Introduction and summary
One of my new year resolutions is to consume and expose myself to more art and media, whether in the form of movies, exhibitions, theatres, and especially books. Full disclosure, I did start this book towards the end of 2023, but I finished it in 2024 so I am counting it. I thoroughly love fiction specifically, so pretty much all my reviews will be on fiction. I especially enjoy fantasy, supernatural, and dystopian fiction as an escape from reality. Creativity truly flourishes in these genres for me. The bustling worlds and uniquely imagined landscapes paint such vivid imagery in my mind.
Red Rising is a book set several hundred years after humanity has conquered the planets. However, in this dystopian setting humanity is set apart by distinct colours from almost slave-like reds being at the bottom to the regal almost god-like golds at the top. This dystopian sci-fi society is blended with the ruthlessness of the roman empire. The main character Darrow is a red from a community living underneath Mars’ surface that has been fed a lie. A lie that their meagre lives and generational sacrifices are necessary to give humanity a chance to terraform Mars for the future of his species. Once Darrow learns that the sacrifices and suffering of his people are built on a lie, he soon is thrusted into a new world, a new society. He goes from a red that is ultimately turned into a gold to lead a revolution for his people and other colours to topple the gold supremacy that has been prevalent for generations. Darrow is then thrusted into the power-craved golds’ society where privilege and might reign supreme. It is to conquer or be conquered. Kill or be killed. Subjugate or be subjugated. Darrow must learn how to play the game, no matter what the rules are.
What I liked about this book
Let’s start off with what I like about this book shall we? The most obvious aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the characters. Starting off with the main character Darrow. He is a witty, intelligent, and adaptable character. It is clear why he is the main character. It is clear why he makes the choices he does, and it is not frustrating to see why he makes them. Pierce Brown is good at writing an array of characters that are likeable and worth rooting for. From the likes of Sevro, Pax, Mustang, Cassius, Roque, and more, I loved the supporting cast in this book. Each with their own mannerisms and behaviour, whenever the stakes are raised one reads with baited breath to ensure that their favourite side characters make it out okay. These characters got me emotionally invested. They felt real.
The book is often humorous. It dips between non-stop action and violence to moments of levity and humanity. Speaking of the action, it is very well described. I loved the moments of action as we see our main character become a force to be reckoned with. His wins feel earned. The reveals in this book are also well done. There is a moment towards the end of the book where a character’s true identity is revealed and it gets my mind absolutely racing at all the possibilities. My thoughts and the thoughts of Darrow were similar. Was it a betrayal? Was it all nothing but lies? The conflicts between characters in this book make sense. Brown does a good job of highlighting what his characters stand for and what happens when they come across someone who is diametrically opposed to them.
What I also enjoyed was the pacing. The initial third of the book is used to explore the world that this book is set in. It goes into the finer details of the world, the power system, who is in charge and why. I enjoyed that the society within the book was centred around a Roman empire mythos. It sets up who is the enemy and why they are the enemy. However, the last third of the book is when the ball gets really rolling and it just doesn’t stop. The action, the betrayals, the threats are all packed into about a 100 pages that I just could not put down.
What I did not like about this book
Now unfortunately, let’s get into what I did not enjoy about this book. Now whilst, I enjoyed the roman empire mythos and the power dynamic it is ultimately based around what we can liken to in the real world as eugenics, race, class and privilege. In the society set up in this book, what distinguishes class here is quite literally the colour of their skin, so….race. Different colours are only seen for specific purposes, as they are born into it. If you were born one colour you made for pleasure and nothing else, if you were born another you were essentially a slave, and if you were born a gold, you were born a god.
I am always apprehensive of when race is central to a story, especially when it is not a person of colour at the helm of said story. Race and racism in reality is nuanced. There is more to it than slurs. Race runs deep into a society’s fabric. How far one can advance is subject to race, whether an individual can freely express their culture is subject to race, what jobs a person can have is limited to race, and even what kind of medical access available is subject to race. Even in this day and age. A person of colour has experienced these nuisances, a person of colour does not need this explained to them as they have lived it. So when a story is centred on race it will be written in a different way when comparing someone who is Caucasian versus someone who is not.
It is not to say that a person who is Caucasian can never address race in their books, more so that their treatment of race should be looked at under a more critical lens due to the fact they are unlikely to experience various forms that racism actually takes. It is not enough to include race as a theme and then say the obvious that “racism is bad”. A ten year old could figure that out, even though some adults can’t. The reader should look at why the theme of race was added. Is it to show what racism does to those oppressed? Is it to show a form of racism that is not always highlighted in the media? An author has control of what they choose to introduce in their worlds, and what they choose to focus on. It is not a requirement to bring race into the forefront.
With this story, it felt like there was not enough done to establish the critiquing of why these power systems are wrong and the effects of them. The main character is race-swapped and the effects of classism and racism no longer are at the forefront of the story. It is not reinforced deeply enough. Sure there are moments where Darrow, our main character, looks back at his people and his culture, but we do not know them well enough. Colonialism and supremacy are brutal realities of this world, so a fictional story should do well to hammer that point home. The oppressors in this world are humanised far more thoroughly than the oppressed. We are being made to like them. The oppressed are not given enough time and focus. I understand it is the first of the trilogy, but this book has a very shallow addressing of why supremacy is an issue.
On top of this, there is this overwhelming presence of eugenics. The thing that separates the colours isn’t just their colour (race). It is genetic differences. The book makes it very clear that people are genetically modified to where the reds are simply human, compared to the golds that move faster and hit harder, and think quicker. With the real world, white supremacy is dumb as hell because we are all human with subtle differences attributed to race. No one race is smarter or stronger or better than any of the others. At least, not enough to justify colonialism and such as some historically have done. However, in this book it is almost like the author gave the golds fair justification because the golds are so genetically different that they might as well be another species. I feel like this removes some of the nuisance in races where there are clear differences like this.
There are several books and other forms of media that cover the topic of injustice, revolution, and classism without the need to utilise race as a thematic focal point. The point of a ruling class that sees all below them as less than; and the exploration of all the ways the ruling class manipulate those around them can be done without the introduction of race. So I feel like this book alone (without looking at the other books of the trilogy), does not do enough to justify the introduction of racism and eugenics or even adequately critique them in my eyes.
Now my dear reader…
Overall, Red Rising is enjoyable. I don’t regret reading it. It is a fun read filled with interesting characters. It is well written and well thought out for the most part. However, its themes are not critiqued sufficiently or delved into deep enough to justify all that the author introduces into this make-believe society. This fictional society is not too far removed from our own in reality. My key questions going into the rest of the trilogy is why include race and what critique is the author trying to make that they couldn’t have done with just classism alone? What will a reader get from this that they weren’t aware of before? Again, racism is bad and classism is bad is a very surface level take. Some readers may not even get that much from this book at times when reading it. Maybe the remaining books will answer this for me and my overall trilogy rating will stand higher than treating this book as a standalone fixture. I hope so. There is a lot of good in this book, and a lot of potential in this series.
Lazlo ranking: 6.5/10
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