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A review by kelly_
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
3.0
Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies on Mars.
I don’t read much sci-fi but saw this recommended somewhere and thought I’d give it a try, since they had it at my local library.
In summary, it is about a 16 year old boy called Darrow who is a Helldiver (high risk mining job on Mars). In this society, people are divided into a hierarchy which is made obvious through colours, Gold being of god-like status. Darrow is born a lowRed, which are basically slaves. They die young, so Darrow is considered a man at 16 and is married.
When his wife dies, shit hits the fan and his life changes completely as he’s forced to enter a world he didn’t even know existed to fight for justice.
I really enjoyed the world created here and how it introduces concepts and characters from our history, with particular interest in legends of Ancient Greece.
What I didn’t enjoy so much is it being in first person as he would think things that he couldn’t know a lot. There was also some inconsistencies, like Darrow being lowRed and naive but seemed to know or understand more than his limited world view would allow, even simple things like training and gym equipment. How would he know how to use any of it since it’s not something they had back home? He also becomes a pretty dull character, despite being touted as a God among men.
Some of the characters came across pretty cardboard like and some of the conflict fell short for me. Some of the made up words sounded very made up and silly, like the slang and curse words which were replaced with equally silly words. Some strategies of war and commentary on social behaviour will be pretty familiar but were still interesting, for the most part. The dialogue kinda sucks.
I’ve also just realised they make a big deal about wings at one point in the book but they’re not used or mentioned (whether to help or hinder) during time at the Institute.
Overall though, I did enjoy it and will likely pick up the next one to see what happens next.
Rating wise, after some thought, it’s prob 2.5ish. It has potential but there are quite a few issues with it.
I don’t read much sci-fi but saw this recommended somewhere and thought I’d give it a try, since they had it at my local library.
In summary, it is about a 16 year old boy called Darrow who is a Helldiver (high risk mining job on Mars). In this society, people are divided into a hierarchy which is made obvious through colours, Gold being of god-like status. Darrow is born a lowRed, which are basically slaves. They die young, so Darrow is considered a man at 16 and is married.
When his wife dies, shit hits the fan and his life changes completely as he’s forced to enter a world he didn’t even know existed to fight for justice.
I really enjoyed the world created here and how it introduces concepts and characters from our history, with particular interest in legends of Ancient Greece.
What I didn’t enjoy so much is it being in first person as he would think things that he couldn’t know a lot. There was also some inconsistencies, like Darrow being lowRed and naive but seemed to know or understand more than his limited world view would allow, even simple things like training and gym equipment. How would he know how to use any of it since it’s not something they had back home? He also becomes a pretty dull character, despite being touted as a God among men.
Some of the characters came across pretty cardboard like and some of the conflict fell short for me. Some of the made up words sounded very made up and silly, like the slang and curse words which were replaced with equally silly words. Some strategies of war and commentary on social behaviour will be pretty familiar but were still interesting, for the most part. The dialogue kinda sucks.
I’ve also just realised they make a big deal about wings at one point in the book but they’re not used or mentioned (whether to help or hinder) during time at the Institute.
Overall though, I did enjoy it and will likely pick up the next one to see what happens next.
Rating wise, after some thought, it’s prob 2.5ish. It has potential but there are quite a few issues with it.