable, and it does it quite well. I could select one of a thousand sentences in this book and plaster it onto a Communist propaganda where it would fit in place perfectly. The political message in this book is loud, clear, and well done. I said this was a rousing book, and it was. The message of inequality is so clear here. The struggles of the Reds are well-depicted. You can clearly see the injustice, the betrayal, the deceit, and I understand the hunger that Darrow felt and his desperation to make things right for his people.

“This is our bloodydamn planet.”
“Through sweat and toil it was made so,” he agrees.
“Then what will it take to take it back?”
“Blood.”

An ambitious book, and one that many of my friends have loved.

It just didn't do the job for me. ...more

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Sep 17, 2016 Patrick rated it it was amazing

I picked up Red Rising because a *lot* of the people at Worldbuilders were goofy over the books, and, by extension, the author Pierce Brown.

Earlier this year, when I went to a convention where he was going to be in attendance, the Worldbuilders team told me that if I didn't capture Pierce like a Pokemon and bring him back to the office with me, I shouldn't bother coming home at all....

I got to hang out with Pierce there, and he was irritatingly polite, witty, and charming. That, combined with th ...more

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Jan 08, 2015 Kat O'Keeffe rated it really liked it

This was a little bit difficult for me to get into--lots of world building and unique vocab--but once I settled into the story, I started to really enjoy it! I definitely get the comparison to The Hunger Games, and thought it also felt similar to Divergent and even The Son of Neptune at times, but it's still very different and original. I didn't really connect emotionally to the main character, but I did still like watching his journey. Gritty and intense and very entertaining! A strong start to ...more

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Feb 19, 2016 Emily May rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, arc, 2013

“I am the Reaper and death is my shadow.”

2 1/2 stars. Red Rising isn't really a bad book - 2.5 stars still means halfway between "it was ok" and "I liked it", after all. And many other reviews will tell you how amazing most people found it, but I struggled to locate the magic that so many other people seem to have found within its pages.

Red Rising is considered and marketed as dystopian/sci-fi, which technically it is, but it reads with a dense wordiness that is reminiscent of high fantasy n ...more

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Oct 14, 2016 Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ Rabid Reads rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Every-frickin'-body

Shelves: science-fiction, dystopian, ya, space-travel, favorites-ya, best-of-the-best, favorite-secondary-characters, rabid-reads-reviews, cover-whore, it-burns-us-precious, buddy-reads-are-the-best, audible

1/27/16 - Updated Review:

Pierce Brown would be a Gold in the society he built, and it kind of pisses me off.

This is the third time I've read RED RISING, it's the first time I've read it since reading GOLDEN SON, and, more than ever, I'm convinced he's a bloodydamn genius.

AND he's beautiful.

It's not fair.

You don't get to be brilliant AND talented AND have those eyes AND those arms:

description

YOU'RE WELCOME.

In heels, I might be taller than him, but who the hell cares in the face of ALL THE OTHER THINGS?

Ev ...more

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Dec 10, 2015 Shelby *trains flying monkeys* rated it it was amazing

Shelves: end-of-the-world, read-2014, favorite-series

2nd read:
I'm a dumbass. I fully admit to being a dumbass.

I don't know what the hell I was doing the first time I read this book..because I gave it 3.5 stars. After reading so many shitty books this year I know now what a great book this really is.

This time it gets it's full five stars. Five frigging, huge, screaming stars. Stars for SeVRo, Pax, Mustang and the rest of these characters.

1st read: When I was a dumbass.
Unpopular opinion time. I'm sorry fangirls. I just didn't love this book.

I did ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 Petrik rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Sci-Fi & Dystopian fans

4.5/5 Stars

Buddy reading this with my favorites:
Sweet Mary, Sister Sarah, Tweebie, Jennymort, Innocent May

Let’s get the two most asked questions about this book out of the way first.

1. Is this book geared towards YA audience?
No, it’s not. The only thing that fits the YA genre on this book is that Darrow’s (The MC) age starts at 16 years old in the beginning, that’s it. Everything else from the writing, plot, world building are definitely in adult territory.

2. Is this book really similar to The ...more

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May 26, 2015 Darth J rated it it was ok

Shelves: disappointing, kids-killing-kids

Red Rising reads like a 12 year old boy’s fever script for an action movie. It lacks originality and borrows heavily from The Hunger Games. Don’t believe me? Both have a society split up into different fractions, depending on what they provide the world. Both have arenas with teens killing each other, while patrons look on and provide gifts for their favored participants. Both have protagonists who have signature weapons from a hunter/gatherer society. There are a few differences, but it’s the s ...more

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Nov 27, 2016 Dorreh rated it really liked it

It's like The Martian marries the hunger games, then the hunger games gets into an affair with the game of Thrones.
I think that speaks for itself, but let's elaborate further just for the sake of my sanity shall we??

I want to first of all point out what really gripped me in this book, because even though I liked it very much, I was 30% confusion, 20% outrage, 50% admiration. I'm not to great at math, but thats a 100% of how I felt. The gripping part to me was not the romance( which was pretty g It's like The Martian marries the hunger games, then the hunger games gets into an affair with the game of Thrones.
I think that speaks for itself, but let's elaborate further just for the sake of my sanity shall we??

I want to first of all point out what really gripped me in this book, because even though I liked it very much, I was 30% confusion, 20% outrage, 50% admiration. I'm not to great at math, but thats a 100% of how I felt. The gripping part to me was not the romance( which was pretty good, oh and that shocking last minute turn), or the action, or even the admirable albeit familiar setting, it was simply the touch of reality in Darrow's character. Most authors create a symbolic hero, self less, honorable, and self sacrificial to a point of outrage. This wasn't the case here. Although Darrow is a boy who knows love and loyalty, anger and betrayal, he is a touch more down to earth. Yes he is self less and all, but he's a realistic kind of selfless, a person with relatable abilities, a character that stands out, but is still only human. It started from Eo and her indulging him in her ideas. You see were this any other novel, he would have probably jumped at the idea of a revolution, of change, because well, he is the main protagonist, he is supposed to be wise beyond his years and so open minded and fearless that nothing else really matters. But Darrow isn't, he like any other real person depressed by years of brainwashing knows fear, see's the reality of his limitations, and is actually afraid of consequences. And why this was so gripping to me is that he is given space to grow, to overcome fears that are logical and real, he is not fearless, but he learns to be brave. He masters courage, and finds love where he looked for revenge.

Also the great page turner was the shock that came right before the game was over, twins?!?! Who would have thought, I had considered lovers or allies, but that one came so fast and out of nowhere it kinda made me stumble there for a minute. Even though i had a soft spot in me for mustang since the very beginning, and then she nailed her territory in my heart when she saved Darrow's life. And Cassius made me want to punch someone, even though at the same time I sympathized with him. Who can get over the blood of a loved one easily?

Despite all the great aspects this book had, I had trouble keeping up with the literature at times. The author did quite a splendid job, truly, but I guess his style of writing just didn't sync with me to well. There were times when I had focus harder on a sentence to catch its meaning, it didn't let me float through the words and let my imagination free like I usually do with books. So I guess those small confusions were my only true complaint about this book. But will I be reading the rest? Oh, definitely yes, wouldn't miss it for the world. Can't wait to see how he will conquer or fall in this tale. ...more

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Aug 27, 2016 Lola Reviewer rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, dystopia, science-fiction, action, masculine-pov, 1st-person-pov, big-disappointment, rivalities, slow-kill-me-now-paced, no-romance

This is the kind of book that truly makes you feel somehow...bad for only giving it 2 stars. It’s like it deserves more, even though I didn’t actually enjoy reading it. It’s a weird feeling but I have to face my thoughts: the story was mostly boring and I struggled to finish it.

The weirdest thing is that I LOVED the beginning and where the plot seemed to be going. We met some incredible and unique characters, at that point of the story. I wished for them to be present in it throughout the book. But they weren’t...

The only character we actually kept seeing, as the story went, was the main one. Such a shame since I wanted to know more about his uncle. And his wife...oh dear, I went re-reading the parts she were in since she’s the kind of character that brigs a wonderful atmosphere inside a story.

Again, before the ‘battle’ began, a developed world-building was presented, one that I only wanted to know more of. Then, when our fellow Darrow, the main character, went on the battlefield (which can also be called the school), I lost interest very quickly because there was only mischief, grief, pressure, fear, mystery, and savageness all mixed up together in the atmosphere.

Also, our main character changed a lot. He became...a God. He wasn’t like that at all before and I liked the fact that, for once, a male main character isn’t perfect or hasn’t the strength to ‘save the world.’ Of course, character development is not a bad thing but has to be moderated. And why was it necessary to make Darrow that perfect and respected and the kind of person that gives someone the feeling that everything is possible and that no giving up is allowed?

The writing was good but the pacing so slow, the kind of slow that makes it necessary for you to read a page per two minutes. Which equals 30 pages read per hour. Which is not enough, in my opinion. I guess it can differ from one person to another but I shared this with you so you know what awaits you with the pacing and that it’s not, as in not at all, a fast-paced story.

Also, there is a lot of betrayal in this book. Of course, I was expecting it but what I wasn’t expecting was for Darrow to be betrayed AND betray. At some point, before the main character was transformed into a God-like one, he was mean and ruthless and negative. The thing is, I felt like he had multiple personalities...

There is like 1% of romance in this book so, if that’s what you were looking for, I highly suggest for you to look elsewhere.

Obviously many people liked this book, so I can’t dare say I don’t recommend it. The first part and half of the second were amazing but the other ones were boredoms I only wished to escape from. ...more

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Jan 05, 2015 Natasha Polis rated it it was amazing

One of the most exciting books I've read in awhile! So glad I finished it now I can talk to Pierce about his book! Book talk coming soon on my channel!

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Dec 19, 2016 ✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, books-i-own, ya, dystopia, science-fiction, buddy-read, br-2015, read-2015

Mammoth buddy read with my Fantasy Buddy Reads confederates starting Jan. 2, 2015.

Rating: 1.5

Brace yourselves, this is not going to go well.

YES, I only gave this book 1.5 stars when most of you freaks out there gave it a 5 star rating. But it could have been worse and I'm actually marvelling at the fact that I was able to finish the book at all. Granted, I skimmed through most of the last chapters because there is only so much boredom I can take.

First off, let's get something straight: when ever ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 Sana Khalid °¤° rated it it was ok

Shelves: romance, young-adult, psycho-bitches, meh, sexy-hero, i-d-rather-eat-shit, boring, dystopian, dissapointing, what-the-fuck, fuck-this-shit

Initial Reaction:
*screams and throws book across the room*
WTF I WAS SUPPOSED TO LOVE THIS. THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AS GOOD AS THE AUTHORS FACE.

I am so disappointed and was not expecting to be DYING OF BOREDOM.

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●

Here is my rant:

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, but when it hit around the 80 page mark, I started to lose interest and get bored. I know, for many people the first 70 or 80 pages were very boring and it got bet ...more

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Jan 19, 2017 мαүғℓσωεя rated it did not like it

Shelves: fantasy, incomplete, nope, 300-pgs, male-pov, why-is-this-a-book, trilogy, buddy-read, sci-fi, meh, trash

Buddy read with literally everyone ~~(except Yammy bc she's a hater)~~: Em, Mary, Jia, Ry, Tweebs, Caitlin, Jenn, Petrik, Luna, Amber

DNF @ 7%

Personally, I feel that New Year resolutions are just lies that people feed themselves to feel productive while they continue living their life the exact way they always had.

But this year, I promised myself I would not confine myself to ~~trash~~ sulking when there’s so much the world has to offer.

So here we are, DNFing an extremely popular book 9 days ...more

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Jan 15, 2016 Robin (Bridge Four) rated it really liked it

Recommended to Robin by: Ash Wednesday

Shelves: 4-5-stars, kick-ass-heroines, sci-fi, ya, fantastic-fantasy, re-read, super-sidekicks

I might have liked this even more the second time through. Fantastic.

Dystopian novels seem to be a dime a dozen lately, some good, some horrible, so it is great to see a book set itself apart and really capture my imagination. Red Rising is a combination of The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies if you turned the volume up to 11.

I am the spark that will set the worlds afire. I am the hammer that cracks the chains.

The beginning was a little predictable, I mean to create a man with an epic quest there must be a great injustice done to him. Darrow is that boy/man, while most boys of seventeen but he has seen and been through too much to be a boy any longer. Married to his childhood sweetheart Eo at sixteen he works for his clan mining underground on Mars so the planet can be terraformed for future generations. He works hard to provide for them but it seems that they are destined to be low forever. Eo has dreams to make their lot in life better for Darrow to stand up and rebel but he wants nothing except her.

“You think a dream is worth dying for. I say it isn’t. You say it’s better to die on your feet. I say it’s better to live on our knees.”

When Darrow finds out his entire life has been a lie, that mars is already terraformed and has been for generations he is recruited to rebel against the system by transforming from a lowly Red into a Gold, the rulers of the worlds who believe themselves to be Gods among men. Now he must infiltrate their system and become the best Gold possible so that in the future he can destroy them from the inside.

Red Rising is dark and intense, full of intrigues and betrayals. Even though the beginning is predictable the rest of the book is not. Just when I start to feel comfortable with the characters and the roles they are playing the rug gets pulled out from under me and I have a very new understanding of the game and the society that constructed it. No one is safe and no one is what they seem.

I loved some of the side characters, there are so many that are slightly off. It could be because they are brilliant but it could also be because they are crazy, perhaps both. Servo was one of my favorites and I was never quite sure what that guy was going to pull next.

“I killed their pack leader,” Servo says when I ask why the wolves follow him. He looks me up and down and flashes me an impish grin from beneath the wolf pelt. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t fit in your skin.”

Brown has given us glimpses into a vast and complicated world. We have only seen a small part of it so far but what I’ve seen is dark, cruel and intricate. Throughout the story Darrow stumbles and falls but the transformation of him from the beginning of the story to the end was amazing and you get to see every misstep and mistake along the way to make you believe the transformation. I can’t wait to see how Brown follows Red Rising up. Definitely a dystopian worth diving into.
...more

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Jul 19, 2015 Anne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, dystopian, favorites, nook, read-in-2013, netgalley, mature-ya, arc, read-in-2014

I just did a re-read to prep myself for Golden Son.
*squeals*
For me, it was definitely the right choice.
I would have missed a lot of references...mainly, because my tiny dinosaur brain can't hold onto/recall information like it used to.
So.
Was it still as good as I remembered?

description

Original 2013 review:

This review can also be seen at Addicted2Heroines.
There's a lot of hype surrounding this book, and for once it's totally deserved.
How often can you really say that?!
When I first started reading it, I w ...more

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Jan 08, 2017 ☽Luna☾ rated it really liked it

Shelves: good-shit, badassery

4 GOLDEN STARS ★★★★

"I am the Reaper and death is my shadow."

I have had Red Rising on my shelf for quite a while now and never picked it up. I was really put off by the fact it is shelved as a YA book, a few friends mentioned reading it and I thought "why not?". After 20 or so pages I thought "meh" then around 40 pages in I got a pleasant surprise and a taste of how brutal the story is, this drew me in and I was then on addicted. You know it's a great story if the author has you smitten over ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 Melissa ♥ Dog Lover ♥ Martin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, fantasy-all, young-adult

For whatever reason I loved the first part of the book better then the last part. I thought it was going to be a cool underground Mars weird thing. I'm the weird thing, I know. =)

I loved Darrow and a lot of other characters but I never wrote any down but Darrow. Omg! I don't know what is wrong with me. Why can't I remember them, uh, because most of them I can't even pronounce, much less think of how to spell them!

I loved that Darrow was a Helldiver <--- that so doesn't sound right! He and hi ...more

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Oct 17, 2014 Steph Sinclair added it

Recommends it for: People who are looking for a different type of Dystopian novel

Shelves: i-own-it, i-loved-it, original-and-creative, action-packed, dystopian, sci-fi, i-didn-t-see-that-coming, male-pov, 2-am-or-later, books-i-should-hate-but-i-don-t, adult, so-glad-i-read-this, made-me-angry, 2014-release, print-arc, random-house, addictive-read, january, interesting-little-creature, 2014-reads

This is the first review I've ever written where I'm leaving a book unrated. I both loved and hated this book equally. There were parts that really frustrated me, bored me, excited me, and completely hooked me. I'm not even sure what Red Rising is really classified as. One half of the book feels very Dystopian/sci-fi while the other half reads like an entirely different genre, perhaps High Fantasy. If I were to even attempt to describe what this book is I'd say image Gladiator and Lord of the Fl ...more

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Dec 12, 2014 Trudi rated it did not like it

Shelves: series, dystopia, blech, the-big-letdown, what-the-bleep, science-fiction, 2014

Oh my aching, bloodydamn, gory balls!!

No please, I insist: allow me to put myself out of my own damn misery.

#repetitive, #infodumps, #shallow world-building, #repetitive, #show don't tell, #horrible characters, #repetitive, #stupid lingo, #boring, #made me want to hurt myself, #made me want to hurt somebody else #and this won an award? #you suck but not as much as this book, #when good ideas go very bad, #maybe i'm just bitter #am i drunk? #i wish i was drunk

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Feb 23, 2016 Faye, la Patata rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: EVERYONE!!!!!!!! NO EXCUSES, PEOPLE. YOU NEED TO READ IT!

Recommended to Faye, la Patata by: Navessa

Shelves: science-fiction, young-adult, series, dystopian, refreshing, 1st-in-series, arc, politics, survival, military, action, best-books-i-ve-ever-read, male-pov, good-hero, violent-but-fucking-good, academy-setting, packs-a-punch, games, fangirling, heart-doing-blackflips, depressing-as-hell, emo-done-right

EDIT: READ THIS FOR THE SECOND TIME IN PREPARATION FOR MORNING STAR AND IT WAS JUST AS GLORIOUS AS THE FIRST TIME. Like bloody hell, Darrow is a Gary Stu in all manners and forms but I am just SO addicted to this series!!!!

Read this and my other reviews at The Social Potato!

An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my thoughts in any way.

WOW. JUST... WOW.

And here I thought I've read all sorts of dystopians out there. Here I was, egoistically thinking I know the ...more

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Aug 04, 2016 mark monday rated it really liked it

Shelves: futuristik, teenworld

I thought I'd read a chapter or two before going to bed last night. now it's after 7 am; oops I forgot to go to sleep. it was worth it.

anyway.

so I met this kid named Red Rising by Pierce Brown. right off the bat there was a lot about him that I liked. he enjoyed the game of imagining a society stratified into different groupings based on profession and figuring out how that stratified society would look; he chose the color method as the way he'd group people together. I'm a Virgo so I'm all abou I thought I'd read a chapter or two before going to bed last night. now it's after 7 am; oops I forgot to go to sleep. it was worth it.

anyway.

so I met this kid named Red Rising by Pierce Brown. right off the bat there was a lot about him that I liked. he enjoyed the game of imagining a society stratified into different groupings based on profession and figuring out how that stratified society would look; he chose the color method as the way he'd group people together. I'm a Virgo so I'm all about compartmentalization and I liked his color idea because I've thought of that idea too (but who hasn't, it's a popular idea). he was really into mythology, specifically Greek and Roman mythology, and hey so am I. we really saw eye to eye on what a lame rip-off Roman mythology actually is, and we spent some time mocking how the Romans pretty much just stole and then watered down Greek gods to turn into their own. Roman mythology, what a joke! but despite their weak mythology, we both agreed that Roman society itself is fascinating because seeing how autocratic societies rationalize their toxic existence is always compelling. he also clearly loved the Hunger Games and Battle Royale and all of those books and movies about kids being forced to face off against each other because they lived in a world controlled by fucked up adults. so as far as our interests go, we had a lot in common.

I had my doubts about him, at least at first. the way he talked about people made me wonder if maybe his outlook was a little simplistic. but the more he talked, the more my doubts crumbled away. sure, he was a little one-note in how he saw the world and the people in it, but what I thought was a shallow perspective was actually a bit more nuanced - mainly because not only did he recognize the potential for change (at least in some), the understanding that ideals and goals must change or at least adjust in the face of reality was central to his entire world view. what I thought was static was actually dynamic, in its own way.

he had a thing or two to say about love and sex: they are central to life and so they should always be included in any kind of story - but it's boring to him when those things are entirely what the story is about. I definitely agreed with that. then he started talking about conflict and battle and he began getting worked up in a way that made me a little uncomfortable. but eventually I saw his point: namely, that stories about war - especially stories written for teenagers like himself - often leave out the sheer ugliness of it all, the rapes and brutality and senseless violence and the meaninglessness, all of that. he wanted to combine those ugly things with the idea that violent conflict is often created for the most base of reasons - because specific individuals and the people they represent simply want more money, more power, better jobs, increased status - and they don't care how they get it or who dies in the process. these ideas are nothing new but I have to say that it was exciting hearing them spelled out in such a passionate way, from someone who felt so strongly about them that he wanted everyone to hear these ideas as if they hadn't heard them before. I've lived a whole life and so I guess that can make me rather cynical, but I'm not embarrassed to admit that the pure enthusiasm he displayed really won me over.

I asked him about how he was going to accomplish his goals. he smiled and said "Look at this face, who can resist it?" then he pulled up his t-shirt and smacked his abs. "And you don't get this kind of a six-pack from steroids, you get it from killing yourself at the gym. I'm there every day man! That's how you accomplish goals - burn off the fat and build up what's useful. Muscle!" I wasn't sure if that was really answering my question but I laughed anyway because that kind of attitude is naive and cocky and amusing all at the same time. It's a fun attitude. I like that kind of energy, especially when it's combined with some thoughtfulness and some anger, and a driving need to show everyone what he thought about the world. I was a bit worried that a person like him would eventually burn out and turn predictable, that his rhetoric would become strident rather than exciting. but for now I'll put those worries aside. I'm on his team. ...more

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Sep 08, 2016 Erica Ravenclaw rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

☆☆☆☆☆

No Spoilers! Definitely colorful language!

photo anigif_enhanced-buzz-8005-1388866291-1_zps9e932516.gif

This is me. I have finished Red Rising, I don't know what happened, I don't know how I got here. I have too many words and none of them seem to be the right ones. Red Rising is not something you will see or feel coming, but there it is suddenly fucking up your entire 2014 reading year. I'm not even sure what this book even is . Mr. Brown debuted his first installment of what promises to be formidable trilogy with a no holds barred approach to th ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 Markus rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, 2015, dystopia

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.
I watch twelve hundred of their strongest sons and daughters. Listening to a pitiless Golden man speak between great marble pillars. Listening to the beast who brought the flame that gnaws at my heart.”

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest and poorest caste living under the tyranny of the Society. His miserable life is spent as a Helldiver with the miners in the depths of Mars. The Reds live without freedom, without future and without “I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.
I watch twelve hundred of their strongest sons and daughters. Listening to a pitiless Golden man speak between great marble pillars. Listening to the beast who brought the flame that gnaws at my heart.”

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest and poorest caste living under the tyranny of the Society. His miserable life is spent as a Helldiver with the miners in the depths of Mars. The Reds live without freedom, without future and without even the slightest breath of hope. But Darrow's life is turned on its head when a walk to a forbidden area and a public whipping change everything...

Red Rising is being advertised as being the new Hunger Games in dystopia. I do not normally like reading dystopian fiction, but I do see many similarities between the two, especially when the plot actually gets moving. It is obvious that Pierce Brown was heavily influenced by Suzanne Collins. Still, he also adds a lot of new elements that made the book interesting to read, at least occasionally.

But I had expected a lot more than this. I have been seeing five-star ratings and raving reviews here for quite some time, and even though I was hesitant when it came to actually reading it in the first place, I still had expected to be able to enjoy it a lot more than I did.

I found the first part of the book, almost the whole first half of it actually, to be terrible. I know I have several huge fans among my friends here, so I'm sorry about saying that, but for me it is the simple truth. The first paragraph or so was really well written, but after that the book was boring with a flavour of depressing too. Either nothing happened (most of the time), or tragedy happened.

And the protagonist Darrow, hailed by critics as the new Ender or Katniss (I have no idea why), was one of the greatest downsides of the book. There were times when he really shone, times when I cheered for him, but mostly it was impossible to see him as anything but an irrational, obstinate child who becomes exactly what he despises in more ways than one.

I did not quite like the setting either. The Society and the colour-based caste system did not really interest me in any way, and despite the fact that I enjoy Greek and Roman culture and mythology, it seems that it has for some reason become very fashionable for dystopia authors to use them excessively.

The writing originally appeared to me to be Brown's greatest strength. In the beginning of the book there were many lines that were worthy of highlighting and quoting. Further into the book, however, the same lines and expressions are used over and over again, and it was easy to notice that while the language used was not bad, it was not exactly impressive either. And the use of the first person present tense narrative, which I love to hate, didn't exactly help. Still, the writing was probably the aspect of the book that was least worthy of criticism on my behalf.

In the second half of the book, however, I did feel that things got better. I will not go into any detail about the plot or the character development, but the introduction of characters like Mustang, Sevro and the Jackal did really improve things. And while the ending was not exactly spectacular, the last 10-15% was the best part of the book by quite a distance.

So while I didn't really like this book that much, I didn't hate it either. It had some good parts. I do not understand all the fuss about it, but there are definitely questions raised that I would like answers to, and so I will give the series another chance after all.

If you are a fan of dystopia or similar genres, I would recommend giving it a try. You might like it a lot more than I did for all I know. Just do not expect too much, and you'll be fine. ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 Mary ~Ravager of Tomes~ rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, audiobook

Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars

Ok, so following Petrik's lead from his review, I want to go ahead and address the similarities between this book and The Hunger Games series.

There are comparisons you can make, but I feel like Red Rising took the extra step that The Hunger Games should have taken in order to really have an impact.

Similarities:
~ Futuristic dystopian society organized according to caste system.
~ Children placed in a combative, life or death situations for political reasons.
~ Main charac ...more

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Feb 08, 2016 Simona Bartolotta rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: in-english, science-fiction

Buddy read with the adorable Nina. You can read her review here, which you totally should, because my brainsis perfectly nailed every thought that abstracly floated in my mind while reading but that I couldn't put into words. Nothing to do with the gibberish you'll face here.

"I do not want to make you a man. Men are so very frail. Men break. Men die. No, I’ve always wished to make a god."

Red Rising is a difficult book. If you haven't read it yet and every time your eyes come across this title a ...more

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Jul 24, 2016 Kyle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

What a great book! Simply could not put it down!

Mankind has spread throughout the solar system and has evolved into a color based caste system. Each color evolving physically and mentally according to the role they play in Society. Golds rule supreme and Reds occupy the lowest level in this future Society.

Darrow is a Red working as miner on Mars. He happily believes he is making sacrifices so that Mars can be terraformed for everyone. That one day he and his people, the Reds, can move up and li

...more

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Jan 28, 2017 Kimi is currently reading it

Due to popular demand, I'm finally reading this book. I hope it's as great as you guys say it is.

Also, Pierce Brown is bae.

Also, I ship Piersha.

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
YA Buddy Readers'...: Red Rising by Pierce Brown - Restarting February 28th 2017	131	257	Jan 29, 2017 11:54AM
Red Rising Society: Songs that Remind you of Red Rising	20	139	Jan 27, 2017 05:54AM
TCSBookclub: Was the low amount of cheating really realistic?	1	5	Jan 25, 2017 07:12AM
TCSBookclub: The old and the new.	1	2	Jan 25, 2017 07:09AM
Is this book too similar to Red Rising?	3	55	Jan 25, 2017 04:34AM
TCSBookclub: Was the Society so bad?	1	3	Jan 24, 2017 01:14PM

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About Pierce Brown

Pierce Brown's first novel, RED RISING (Del Rey Books), debuts January 28, 2014. It is the first installment in The Red Rising Trilogy.

Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for his cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating college in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunate ...more

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Red Rising (3 books)

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Quotes from Red Rising

“You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do.” — 478 likes

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.” — 391 likes

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