Red Rising
Red Rising Saga #1
By Pierce Brown
TheStory
The future is a society occupying the planets of the solar system. With the entire society built on a color-coded caste system, Reds are the lowest of society and Golds are the elite. When Darrow, a miner in the Red caste who believes his people are terraforming Mars for the future habitation on the planet, discovers they are actually slaves toiling for the Golds to live in luxury, his entire life changes.
When his wife is killed for rebelling against the system, Darrow joins the rebellion and has his entire DNA transformed to look like a Gold. His job is to infiltrate the ruling class’ elite “Institute” - a brutal school for the elite children where they compete in deadly combat - in order to bring the system down from within. Darrow’s goal is to win the competition and receive placement in the highest order of society.
With Darrow’s entire plan hinging on not being discovered as a Red, he has to work to blend in with the Gold children at the institute. But the plot is even deeper than Darrow knows and he’s not the only one hiding his identity. In a place where he can trust no one and everyone has their own agenda, Darrow has to make life altering decisions without fully knowing the consequences.
TheReview
I literally cannot get into AAAALLLLLL the world building without this review being the length of an actual book so the story portion of this review is all you get. But pay attention when you read the entire first portion of this book. It’s so much information at once. There is a huge information dump right off the bat in order to give you all the info you need in a short amount of time. I had to read it twice. But keep going… Eventually the storyline continues on.
Darrow’s wife’s death was clearly the catalyst for the series but oh my gosh, it was still so sad. She was just an innocent woman. Even from her brief appearance in the book, I actually loved her. I was hoping she wasn’t really dead. But it was the event that pushed Darrow into doing something actually meaningful with his life. And it was also a significant motivator for those that had already joined the rebellion.
Part II is the start of Darrow going to the Institute which is where the storyline starts to develop more deeply. Essentially, the school is a simulated war between the school kids in order to prepare them for the fight they will be fighting in real life. Personally, I found this part to be boring. Then again, I’m not about the long, drawn out war scenes in books. It gave Hunger Games vibes.
About page 250, the storyline picks up. There is sneaking, surprising, and some relationship building along with character development. The other characters’ personalities and ties to the system and each other are brought to the forefront, which will set up for a good plotline in later books.
Overall, I found this book to be generally boring. Don’t judge me. I was super optimistic about it because one of my closest friends (also an avid reader) recommended it as one of her favorite series. But it seemed more like a set up for the rest of the series than an interesting storyline. Almost like it could have been half the pages and released as a novella.
On that note, I’m more of a romance/fantasy reader so take this review with a grain of salt. I’m still continuing the series because I think this book set up good for a dope storyline going forward.
TheRating
Storyline: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
World Building: 5/5 (but almost too much going on)
Spice: 0/5
Writing: 3/5
Overall: 3/5
Red Rising Saga
Red Rising
Red Rising Saga #1
Golden Son
Red Rising Saga #2
Morning Star
Red Rising Saga #3
Iron Gold
Red Rising Saga #4
Dark Age
Red Rising Saga #5
Light Bringer
Red Rising Saga #6