Red Rising by Pierce Brown

My rating: 9.25/10

As I read Red Rising for the second time, I was slightly worried that I wasn’t going to find it nearly as awesome as I did the first time, about five years ago. However, I was gladly proven to be wrong, as it was just as incredible – if not more - this time around.

The world that Pierce Brown has crafted in this series which spans planets and moons is just mind-bogglingly large and incredibly intricately layered. I still remember back to when I read this back in 2016, when I thought that this story was just going to follow a quiet rebellion on a small-scale colonized Mars. But boy was I in for a goddamn treat. Colors, hierarchies, and the technology are all soaked in political and philosophical considerations which I can now appreciate a lot more fuller than five years ago.

The concept of the Colors and hierarchies are rooted in the idea that humanity is not created equal, therefore exposing the supposed “Noble Lie” that men were told for millennia, leading to their downfall. Although I fundamentally disagree with the Society’s selfish politics and principles and its oppression of others, it definitely made me pause to think. Furthermore, Brown draws from historical Greco-Roman practices and cultural ideals, ranging from their ideas of the pater familias and power, as well as the importance of the exertion of self-control to craft an incredibly realistic postmodern day civilization.

I’m definitely very intrigued about where this story will go from here, since the narrative has definitely set the readers up for an even more expansive world in the following book, which will most likely have a much different pace and tone to this first one. What I hope most is to see more focus on certain characters, in particular Mustang, and well as perhaps Rogue, Sevro, Lucius, and Cassius. Red Rising featured so many characters, and was decidedly action- and lore-oriented which ultimately didn’t leave the characters and their development much screen-time, which is totally understandable.

Overall, Red Rising was an incredible start into what will most likely be an equally amazing series. In particular, I was especially moved by the scene where both Tictus and Darrow were whipped and Darrow gave his speech about how wounding others in the House also wounds him as their leader. And just generally, I loved how this novel got me thinking philosophy, which not very many books do unfortunately. Darrow was also just an overall great protagonist to read. Both his weaknesses and intelligence were constantly at war with one another, and the way he handled the game, both with subtle manipulation and general brute force was just fucking amazing.