All that we have is that shout into the wind – how we live. How we go. And how we stand before we fall.
Pierce Brown, “Morning Star”
There are those books that come out and dominate the conversation. You wake up one morning and suddenly everyone is raving about this book or series or author. Apparently this was one of those series, and I totally missed it. The first novel in this fantastic saga by Pierce Brown is called Red Rising, and it was the 2014 Goodreads Choice winner. The two follow up novels, Golden Son and Morning Star, won the 2015 and 2016 prizes, respectively. So apparently these books have been around, and applauded, for half a decade, and I had no idea. Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention? I don’t think I have an excuse other than the fact that I don’t read science fiction books as often as I’d like to. It seems to be the genre that gets put on my back burner. But don’t worry, scifi enthusiasts. These books have called me to repentance.
I started the first book, Red Rising, about a week before I was due to give birth. I’ll be honest. I wasn’t excited. I’d seen a few reviews that dubbed the series, “The Hunger Games in space!” and I wasn’t particularly eager to read The Hunger Games…in space. Please don’t misunderstand me. The Hunger Games was an enjoyable series. But I’ve already read it. I certainly didn’t need to read it again (in space!).
All this to say, I had set myself up to not be blown away by Red Rising. But my friend Abby (who, incidentally, is notoriously reluctant to read any type of series) insisted that I had to read this trilogy. So I gritted my teeth and started in. The first few chapters lived up to my expectations. That is, I was underwhelmed. Maybe it was pregnancy hormones. Maybe I was overly critical. Whatever it was, reading became a chore. So I moved on to something else, and then promptly had a baby, which dropped reading several rungs down on my ladder of priorities.
I returned to Red Rising a few months later, committed to finish it this time. I remained skeptical until the middle of the book, when I suddenly realized that I couldn’t put it down. I thought, based on the thousands of other dystopian novels and that pesky “Hunger Games in space” label, that I knew exactly where the author was going with these books. My fellow readers, I am here to tell you that I did not.
The Red Rising series describes a dystopian future in which human beings have spread throughout the solar system and genetically altered themselves into a caste system based on “color.” If you’re a Yellow, you’re a physician or scientist. If you’re a Blue, you’re a pilot or a spaceship crew member. Golds are the aristocratic rulers of the Society, the highest cast; Reds are manual laborers, the lowest. There are fourteen colors in total, but I’m not going to enumerate them all. You get the idea.
If you’ve read any dystopian fiction, you can probably guess what happens. Certain members of the lower castes realize that their system is oppressive and unite together to challenge the injustice endemic to the color hierarchy. However, unlike other books with a similar plot line, the Red Rising saga places less emphasis on the “overthrow the government” bit and more focus on character development and philosophy.
Pierce Brown does such a good job of painting his characters in shades of gray. Let’s get real. In a book about class warfare, no one is walking away untarnished. Brown’s characters get dirty. Many of them start with good intentions, but all end up sullying themselves with underhanded deals, betrayal, and violence. What we are left with is not a band of noble heroes, but a cast of believable, three-dimensional, honorable, crooked, loyal, backstabbing, peace-seeking, violent, idiot geniuses. Did you get all that?
One thing I admired about Brown’s treatment of violence in this series is that he doesn’t glorify it. You’d think that a book steeped in blood would be more cavalier about it, but the author never loses sight of the horror of this brutal world he’s created. The characters are allowed to feel the violence of their actions, even as they commit them. He lets them sit with the emotional pain of war, of friends lost and lives destroyed.
But in spite of all of the ugliness, the thing that blew me away was Brown’s treatment of themes of friendship, loyalty, and forgiveness. He asks questions of the characters and, by extension, of the reader. What is honor? Is there a difference between “honor” as reputation and “honor” as integrity? (As the characters discover, yes, there is.) What makes a good leader? What is power, and who is worthy of it?
I realized that this series was going to be different when our protagonist, Darrow, started grappling with the weight and responsibility of leadership. I was moved by Darrow’s struggle as he fought, made bad decisions, trusted the wrong people, and learned, through cruel experience, how to be a leader worth following.
There are three more books in the series; two (Iron Gold and Dark Age) have already been released, and one more is in the works. I’m going to take a break from Darrow’s story for now, because there are hundreds of other books on my To Read list, but I’ll be back sooner than later. I’m anxious to discover what Pierce Brown has in store for Darrow and his friends.
Happy Reading!
