Red Rising: Hit or Miss?
NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENS in Red Rising. The best way to describe this series is that it’s an extreme contrast to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. The rhetorical genius behind Asimov’s Foundation rets in the idea that all the action takes place “off-stage.” That is to say that, while reading Foundation, 90% of the writing is characters talking to each other. In sharp contrast, Red Rising takes the opposite approach of being an almost exclusive action series.
While the series as a whole would be much higher rated, I’m giving Red Rising (book 1) a 6/10.
World Building
This is the strongest category and the biggest reason that book one is not a five or four. The novel starts on Mars. More specifically, underground mining colonies on Mars. The red’s, the lowest level of the caste system, labor under the assumption that they are the pioneers for the next era by working all their lives to make Mars hospitable.
The horrible truth revealed to Darrow, the protagonist, after a tragic event, is that Mars has been colonized. In fact, surface-dwellers have lived on Mars for over 700 years now. And yet, the red’s still labor under the surface as slaves. The premise of the novel revolves around Darrow, making it to the surface and joining a terrorist group known as the Sons of Ares; his mission: infiltrate gold society (their oppressors and the highest caste) and bring it crumbling down. In order to do this, he must pass through the institute, a sort of battle school for young golds. And so, his body is carved to resemble the golds as he is sent amongst them.
Now this is where the problems begin. This is starting to sound awfully similar to Ender’s Game, isn’t it? Since this is his debut novel, Pierce Brown, instead of being original, opts for the tried-and-true strategy of copy-paste. The rest of the novel is literally Hunger Games with a change in setting. That sums it up. The similarities are striking between the two books—doesn’t Katniss come from an oppressed population? Hmm… Even the endings are parallel.
Writing Style
Remember when I said nothing good ever happens in Red Rising? Well, here’s why. Pierce Brown writes in first person present tense. So: “I move toward him. I stare at the sky. I lift my gun.” While this writing style is not unheard of (Divergent by Veronica Roth for example), it’s an outlier in a science-fiction genre increasingly written in third person past tense. One of the defining characteristics of the first person present is that there isn’t much attention spent on developing the setting or characters. Instead, the focus of the story is plot. By definition, then, stuff has to happen. And what better way to make it interesting than having bad stuff happen?
The problem in Red Rising however, is that bad stuff happens all the time. Like how, in Foundation, all the action happens in the background, everything positive in Red Rising takes place in the backdrop. This presents two problems: one, it’s difficult to deliver the pay-off the reader is waiting for. And two, after you’re used to it, the plot it predictable.
One of the major mistakes Pierce Brown makes is establishing the unreliability of the narrator, Darrow, too often. So, rather than come to expect what Darrow says as truth, once the reader begins to doubts him, the plot is laid out plain as day.
Narrator
One of the cornerstones of YA Sci-fi rests on the degree to which the audience bites into the character. Say one thing about Darrow, say he’s determined. You’d think that’s a positive, but as you start to grow familiar with him, you expect what he’s going to do. Personally, as I continued down the series, Darrow grew less and less interesting to read because he was too predicable.
More to the point, throughout book one and later into the series, there is a constant inner struggle between the man, Darrow, and the entity he becomes, the Reaper. Now, I don’t want to say this is taken straight out of the Ender’s Game playbook, but truthfully, it is. While Red Rising does become more original later into the series, Darrow remains a poor imitation of Ender. Ender struggles with being a fleet commander. Darrow struggles with the responsibility of taking down gold society.
One difference from Ender’s Game is that Darrow’s love interest is identified early on, Mustang—a gold. And not just any gold, as the audience finds out towards the end. But again, even she isn’t original. It’s Peeta, but done worse.
The relationship is predicable and honestly strikes me as a little fabricated. It feels like Pierce Brown stuck it in there for the sake of sticking it in there. And—pulled right from the Hunger’s Game manual—Pierce Brown adds internal conflict to Darrow about his growing feelings for Mustang (a gold, remember). Sound like Peeta, Katniss, and Gale?
Current
As of now, there are five Red Rising books published and a sixth set to drop around May 2023. While the series does pick up considerably in the second book, Golden Son, it peaks in book 3, Morning Star, before taking a fall in book four, Iron Gold.
Red Rising is actually split into two subseries. The first three books are before the time-skip and the next two are after. But that’s not why Iron Gold falls so much. Pierce Brown tries to take on too much. In book 4, he starts narrating from four different characters instead of the one he stuck throughout the first three books. Commendable that he tried to expand the cast, thereby adding suspense to the story by making the audience savour the Darrow chapters, but the execution is poor and the payoff worse still. As I mentioned, nothing good ever happens in Red Rising. Finally, the fifth book, Dark Age, while it does better than book four, doesn’t near the Morning Star because of the predictability of the plot.
On the internet, more than one source has equated this series to the modern Game of Thrones since a show has been announced. While there rests a modicum of predicability in GOT (GRRM killing every single character we love), it’s nowhere near the level in Red Rising. Red Rising, in conclusion, will not last the test of time, show or no show. It won’t cement itself in the Sci-fi genre.
