Red Rising
Book 1 of the Red Rising Saga
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4.7 • 4.8K Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pierce Brown’s relentlessly entertaining debut channels the excitement of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
“Red Rising ascends above a crowded dystopian field.”—USA Today
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—Entertainment Weekly, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness
“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”
“I live for you,” I say sadly.
Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.
But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.
Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
Praise for Red Rising
“[A] spectacular adventure . . . one heart-pounding ride . . . Pierce Brown’s dizzyingly good debut novel evokes The Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies, and Ender’s Game. . . . [Red Rising] has everything it needs to become meteoric.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Ender, Katniss, and now Darrow.”—Scott Sigler
“Red Rising is a sophisticated vision. . . . Brown will find a devoted audience.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch
Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga:
RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The inventive first novel in Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series provides us with a fresh look at Mars. Darrow, a member of the hardscrabble Red caste, drills vital resources for future Martian colonists—who never seem to arrive. The truth is, Mars is already well-populated, and most colonists are slaves, trapped in the pitiless grasp of the ruling Gold caste. By focusing on the experiences of the colonized population, Brown puts a new twist on some familiar Golden-Age science fiction tropes about colonialism. Skillful world-building and multifaceted characters heighten the stakes for Darrow’s harrowing journey of class warfare and revenge.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Debut author Pierce shoots for the next Hunger Games with mixed results in this melodramatic SF series opener. Sixteen-year-old Darrow is a Red miner, the lowest worker caste on Mars. Darrow's people live in hellish conditions underground and mine the precious silvery helium-3 needed to terraform the planet. Darrow's father was hanged for performing a traditional dance, and when Darrow's wife, Eo, discovers that Mars's surface has been livable for centuries and then sings a forbidden dirge in public, she too is executed. Awash with grief, Darrow is recruited by the rebel Sons of Ares to infiltrate high-caste Gold society and help overthrow the government. After weeks of surgery and training, Darrow enters Mars's most selective school, but being accepted at the Institute is one thing; surviving a murderous hazing, ruthless power struggles, and a brutal war game won't be so easy. Determined to lead his people to a better future, Darrow will do anything to win. Pierce offers a Hollywood-ready story with plenty of action and thrills but painfully little originality or plausibility.
Customer Reviews
Best book I have read in a long time
Perfect
Amateur Hour
I'm sorry but the writing style is so amateurish that I just couldn't take it after 150 pages. I wanted to like it because the story has potential but the writing is awful. The publisher should have refined and professionalized it.
The reviews compared it to Hunger Games. That is more than a slight insult to the Hunger Games author.
I'm disappointed because, as I said, I wanted to like it.
Smoke dope
This book would go good with a big bong of dope otherwise you won't understand it,