Red Rising
Pierce Brown, 2014
Random House
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345539809
Summary
“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 the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1987
• Raised—Colorado; North Carolina; Arizona; Iowa; Texas; and Seattle, Washington
• Education—B.A., Pepperdine University
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating from Pepperdine University in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate campaign.
Now he lives Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A] top-notch debut novel... Red Rising ascends above a crowded dystopian field.
USA Today
Red Rising is a sophisticated vision.... Brown will find a devoted audience.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Compulsively readable and exceedingly entertaining....a must for both fans of classic sci-fi and fervent followers of new school dystopian epics.
Examiner.com
Pierce Brown has done an astounding job at delivering a powerful piece of literature that will definitely make a mark in the minds of readers.
Huffington Post
[A] spectacular adventure...one heart-pounding rid... Pierce Brown’s dizzyingly good debut novel evokes The Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies, and Ender’s Game.... [Red Rising] has everything it needs to become meteoric.
Entertainment Weekly
Debut author Pierce shoots for the next Hunger Games with mixed results in this melodramatic SF series opener. Sixteen-year-old Darrow is a Red miner, the lowest worker caste on Mars.... Determined to lead his people to a better future, Darrow will do anything to win. Pierce offers a Hollywood-ready story with plenty of action and thrills but painfully little originality or plausibility.
Publishers Weekly
Set in the future...this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power. In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an "inferior" class.... As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury. A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative world.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)