Red Rising – 3/5 ✩
Red Rising is dystopian fantasy novel about life on Mars. The story follows Darrow, a member of the lowest class in the society in which he lives. He works day in and day out to make the surface of Mars livable for future generations, but he quickly learns that the surface has already been reached and Darrow and his people have been treated like slaves by the ruling class for generations now.
Very early on in the story, Darrow faces an unimaginable tragedy and dedicates his life to getting justice for the mistreatment of his family and his people, enrolling at the Institute and competing for his life as he works to take down his enemies.
Red Rising was Brown’s debut novel and is the first book in the lengthy Red Rising series. Throughout the book, Brown did an incredible job with world building and with character exploration.
Brown’s characters feel multidimensional, even (and in some cases, especially) the antagonists. His characters, especially Darrow, Eo, and Cassius, are built like warriors. They are strong in body and in mind and while you may not agree with all of their thoughts and actions, you grow to fully understand each character’s motivations.
The world Brown was able to build was incredibly well thought out – well beyond anything my brain could have drawn up – and some of the parallels between the world we see in the novel and the world we live in were extremely thought provoking.
My only qualm with this book – which leads me to a piece of advice – is that I think the novel is best physically read, not listened to. While a strength of Brown’s is his ability to world build, there are SO many moving parts in this story and so many different characters that the audiobook felt confusing to me.
The audiobook’s narrator was incredible and I loved the way he was able to articulate Brown’s story, so if you’re insistent on listening to the story, I would recommend also having a physical copy handy to follow along as you listen.
I’m excited to see where the saga takes Darrow and his loved ones next!
Anchored Musings 