From the Bookshelf of Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy…

Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)

Pierce Brown

Start date: July 21, 2014

Finish date: August 20, 2014

Discussion: Book Discussions

Discussion leader: Charlie

Why we're reading this: Group Contemporary Novel Discussion July 2014
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What Members Thought

Jan 08, 2016 Scott Firestone rated it it was ok

I get it. When there's a wildly popular series, then we get a flood of books that follow the same broad premise. Or at least seem to. I think sometimes we create these links when they're not always apt.

Having said that, Red Rising certainly feels like The Hunger Games on Mars.

In the future, the universe has a caste system that divides everyone into colors from birth. Golds at the top. Lots of other colors in the middle, performing various functions based on that color. Reds at the bottom. They I get it. When there's a wildly popular series, then we get a flood of books that follow the same broad premise. Or at least seem to. I think sometimes we create these links when they're not always apt.

Having said that, Red Rising certainly feels like The Hunger Games on Mars.

In the future, the universe has a caste system that divides everyone into colors from birth. Golds at the top. Lots of other colors in the middle, performing various functions based on that color. Reds at the bottom. They're the slaves, mining helium-3 deep underground on Mars. They're kept in the dark--literally and figuratively--because almost none of them are aware that the surface of Mars has been terraformed.

Darrow is a minor and a miner, and he and his wife have a storybook, loving relationship. At least for the few passages where we see them together. (view spoiler)

The book tries very hard to be EPIC. To be the story of an everyman overthrowing his oppressive chains. Except Darrow isn't an everyman. He's superman, and it gets really old. The guy is perfect. And even the thing he's lacked due to being born a Red--education--is just taken care of with a magic +2 Potion of Knowing Every Dang Thing. What?!

So we have a Hunger Games style Capture the Flag game. But where the Hunger Games were at least interesting in their brutality, here they're incredibly boring. The Hunger Games was made up of a mixture of kids from different classes, so some were spoiled and snooty, but others were salt-of-the-earth people. It made for diverse and interesting characters. But when everyone is from the undisputed highest caste, then everyone is an a-hole. Why would I want to read a book about spoiled brats fighting other spoiled brats? You can imagine everyone talking with snooty British accents.

I did appreciate that he didn't info-dump the vast back story, terms, and societal structure. It's revealed naturally and in ways where we can intuit what's happening. But ultimately, I just didn't find myself caring about that well-revealed story. Red Rising was a slog. ...more

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Mar 29, 2016 Karen Azinger rated it it was amazing

A truly excellent dystopian novel set on a futuristic Mars where mankind is divided into Colors. I could not put this book down and instantly started the second. Bravo!

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