SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
This topic is about
Red Rising
Group Reads Discussions 2015
>
"Red Rising" - Full Discussion *Spoilers*
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Kim
(new)
-
rated it 2 stars
Nov 10, 2015 08:14AM
Full discussion, let us know what you though after finishing.
reply
|
flag
My review: Red Rising begins simply, as simple as manipulating tons of steel, working through potentially explosive gas pockets while hovering over a lava field deep in the belly of Mars. As simply as a full life led for love, family and service can be. Until we, gently at first, then with shocking speed, follow Darrow through the rabbit hole to a Mars undreamed by the content Reds laboring deep underground, never seeing the light, never knowing the truth.By the end of this journey, we've seen death and sorrow, betrayal, redemption, murder, sacrifice. At times beautiful and then just as brutal, this is Darrow's heroic journey to change society and upend the universe.
There will be comparisons to The Hunger Games, and bless her, those are fantastic books. Suzanne Collins is a good writer. Pierce Brown is better. This book is better. The writing is one step deeper at every turn, motivations are just a bit more complex, strategy is just a bit more inspired. On the whole, this book absolutely transcends the label "Young Adult" (and, in fact, I would read it first before handing it to a young teen). It lives and breathes with authenticity, I believe the characters, I believe the novel. Every time Darrow's world is thrown for a loop, I clutched it a little tighter and read a little faster. By the end, I was inhaling it, I wanted more, more! And upon finishing it, I could not stop thinking about it, rewinding scenes, replaying dialogue. I had to stop myself from turning it over and reading it immediately again (and I still might!). I can absolutely say I will look back and call this one of the best books of 2014.
((Reread 2015)) Rereading in preparation for the sequel, "Golden Son," (which is mocking me from my book shelf now) ... I approached this with a more measured read, I knew I adored it the first time through and I was a bit more critical as I reread. Again, I loved it. Ever since Robert Jordan initiated me (kicking and screaming) into the joys of military strategy, I've begun to appreciate the beauty in a well thought out, ingenious military leader, and this book has it in spades. As well as everything else I already gushed about. Onto the sequel!
I didn't really see much of Hunger Games in this book (maybe because I hated Hunger Games) but I saw a lot of influence from Ender's Game. The way Darrow won despite the challenges heaped upon him reminded me of Ender at the Battle School. To me it seemed like the book came in two parts, 1) turning from red to gold, which is like a movie training montage and 2) the game
I kept waiting for a third part, where he uses his new position to win freedom for the reds, but I guess that is what sequels are for. I felt the book didn't really end, it just paused.
This was the first book I’ve ever read that was a real page turner that I didn’t like. I was voracious in its consumption. I wanted to know what happened next. Couldn’t put the book down. Then I finished. I thought back on what I’d just read and felt like I’d gotten dumber. The book to me was vacuous and devoid of substance. Everything that happened has happened before in other more substantive books (some were more substantive because they were written before this one). Very generic. In my mind it suffers from being late to the YA party. I truly am baffled by the book’s success. Full disclaimer: Not a YA fan and certainly not a Pierce Brown fan. What follows is the musings of someone who did not like the book. This does not mean that if you enjoyed the book, that I am smarter or superior to you in any way. It is only meant to demonstrate how much I didn’t like the book. To be honest, writing this small screed has made me enjoy the fact that I did read the book. A long time ago a friend was ill in the hospital. I picked up comic book for him that I thought was fluff and stupid on its face, as a joke. It was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comic book. We mused over what the publishers were thinking: “OK we need something outrageous that will appeal to kids. These superheroes need to appeal to young folks so let’s make ‘em teenagers. OK something happened to them... Umm turtles in a sewer with nuclear waste. They are transformed!! And they are Ninjas!! Their sensei will be like Professor Xavier!! It can’t fail!!”
For Red Rising I can see publishers in a room trying to get their next hit trilogy: “OK we need another hit like Hunger Games but how can we make it different? Umm, how about we make the protagonist male!!! And we make it take place on Mars!!!! OK not different enough. What if we make these kids different. I know, they are genetically modified to do certain things in a caste system. And we modify the modified guy to infiltrate the highest caste. Let’s make him super intelligent. OK to demonstrate that superior intelligence within the story would take up too much space and might challenge the readers. Let’s just tell them he’s smart. OK, we need something to really draw them in. Got it!!! Gratuitous violence and lots of it!! No YA novel will have near the copious amounts of violence and suffering as this one will. Let’s put them on the battlefield, but nothing like current military warfare. We need military battle tactics and maneuvers from the 1700s to demonstrate leadership. Readers will feel like Generals. No it doesn’t matter that no troops have fought with maneuvers like that since the civil war. Everyone will think this is cool and realistic. It’ll make it seem more adult. Oh and let’s have them rape each other!!! But make sure that the violence, rapes, and suffering are frowned upon by all the good, heroic people in the novel. OK we need a love interest and we need to make sure the love interest is never really in danger. She should have some connection to the “big bad” in the novel. She’ll be smart and clever but not as good as the hero. And… let’s put her in peril so she can be rescued. The damsel in distress is always a crowd pleaser. You know what Hunger Games lacked? A vernacular. We need a curse word to associate with the novel…” Up jumps Pierce Brown, hands on his hips, legs spread slightly apart in a super hero pose virtual cape flowing in the virtual breeze. “Bloodydamn!!”, he says “I’ve got this one!!!”………. {{slow clap}} and scene.
Monica wrote: "This was the first book I’ve ever read that was a real page turner that I didn’t like."........and all of the other stuff she said.I love it! Nicely played.
I love it Monica :) I've been wondering why I read this back in April and I can't figure out why I gave it four stars. I certainly have no desire to read the sequels.
I couldn't get past the first 10% and bagged it. Not for me.
I just finished the book. I liked it more than I thought I might. I actually came to like Darrow and felt it was ironic that he was able to become a better "Gold" than those who had been completely immersed in Gold culture. I felt that the school testing was a little overly long and everyone seemed to revert to being brutal tribes almost immediately. I think one or two of the groups should have run more like a Camelot, holding up the chivalrous ideals, than all becoming savages that scalp each other. It will be interesting to see how Darrow rallies the reds and if he will get any buy in from his soldiers. This book reminded (vaguely) of Uglies. I felt that there were some parallels between the beautiful ruling class and the ugly worker bees. Transforming Darrow into a Gold sounded like pretty surgery. However, I felt that Red Rising was much more developed and interesting than some of the other basic YA that I've read lately. The military strategy and the aspirations of leading with excellence were more mature themes to me. However, I did find it hard to believe that a 16/17 year old could experience mature love like a true marriage and I thought this was the weakest link as a motivation for overthrowing the ruling class. Isn't it enough to find out you have been lied to your whole life and used as a slave?
Some of the lesser characters were also interesting. Loved Goblin and the poet. :-)
Why are they mining Helium-3 on Mars? I get that it's supposed to be essential to terraforming, but isn't everything terra-formable already terra-formed? And even if it weren't and Helium-3 really were essential, wouldn't there be more effective ways to retrieve/create it than by class oppression?
Lara wrote: "I actually came to like Darrow and felt it was ironic that he was able to become a better "Gold" than those who had been completely immersed in Gold culture."That's not irony, it's lazy writing and cliches.
I think what truly annoyed me the most about this book is how it was written to pander to the movie he anticipated being made. Too much seemed too contrived. As I was reading it, it felt too much like he deconstructed HG to recreate a version that would appeal more strongly to a male audience while throwing a bunch of pretty blonde boys onto the screen for the girls to drool over. And I just did not buy into the dramatic transformation these renegade reds were able to accomplish over a few short months, reconstructing a malnourished, uneducated, untrained, socially illiterate kid into a well educated, polished, elite teen demigod. All the while the Golds who have all the facilities and advantages available to them and who have been brought up knowing how exceedingly important this one test experience was to be for them, would have made so little preparation - not making use of the same advantages. Just look at societies in the world today that value education; how the children and the families of those children sacrifice so much to have the kids tutored, polished, and primped not only in academics but also in extracurriculars, preparing them for those all-important tests and interviews. The basic premise of this book and the world that was constructed just made no sense to me. As Monica so beautifully expressed above in message #4, it was a compelling piece of nothing.
I'm following these comments with interest, as I've been seeing this book around in my feed for some time. I'm getting the sense that the book is over-hyped.
Mod
I will cherry pick the line I want from Monica's excellent review. I couldn't put the book down either. Whether or not I appreciated the literary form or the quality of the writing after the fact mattered not at all. I was entertained and entertained well. I think my enjoyment was increased because I haven't read Hunger Games and Red Rising felt like a copy of Ender's Game instead which I liked.
Monica's, Kim's and Sandi's criticisms are apt. If you are looking for Le Guin, it isn't here. Over-hyped? Not for me.
It took me a while to decide what to post. I really liked the book but I also really value Monica's thoughts on most books. I like to think I appreciate good writing and despise bad writing but apparently, sometimes I like my stories and Marty Stus more :)
Mod
My arguement here is that those societies haven't had true "Golds" until recently. Have you ever been around super-rich families? In my personal experience, overwhelmingly the kids are expecting everything handed to them, money, college acceptances, connections.
In China the governmentally connected have kids who don't have to work for college either (also personal experience). That part of the story I bought hook, line and sinker.
Golds are the Russian oligarchs, the 1%, the ruling class, the Sheiks.
The families you are talking about are the middle classes.
The ruling class isn't the military class, so why are the Golds teaching their children to embrace mindless violence? Even if the Golds were the military elite, they would want someone else's children to embrace the violence. The Gold school isn't there for mass entertainment like HG; its only function is to cull the herd. This is what society does to its underclass.Rulers need to be polymaths. The problem with monarchy is that the ability and desire to be a polymath isn't genetic. In fact, the ability to achieve most things requires desire, and you don't actively desire the things that you already have.
I liked the book quite a bit. It did have a few flaws...it was very reminiscent of Hunger Games (right down to the manipulating game masters) and other dystopian stories. I also felt the society was so over-the-top cruel and bleak, it didn't have quite the believability of even something like Hunger Games (I know, I keep using those two words.) But I'm willing to suspend my disbelief a little for the sake of the story. The other thing was there was quite a bit of brutality. I have been reading stories of armies killing each other since I was probably 12 or so, but the amount of bare-handed killing, mutilation, cannibalism (offscreen, thankfully), and other brutal acts that these teenagers went through and committed was pretty extreme. Not something I really consider "YA".But in spite of all that, I was really interested in this story. Eo's sacrifice was one of the most moving scenes I've come across, and it only took a couple of chapters to build up to it.
I started Golden Son and I'm pleased with the way it questions certain assumptions established by the first book.
This was too derivative for me, it was like the author put The Hunger Games, Ender's Game, Divergent, and Harry Potter in a blender in order to generate a plot. Also, the violence was over the top and off-putting, I wouldn't want a young adult reader to be exposed to such brutality. Sure, it was fast paced and exciting at times, but that didn't make up for the many flaws.
I enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was Great Literature. It was exciting and engrossing, with a lot of disguised, but actual, ancient Greek and Roman ethics and history used as a guide for the plot. Both the Greeks and Romans felt themselves a Gold civilization, and used the inhabitants of captured cities as slaves in their mines (the Romans loved using some Greek slaves for accountants, writers and teachers because the Greeks were so educated). Plato wrote of a perfect city, where people were slotted into jobs worthy of their mettle (metal!).I felt it was YA entertainment, and on that level, the book seemed directed mostly at the male reader. For the audience, and how ancient societies were really set up, it is spot on. 'Hunger Games' is popular and fun to read, but it seemed more general audience to me. Call me sexist, but there are gender-related tendencies and differences between the sexes (that said, I hate Romances and I'm female, yet I use kitties as avators and adore pretty unicorn horses).
Since guys (not GR guys) avoid reading like the plague, I can't help but be pleased to recommend a book which echoes real history at the same time using a science fiction ploy to grab an audience which may usually read two books a year! As an entertainment, I personally loved it. As a hook for YA males, I'm happy to use it to bring in more readers and recommend it to normally non-reading nephews.
If Hegel is correct, World Spirit is moving toward ever greater levels of personal freedom—not freedom to choose any thing, but freedom to choose the right thing. All societies claim to make their people free, and only find support when the claim coheres internally. When a society provides comparatively less freedom, it can’t get this belief to cohere and the society falls apart. The classic example is the 1000-year Reich, which lasted about 12 years.Societies that fail to move in the direction of Hegel’s World Spirit cease to matter. Societies that go in the opposite direction quickly become dysfunctional and collapse. So how did the Golds not just survive but thrive for centuries? This isn’t an impossible plot hole, but neither is it answered in the narrative.
I think Brown was recreating Ancient Rome on Mars. To that end, you could think of the Golds as Roman citizens, who were enjoying greater freedoms, at least under the Republic. But Ancient Rome was built on the backs of people who slaved in the mines, for example, much like the Reds. The life of a miner in Ancient Rome would be comparatively worse than what was described in Red Rising for the Reds. They slaved in horrible conditions and usually didn't live very long.
If my faulty memory serves, I think I recall some book saying slave miners lasted about five years until the work, food and brutality killed them. Galley slaves averaged about three years. Of course, the male children miners died much sooner, usually by an accident because they were often expected to work like fullgrown men. But my memory is not augmented like Watson the IBM computer, so please correct me if you know different.
So would mining on a lowG planet be relatively safe? Since the Golds own the Reds, would they receive better care? Roman mine/galley slaves were confined (often chained) to their work and sent there to die. It was just too easy for an unmarked (unfettered) slave to escape. But if you work all your slaves to death, eventually you won't have any.
message 24:
by
aPriL does feral sometimes
(last edited Nov 15, 2015 12:39AM)
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
I think the Roman slaves knew they dead men walking. In 'Red' the miners think they are working for a glorious cause, like the original Soviet Union population under Stalin. They have access only to propaganda, and do not know there are cities.What made 'Red' interesting is that the author showed how the 'Reds' were easily manipulated and stupified through tightly controlled propaganda, but he also showed that the Golds made their own class of society a challenge through deadly, seemingly superior, warrior ethics, like the ancient Romans did.
This books imaginatively explores the mind set of both social conditions, in my opinion.
I can't comment on how close to The Hunger Games this book was, but it definitely was no Ender's Game or A Game of Thrones.I'll give the author props for the use of Greek and Roman history and mythology: that was pretty cool. I was also initially interested in the caste system (which EVENTUALLY was described), the infiltration plot, and I enjoyed the section on Darrow's physical transformation.
However, after that, for me it was one un-engaging, messy battle scene after another, and I felt that I was slogging the rest of the way from the Passage onward.
Darrow was definitely the "Gary Stu", and I was much more interested in the Goblin. As for the other characters, I couldn't find myself caring enough about them.
I have the sequel on my bookshelf, and I likely will read it at some point. Maybe Brown will have found his stride and the second book will redeem the first for me. However, I will hold off on buying the third book. That will definitely be a public library selection.
Finished it. It gets better towards the end. I haven't read the Hunger Games (sadly, having the movies come out before I read the books sorta ruin my desire to read said books). But, I think this book has a lot of interesting directions that the author can choose for its sequel. But, I don't know if Brown will delve more into the political sides of things. I don't think Darrow at this point (at the end of book 1 at least) is intelligent enough to develop the necessary political power to lead a Red uprising against the entire society, basically. He couldn't even win the game without much help from the Mustang and some luck along the way. Despite that, I have to say the first part of the book is really boring and formulaic. There are two aspects that I don't find believable : how Darrow is "saved" and how Darrow is changed into a Gold.
The start of the Institute part is also a bit messy as Brown tries to introduce a lot of characters (but not all of them are quite distinct, so I couldn't separate a few characters like Vixus, Pollux or some of the more violent characters, they all sound the same to me). But then, that is how a society operates at the most basic level I guess, where your main concern is to gain power and to ensure your own safety.
3.5 STAR, just because the ending offers some interesting possibilities. Otherwise probably a 3Star for me.
Barry wrote: "sadly, having the movies come out before I read the books sorta ruin my desire to read said books..."I think I feel just the opposite. Aside from GR and the books my children recommend, it seems that many of the new authors I read are introduced to me on one screen or another (e.g.,Stieg Larsson, David Mitchell, Roddy Doyle, Richard Matheson, Kazuo Ishiguro, P. D. James, George Martin...even my introduction to PDK was through his film adaptations).
David wrote: "Barry wrote: "sadly, having the movies come out before I read the books sorta ruin my desire to read said books..."I think I feel just the opposite. Aside from GR and the books my children recomm..."
Maybe it's just me. But, you know movie adaptations are almost always worse than the books. So, I dunno, I don't feel like wanting to know what happens in the books if I find the movies to be bad. Sorta ruins the fun or enjoyment that I'd get from reading the books.
Also with the movies you can get the general plot of the series and then I'd feel there's no more surprise when reading the book. But, the opposite isn't true for me. After reading the book, yes you still understand the general flow of the movies, but it'd still be interesting to watch specific scenes or how they'd try to make certain parts of the books into the movies.
With the influx of YA dystopian novels being made into movies, unfortunately I stumble upon them from time to time on HBO. Fortunately, I don't watch a lot of movies. I do, however, have no desire to read the Hunger Games, Divergent, Ender's Game, Maze Runner series that have been made into movies (any loss??).
I guess the most important thing is I need to make sure I don't watch the movie before I actually read the book haha.
I think the issue may be the depth required to develop an ensemble of characters. Stand-alone films, like short stories, tend to be plot-driven (as was episodic television). Arc television shows, like narrative trilogies or extended cycles, tend to be more character-driven. The stand-alone novel is at an intermediate length and can be character as well as plot-driven, but character driven stand-alone novels tend to develop a limited number of characters. Film adaptations of character-driven books are at a natural disadvantage, and seem to do much better with the extended format available to TV serialization. Hasn’t most dramatic TV over the last ten or twenty years been character-driven, taking advantage of the media's format?
I just finished the book and like it for entertainment. I wasn't looking for the novel to get me thinking about society in a different way or enlighten me in any way. It was a nightly escape that allowed me to see the story unfold in my imagination's movie theater. Never have seen or read the Hunger Games with no interest either so I can not compare the two stories. Darrow makes a contrived but interesting hero not knowing who to trust, simply wanting to kill all Golds but still wanting to hold onto to his love of EO and therefor her dream. My son will most likely enjoy this more than me, but still don't find it a waste of my time.
Mod
First, I am a sucker for dystopia. They tend to be my favorite kind of novel, and even though the market is saturated with this type of novel (and trilogies are so over done at this point), I was not disappointed. Honestly what hurt the book the most was the hype that is was something great, so the big expectations make the reading more critical than if I had just piked it up haphazardly.
What I find myself considering is how this novel is thematically connected with Elantris (the group fantasy read for this month). I'm sure this couldn't have been planned given the voting system, but all the same, it's impressive to me. They both explore what makes a true leader of men. Elantris from a highly hopeful point of view; and Red Rising from a more pessimistic one. Both sort of reach the same conclusions: true leaders respect and inspire.
I noticed the symmetry too.
I have to say I just finished Golden Son and it really did a good job of building on RR. I liked Red Rising with reservations but there is a lot more ambiguity of who is good and who is bad, and it makes it that much more interesting. Plus we see more of the true solar-system-wide society and not just the artificial setting of most of RR.
scifi random generator kludge..out
Is it possible to read GOLDEN SON without finishing RED RISING? There must be some reason why it won the 2015 GOODREADS award for Science Fiction with a huge number of votes!
Mod
I would be interested on your take on GS without the RR backstory. It was a more straightforward story but I am not one of its fans.
I do love this book the world building great. the social system is interesting it got it all for plot. But Its got the same problem as every other fiction book an overpowered main character, being a red he doesn't have the same advantages as the others but the book just blows past this and say well he is awesome so its cool he figured it out. Now i know the main character has to win to keep a story going but Darrow knows Latin? Darrow know all the history hes never heard of before Darrow get perfect scores on his mental test even though he never seen technology other than mining equipment. its just boring to me. I just want the character to overcome problems not scenarios. whatever its scifi so 10/10
Good points about the overpowered main character.
He does learn an awful lot of stuff really fast that the Golds have been learning their whole lives. They cover the physical training and social skills but there's also just the whole background knowledge within society that anyone would be expected to know (sports, current events, gossip, media). Although I guess you could fake some of that knowledge if you have net-connected implants. Anyway, I think that you just kind of have to accept that as part of the premise and roll with it.
I finished this today, and I really enjoyed it. I quite like dystopian fiction, but often find YA to be too simplistic and formulaic, so I was pleasantly surprised at the depth and subtlety I found in this book. Yes there were some obvious plot twists, but also a few I didn't see coming. I also enjoyed the ancient battle tactics, especially the dead horse ruse! I like that it's not all cut and dried, black and white. As the book goes on, the premise of golds being bad and reds being the enslaved heroes comes under question, with personalities and characters who challenge previously held stereotypes. I like that and think it adds more believability to the characters than many other YA novels. I'm looking forward to reading the second book!
I thought the story was decent, but that the middle section was waaaay too long.The shorter (and to my taste, better) version of this story is Gordon R. Dickson's Wolfling.
Just finished this a few days ago, I really liked it. My friend recommended it a while ago so thought I'd take the opportunity when I saw it come up as a buddy read. I also really liked that it wasn't all black and white, I think it got more complex and believable as Darrow realised not all golds are bad etc. I loved the characters, even the evil ones! I just thought the whole thing was so well written.
I read it. It was ok. I wasn't really in the mood for a "special school for special kids" type of story, even though this did turn that concept on its head a bit. Didn't notice the similarity to Ender's Game until reading this thread, but I kinda see that.I hate to be a wet blanket but I just wasn't into it. I should probably have DNF'd it as not for me, but I bought it so I persevered.
The blurb on the front cover by Scott Sigler says "Ender, Katniss, andand now Darrow. I'll stick with Ender and Katniss. I like Ender's Game and Hunger Games (this one could have been called "Darrow's Game" since it also envolves a deadly game with teen's) better. I thought the middle part was a bit tedious and considered not finishing but I want to read all the bookshelf books and I needed a R book for an alphabet challenge so I stuck it out.
I do think I need a vacation from this genre for a while and am not interested in book 2 at this time.
Ellen wrote: "The blurb on the front cover by Scott Sigler says "Ender, Katniss, andand now Darrow. I'll stick with Ender and Katniss. I like Ender's Game and Hunger Games (this one could have been called "Darr..."
It is about time for me to re-read a Night in the Lonesome October. It has a game...of sorts in it, but nothing like Hunger Games. And it is told for the PoV of the Dog.
I've never read Hunger Games and Ender's Game, so a YA book like this is actually pretty new to me, I enjoyed it and found it extremely entertaining, a good read as far as taking your mind off other things and into a different world. I shall start book 2 soon..
Different from Hunger Games because the players were the elite and they tried to keep most of the players from dying. It was not punishment. It was training them to be ruthless and tough leaders. Unrealistic that they had advanced technology but did not use automation to eliminate the dangerous work of the Red miners. Why not use ai to mine?
At first it reminded me of early sci fy set on mars where there was breathable air until I realized they were terraforming Mars to make it livable.
To me having the main character be married and have a responsible job made it less YA even though he was young.
Overall I liked it though I felt like the author was manipulating me emotionally
I definitely agree with everyone else that the events at the institute dragged on a bit. Sometimes I tuned out the battle scenes. But, overall, I liked it. I wasn't reminded of Hunger Games though when I read it, but now that I'm reading this thread the part at the institute was pretty similar. And I guess Eo's song is pretty similar too. That happened in the Hunger Games - granted I've only seen the movies so I'm not sure if that was in the book. I was reminded of Brave New World when I read this. The caste system with the colors reminded me of it. Though I thought the caste system was better explained in Brave New World. I mean I get that the reds are low and the golds are high, but I don't really understand the hierarchy that well. Is it in rainbow order or something?
I am enjoying the book though even though there were some things that I saw coming a mile away. I knew Mustang was going to end up being tied to the Arch Governor's family somehow and I knew what Eo's secret was before it was revealed (though I can't spoil it because it wasn't revealed in this book, so keep reading!). I was surprised about Severo's relationship to Fichner.
I like how complicated things have become for Darrow. I feel like he probably wasn't expecting to create friendships and even fall in love with golds. I'm interested to see how he is going to move forward with his plans having gotten close to some of them. But I like how he's learning that there are good people and bad people and a person's color has nothing to do with whether or not a person is one or the other.
Also, and I'm almost embarrassed to say, it has taken until almost halfway though the second book to figure out what H.C. stood for! I am listening to the audio book in my defense and not looking at the written words. So far, though, I haven't come across an audiobook narrator that I didn't like. I really like this guy that is reading this one and I'm glad they used him again in book 2!!
Jenni wrote: "I mean I get that the reds are low and the golds are high, but I don't really understand the hierarchy that well. Is it in rainbow order or something?"The wiki for the series has a good explanation: https://red-rising.fandom.com/wiki/Color
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
A Night in the Lonesome October (other topics)Wolfling (other topics)
The Hunger Games (other topics)
Ender’s Game (other topics)
A Game of Thrones (other topics)
