Thursday, February 27, 2014

Red Rising

Pierce Brown



Pierce Brown’s relentlessly entertaining debut channels the excitement of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”

“I live for you,” I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so. (from Netgalley)


My Thoughts

Darrow is from Mars, where he works underground. All his life he has been told his job is to prepare the surface of Mars to become habitable. When he learns he has been deceived and at the same suffers the loss of a loved one, he becomes entangled in a plan to overthrow the powerful and entitled.

WOW! Did I ever get caught up in this story. This is book one of a trilogy, and it is loaded with political maneuvering and betrayal. Darrow learns the hard way that not everyone plays by the rules and that it is often not what you know, but who you know. I liked watching Darrow grow into his role and learn leadership skills. At the end, we are left wondering if these skills will help in in the next step in his attempt to free his people back home. I can’t wait for the next book!

My thanks to Random House Publishing - Del Rey, via Netgalley, for allowing me to read this in exchange for an unbiased review.

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