Red Rising by Pierce Brown
For fans of The Hunger Games, Star Wars, and the Ancient Greeks.
WARNING: Spoiler alert. Read ahead at your own peril of series induced craze.
Darrow is a Helldiver in the underground mining colony of Lykos. He spends his days drilling into the core of Mars for helium-3 to terraform the surface to make it suitable for the people of Earth to inhabit. Life, if not extravagant, is good. Darrow is the best at what he does, he has a beautiful red-haired wife named Eo, and he thinks any day he will win the Laurel for drilling the most helium.
Up to this point, I admit that I was concerned that I was just reading another space book set on Mars. Well, it is set in space, and on Mars, but it is definitely not just another sci-fi book.
The world Darrow lives in is Red. He is at the absolute bottom of the caste system. There are Browns, Pinks, Violets, Greens, Blues, Oranges, Grays, Obsidians, etc. You are born into your color and you will die in your color. Golds rule the planet.
Darrow the Helldiver and Eo are not meant to last long in Lykos. After trespassing in a garden forbidden to them due to their color, they are sent for punishment. Eo sings a song of death and lament, forbidden by the Golds, and she is sent to the gallows for her zealotry.
“On Mars there is not much gravity, so you have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it.”
Darrow will hang, too, for burying his wife’s body. He is not supposed to wake after his execution, but he does, and he is now in the hands of the revolutionary Sons of Ares. Ares himself has a mission for Darrow. The Sons show Darrow what Mars actually looks like above ground; a planet that sparkles in dazzling Technicolor in contrast to the rust-covered underground colony of Lykos. Mars has already been terraformed. There are whole cities built above the surface. Darrow has been lied to his entire life; he was not a pioneer for mankind, but a slave. In a way, it must have felt how Dorothy feels when she finds herself in Oz after being in Kansas.
At this stage in the story, the light switch flipped, and I realized all I was reading was Greek Mythology. And if there’s one thing I really love, it’s a good, old-fashioned epic.
So let’s do a little analysis:
Lykos is Greek for wolf (which comes into play later on). It is also the name of a Libyan king in mythology who sacrificed strangers to his father, Ares. In Red Rising, Eo sacrifices herself for the Sons of Ares, and becomes a martyr known as Persephone. Darrow is delivered into the hands of the Sons of Ares to complete a mission for the greater good of Society, and he is our Epic Hero. Ah, Pierce Brown, you are sneaky.
The Sons of Ares have a mission for Darrow. He is to become a Gold, and infiltrate their society and rise to the top, just like a proverbial Trojan Horse.
So, is this just another geeky space book set on Mars? Yes, but it is also full of loyalties and betrayals, alliances broken and forged, grav-boots and a ragtag group of friends. The second book is, if at all possible, even more action-packed, but that’s another blog post for another day.
Written by Clara
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