Red will Rise: A Spoilery, Brief Review of the first trilogy of Red Rising
Hopeful Romantic. Ambition. Betrayal. The spilling of blood down ship bulkheads and all over far-flung colonies. A society built around 14 classes of Colors, who are citizens separated into social hierarchies denoted by given jobs. A Sovereign who rules with an iron fist. Seriously. And finally, a quest to upend a ruthless ruling Gold class in order to make life thrive for all. Death begets Death, begets Death.
Don’t read this before bedtime!
That is a snapshot of Pierce Brown’s best-selling Red Rising series of novels, a young adult science fiction dystopia series about Darrow. As a Red - the lowest color of the Society - Darrow seeks to avenge the death of his wife, Eo, and shake off the chains of a society that prioritizes order above love. My sister recommended these to me some time ago. What I don’t recall is her saying how violent they are. Like, holy crap! Don’t get me wrong; I read violent stories, but these are some of the most vicious I’ve ever read. And yet, they are balanced with character arcs and humor. Sometimes intencially overbearing humor.
So I dipped my toes in. I read the first book - Red Rising - some years back. Well, It didn’t click with me, despite a couple things that I liked. However, I decided to trust my sister’s opinion & read the sequel. It is apparently miles better. At that point, I thought, “Just finish the first trilogy”.
Here’s my critiques of that first trilogy. I’m going to be as constructive as I can whilst being honest.
Red Rising (2014)
Liked: The writing style. Pierce Brown’s style is cinematic for a piece of literature. You can hear the details, see the images, like it is a movie. His protagonist, Darrow’s, has romantic ideals for freedom that are inspired by his wife, Eo.
The world building is obviously inspired by Roman culture, Greek mythology, and references from the real world. Easy to imagine since we, as readers, know about those.
A process for being “carved” into a member of the Gold class is harsh, yet fascinating. Carving is when a member of a Color - mostly Violets - is augmented or created by a trained Carver to be more powerful than when he or she was born. Essentially the super soldiers of this series. Darrow becomes one after he is seriously injured early on.
And the dialogue - Darrow can speak with flourishes in one scene or with dramatic declaration the next. Other characters, like Victra and Sevro, throw around heavy duty banter like siblings.
Middle of the road: The direct Roman and Greek inspirations. Yes, I mention these elements as ones I liked. And I do! They fit the author’s worldbuilding effectively. That said, Brown could have spun more… original takes on them. They’re used in heaps of other books and media. Of course, this is just my opinion.
Disliked: Parts of the plotting. It tries very hard to emulate other dystopias about starting a revolution, aka The Hunger Games. And I am a fan of Susan Collin’s books. The characters talk with a very high school-ish drama, which was rather annoying. The bulk of the plot revolves around Darrow and friends he makes in The Institute, a military training ground for Colors and Houses, battling in another one of those huge arenas. One “House”, who are colors with prominent families, has to beat the rest.
I felt that Red Rising had worthwhile ideas to play with, namely the Colored Classes and the setting. However, it reads like a bunch of high school kids that chew each other out with overly dramatic dialogue. My feelings were, "Ehhh".
5/10
Is that harsh?
Golden Son (2015)
Liked: Wow - this should have been the first book!! It’s everything I wished Red Rising was. Pierce Brown does a good job with efficiency - stuffing layers of context into bursts of sentences. High wire politics, scheming friends, grey characters, intricate fight scenes, gargantuan scale, and seriously… and an emotional roller coaster. Darrow begins to experience growth, and we see his flaws even more. Mustang, his new love interest post-Eo, takes on more of a role. She’s becoming a central character to Darrow and friends’ plan for freedom.
Middle of the road: The first half of the book is too slow-burning. I think the political chapters could have been more evenly paced if there were less of them/a few were combined. The layers of figuring out what is actually going on takes some sifting through the lines. I don’t have much of a beef with this, to be fair; they do add to the intrigue.
Disliked: The final plot twist. Now I don’t dislike it in and of itself. Not at all. Why I saw it here is this: why wasn’t that in the next book?! It’s wild! Imagine starting Morning Star out with that! Just cruising right into book three with serious momentum.
This might have been what the author hoped the first book would be. And it works out!
8/10
Oh. I thought the razors were greatswords when not in whip-form. Not Egyptian swords. Cool!
Morning Star (2016)
Liked: Back and forth scenes of characters helping one another, only to do an about face. And cause Darrow some serious conflicts. It’s honestly entertaining if not also gruesome.
The thrilling navy battles. As much as I enjoy chapters on ground warfare, I am a sucker for those. They remind me of chapters from the early Halo novels and from Amazon’s The Expanse.
The love that Darrow has for his friends, even the betraying ones. He strives so hard to have them see the peace he wants to achieve, in memory of Eo. Mustang comes into her own more and then more. And Sevro is crazy. I both like him and want to throw something at him.
Middle of the road: The ice planet with the Valkyries. Those characters felt underdeveloped. More so filler for the plot when a planet is introduced and it needed a culture to inhabit it. Like they were Golds with bird wings.
Roque... I wish that he was given more context. Another chapter or so to develop. His layers of character are there, just not much time is spent on him. It’s too simple that he sided with the Sovereign after such-n-such events.
Disliked: Why, for Pete's sake, would Sevro fake his own death twice AND come back from a syringe of herbs to help defeat the Sovereign? That was so far out of left field that It ruins his sacrifice from before.
Mustang becoming the new Sovereign. What did she do to be granted this? Darrow did most of the work! I don’t have issue with Virginia - her real name - being that, though.
7/10. A poignant ending to the first three books. Pretty good, honestly. The author ties up the story well - Darrow and his friends’ narrow victory, then hinting at what is to come in the second trilogy. That is, in Iron Gold, Dark Age, and Light Bringer. The conclusion, Red God, is being written. I can’t imagine how patient fans are having to be for that!
Thank you for reading my first book review! You can find the Red Rising series on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local major bookstore.
-Matthew