★★★★☆.5 this book was nothing like I expected, and I’m really glad I finally read it after it has sat on my shelf for years.
what’s the book about?
Darrow is a sixteen-year-old Helldriver of his mining colony of Mars. As a Red, Darrow is of the lowest caste in his society which is not only colour coded, but has expanded throughout space to live on the Moon, Venus, Mercury and Mars. Darrow, his family and all the other Reds mine helium-3 under the impression that one day, Mars will be ready for life and the other colours will join them. But, when Darrow and his wife (they marry young and die young in the mines of Mars) stumble upon a secret, Darrow’s life shifts in a way he could never have guessed. Mars isn’t desolate, but a thriving planet already inhabited by the other colours. The Reds are working for a future that is already here, and Darrow is sent on a mission to infiltrate the highest of their society, the Golds.
“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”
thoughts & feelings
My first thought after gathering all of my emotions after this book is wow. This book has been sitting on my shelf for years, and for some reason, I just never picked it up (despite having the whole trilogy). I personally think that by waiting to read it, I got a lot more out of it. If I read this during the dystopian hype of Divergent, Hunger Games and The Maze Runner, the nuances of it would have been lost on me. Instead, I read it for a spontaneous buddy read hosted by my lovely pal Val at literarypapier on Instagram years after it was published, and it surprised me over and over again. I jumped into this without reading the blurb, so the fact that they were on Mars was a shock to the system (it’s been a while since I’ve read a sci-fi book), but it’s written in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re drowning in an unfamiliar world with this odd terminology. It doesn't take long for the world to make sense. Darrow, our main character, is a Helldiver for the Lambda clan in the Lykos mining colony on Mars. They mine for helium-3, they marry young and they die young. Family, blood, song and dance are at the soul of their people. They are Red, the bottom of the colour caste social hierarchy, and they don’t know they’re slaves. It only takes seven chapters for this book to intensify. I was enjoying the concept of these mining colonies living unawares of the thriving city above, but then Darrow ends up on the surface, and it goes from 0 to 100 very quickly.
“Her words strike my heart. They echo through time from another’s lips. Live for more. More than power. More than Vengeance. More than what we’re given.”
The human race in Red Rising is no longer bound to Earth, but they have travelled, they have spread through the solar system, and they have a strict social hierarchy where your colour determines your role. If you are born Red, you are the lowest rung of the hierarchy. At the top are the Golds, they are the elite of the humans. They lead the armies throughout space, they rule the planets and they are inherently corrupt. The political undercurrent of this book elevates this book. The complexities of the society elevate it from early dystopian novels. It reminds me very much of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and the philosophical discussion Erica over at MoanInc has posed if you can’t see the walls or boundaries of your prison, are you a prisoner without free will? As Darrow transitions into the world on the surface of Mars, he battles with that knowledge that his family is still below, but are they truly prisoners if they don’t know what they’re missing out on?
The other aspect of this book that caught me by surprise, but that I really enjoyed, was the incorporation of classical mythology and ancient history. The earliest indication of this is the use of the Greek Alphabet as the names of the mining clans, and their desire to win the laurel at the end of the quarter. Many of the names, especially of the golds, are reminiscent of powerful figures from ancient empires such as Augustus and Octavia. There is a number of mythological connections including names like Pollux, the use of Roman Gods and their characteristics as a way to separate and class Golds, and the titles of Praetor and Imperator. The use of an Agoge for training, and seeing a raven as an omen. Without giving anything away, this book was an amalgamation of Lore, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, and Divergent as well as Roman History and mythology in all the best ways. It was intense, it was brutal, it was addictive and I cannot wait to continue reading this series. It completely took me by surprise, and being able to see all of the small ways ancient history was woven into this tale of humans in a futures hundreds of years from now was simply brilliant.