Red Rising

Title: Red Rising
Author: Pierce Brown
Genre: Sci Fi/Fantasy
Source: Paperback
Rating:  DNF


Darrow is a member of lowest caste in society.  Even when his group makes enough to earn additional supplies it is given to someone else.  He lives his life believing he is making life suitable on Mars.  But then his kin are betrayed and his wife taken away and killed.  He discovers that humanity has reached the surface years ago and his kind have been forced to be slaves for those in the surface cities.  Darrow sacrifices everything he knows to infiltrate the system and is then forced to compete for his life against the best of the Gold society.  Can he bring down his enemies?  Will his sacrifices be in vain or will he prove successful?

I had seen those book on the shelves at stores and it kept popping up as a recommended read.  The premise sounds interesting and something I might like.  But I could not get into it.  I tried for a few chapters and felt nothing compelling me to read the book farther.  I had no emotions for the characters even when Darrow losses Eo, I felt nothing, and I should have.  People kept telling me to keep with it and it gets better...but it does not. I couldn't finish it.


The characters are completely unrealistic.  In the opening sequence we see Darrow have a complete disregard for not only himself but his team.  He is hotheaded and would not listen to his crew when they told him to wait, and surprise it works out for him and everyone is clapping him on the back.  Wait...he just endangered all their lives but yes lets celebrate his cockiness.  We are meant to feel for him as he is of the lowest castes and has not had the privileges of the Gold caste and is therefore completely uneducated and naïve in a sense.


I feel like the book was trying to make a statement, some sort of message but it got lost along the way.  It being compared to Hunger Games and other dystopian novels and I didn't get the feel of any of that other than the kid from the lower class gets pitted against peers from other societies.  The writing is difficult to follow and understand.  There were times I had to go back and re-read things to make sure I got what Brown was trying to say.  Granted there are moments when the book has some great quotes such as:


"  will dive to hell in hopes of one day rising to freedom."


but all the preceding sentences were choppy and short:


"I will rise.  I will attend the Academy.  I will learn to lead fleets.  I will win.  I will sharpen myself into a sword.  I will give my soul."


There could have been a greater effect on the reader if the sentence structure was different and appealing.  This book was not appealing.  It is tiring to read and exhausting, it makes the writing flat and hard to evoke emotions.  The novel feels like it tries to hard to be something, to be an epic political tale of triumph, but it falls short...way way short.  I do not recommend.