SciFiMike
  • Home
  • SF Radio
  • Book Reviews
  • SF Links
  • Contact

SciFiMike Quick Review: Red Rising

19/2/2017

0 Comments

 
red rising cover

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

In this first volume of the Red Rising trilogy, we get a story in the same vein as many a young adult book, such as Ender’s Game and The Hunger Games.

Darrow is a Red, toiling in the mines of Mars in a caste-ridden, oppressive society, where the miners believe they are providing the raw materials to terraform the planet ready for colonisation.

Following the execution of his wife, Darrow joins the Sons of Ares rebel group and discovers that the Reds have been lied to — the surface of Mars and other planets and moons have been habitable for generations, and the Reds are purely slaves, kept in servitude to provide for the need of the Golds, who rule The Society and live in luxury on the surface.

After undergoing body-modification to pass as a Gold, Darrow is sent to infiltrate the Institute, an Ender’s Game style battle school, where the future leaders of the Society are trained. Our hero must undergo a series of Hunger Games style trials, defeating various Houses until he emerges victorious and ready to rise in Gold society and bring about the revolution from within.

Pierce Brown has produced an above average YA action/adventure story in Red Rising. There is nothing new or innovative in the story — it owes a big debt to preceding novels such as the above-mentioned Ender’s Game and The Hunger Games — but it none the less provides a rollocking good read as it progresses at a clip to a satisfying ending with a few twists along the way.

A good start to the trilogy. Recommended for young adults and the not-so-young as well.


                                                   SciFiMike Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

        Books Reviewed

    A Quantum Murder by Peter F. Hamilton.

    Adventures In Time And Space edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas.

    American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

    Anthem by Ayn Rand.

    Baby Is Three — The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume 6 by Theodore Sturgeon.

    Beowulf translated by J. R. R. Tolkien.

    Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

    Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks.

    Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.

    Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

    Eon by Greg Bear.

    Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

    Flux by Stephen Baxter.

    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

    Futuristic Violence And Fancy Suits by David Wong.

    Gateways To Forever by Mike Ashley.

    Golden Son by Pierce Brown.

    Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

    In Search of Wonder by Damon Knight.

    John Dies At The End by David Wong.

    Killdozer! — The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume 3 by Theodore Sturgeon.

    Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson.

    Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

    Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald.

    Microcosmic God — The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume 2 by Theodore Sturgeon.

    Mindstar Rising by Peter F. Hamilton.

    Morning Star by Pierce Brown.

    Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

    Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold.

    Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

    Raft by Stephen Baxter.

    Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

    Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

    Ring by Stephen Baxter.

    Sea-Horse In The Sky by Edmund Cooper.

    The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F. Hamilton.

    The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories by Angela Carter.

    The Compleat Enchanter by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt.

    The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

    The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem.

    The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton.

    The Eighty Minute Hour by Brian Aldiss.

    The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton.

    The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe.

    The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.

    The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem.

    The Game Is Altered by Mez Packer.

    The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey.

    The Godmakers by Frank Herbert.

    The God Stalker Chronicles by P. C. Hodgell.

    The Gunslinger by Stephen King.

    The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman.

    The Last Man by Mary Shelley.

    The Last Starship From Earth by John Boyd.

    The Martian by Andy Weir.

    The Menace From Earth by Robert A. Heinlein.

    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe.

    The Perfect Host — The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume 5 by Theodore Sturgeon.

    The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.

    The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith.

    The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

    The Science Fiction Hall of Fame edited by Robert Silverberg.

    The Syndic by C. M. Kornbluth.

    The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton.

    The Time Machines by Mike Ashley.

    The Ultimate Egoist — The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume 1 by Theodore Sturgeon.

    The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley.

    The Way The Future Was by Frederik Pohl.

    Thunder And Roses — The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume 4 by Theodore Sturgeon.

    Timelike Infinity by Stephen Baxter.

    Transformations by Mike Ashley.

    Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. Martin.

    Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks.

    Whipping Star by Frank Herbert.

    Wool by Hugh Howey.
    Free counters!
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.