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Red Rising

Book I of the Red Rising Trilogy
By&
Length
16h 12m
Published
2014
Language
English

Synopsis

Darrow is a Helldiver, a Red, the lowest rung of a rigid color-coded caste system. He and his people mine the depths of Mars, sacrificing everything in the belief that they are terraforming the planet so that humanity can one day live on its surface. Then Darrow learns the truth: Mars was made habitable generations ago, and the Reds are not pioneers but a permanent slave class, kept in the dark by the Golds who rule the Society.

Grief-stricken and radicalized, Darrow is taken in by a shadowy rebel network and surgically, brutally transformed into a Gold. His mission is to win a place at the Institute, the savage academy where the sons and daughters of the ruling class wage war on one another for dominance, and to climb high enough to strike at the heart of the Society itself. But to beat the Golds at their own game, Darrow risks becoming exactly what he set out to destroy.

Pierce Brown's debut launches the Red Rising Saga: a propulsive, brutal blend of dystopian science fiction and space opera, built on class war, betrayal, and the terrible cost of revolution.

Vibe

Writing4.0Impact3.0Characters4.0Plot3.0Atmosphere4.0

About the author

P
Pierce Brown

Pierce Brown is an American science fiction author, born 28 January 1988 in Denver, Colorado. He moved frequently as a child, studied political science and economics at Pepperdine University, and worked as an NBC page, at a social media startup and as an aide on a US Senate campaign before his first novel was published. Red Rising (2014) opened the Red Rising saga, continued in Golden Son (2015), Morning Star (2016), Iron Gold (2018), Dark Age (2019) and Light Bringer (2023), with a seventh book...

Characters

DarrowProtagonist

A Red miner surgically transformed into a Gold to infiltrate the ruling class and destroy the Society from within.

SevroSupporting

A fierce, unpredictable ally Darrow gathers at the Institute.

EoSupporting

Darrow's wife, whose defiance and fate set his revolution in motion.

Mustang (Virginia)Supporting

A sharp, principled Gold at the Institute who becomes central to Darrow's story.

Cassius au BellonaSupporting
All characters in Red Rising

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