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A review by mediaevalmuse
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
3.0
Maybe closer to 3.5 stars.
I actually red this book as a result of a recommendation from my former high school English teacher. Since this teacher had a profound impact on my literary tastes while I was a student, I decided to pick up this book during some down time. Overall, the premise was incredible and I really enjoyed Brown's narration. However, there did seem to be elements that relied on tropes I had seen before, so the read wasn't as captivating as I had hoped.
Things I Liked
1. Setting: This novel takes place on Mars in a very futuristic-feeling society that is made more familiar through the allusions to Roman mythology and history. I loved the fact that we get scenes of what I can only describe as highly scientific (almost fantastical) technologies alongside names of Roman emperors and philosophers. The juxtaposition is rather jarring, but in a way that drives home the notion of a world that is supposed to be at the forefront of civilization.
2. Prose: Brown’s writing itself sets the pace of the novel so that form matches function. When the action was happening, the sentences got shorter, so reading felt quicker. The resulting reading experience is very intense and there is a deliberate effort on the writer's part to craft a novel that involves the reader emotionally in the plot in ways other than description.
3. Darrow's Physical Transformation: Wow. This part was probably the most memorable part for me, and the writing was one of the best I've seen in a YA novel. I can think of a bunch of other characters who undergo bodily transformations and the authors/creators just kind of gloss over it, but with Red Rising, readers really feel the pain of the experience and get a sense of what’s happening on a micro level.
4. Seeing People as Complex: From the get-go of this novel, readers are led to view the Golds (people in power) as all vain, shallow, power-hungry oppressors. Some of them are like that, certainly, but this book shows readers that not all of them are terrible people. Such a multi-valenced view thus leads readers to hate the social structure that is the main problem of the book and not the individuals themselves.
Things I Didn't Like
1. Women: There is a definite lack of females in this book. But while some may be quick to point out that there are Golds who are named and have active roles in the plot, aside from one named Mustang, they don’t seem as well developed as the male characters. Additionally, a number of things made me uncomfortable in regards to the female characters: 1.) The main character’s wife, Eo, dies at the beginning of the book, and though she technically isn’t fridged (she kind of chooses her death), her death serves as the impetus for the main character’s storyline. He does what he does in memory of her, and throughout the book, we are constantly reminded of her death by means of his flashbacks, pining, and grieving. 2.) In the Red society, there are male and female jobs based on typical male and female gender roles. 3.) In the Institute, the threat of rape and the actual committing of rape is rampant. While I recognize that historically yes, rape does happen in war, I was disappointed that it had to be all over the book during the Institute’s war game. 4.) There is definitely an imbalance of gender in this book. Most of the main characters are male. The only exception is Mustang. There are other females, yes, but we see so little of them, comparatively. I would have liked to see one of the other characters as a different gender so the war game didn’t seem so much like a testosterone fest.
2. Chosen One Trope: Darrow, the main character, is a low-born person disguised (sort of) as a high-born person in order to infiltrate and take down the oppressive society on Mars. The thing is, Darrow is made to be almost perfect. He’s chosen for seemingly no real reason other than he has a kind of passion (he doesn’t, really. Eo had more potential and drive than he does) that the rebel band likes. He consumes some sort of intelligence booster that makes him smarter, so no problem there. They change his body so it is perfect. Great. He cannot really fail. He succeeds at everything. He is the Chosen One. After a time, I was wishing that Eo had been the one to ascend and infiltrate the Golds as opposed to Darrow.
Recommendations: Pick up this novel if you're a fan of science fiction and the colonization of Mars, and also if you're a fan of war games or Roman/Greek mythology. You might also like this book if you liked The Red Queen, The Hunger Games, or Ender's Game.
I actually red this book as a result of a recommendation from my former high school English teacher. Since this teacher had a profound impact on my literary tastes while I was a student, I decided to pick up this book during some down time. Overall, the premise was incredible and I really enjoyed Brown's narration. However, there did seem to be elements that relied on tropes I had seen before, so the read wasn't as captivating as I had hoped.
Things I Liked
1. Setting: This novel takes place on Mars in a very futuristic-feeling society that is made more familiar through the allusions to Roman mythology and history. I loved the fact that we get scenes of what I can only describe as highly scientific (almost fantastical) technologies alongside names of Roman emperors and philosophers. The juxtaposition is rather jarring, but in a way that drives home the notion of a world that is supposed to be at the forefront of civilization.
2. Prose: Brown’s writing itself sets the pace of the novel so that form matches function. When the action was happening, the sentences got shorter, so reading felt quicker. The resulting reading experience is very intense and there is a deliberate effort on the writer's part to craft a novel that involves the reader emotionally in the plot in ways other than description.
3. Darrow's Physical Transformation: Wow. This part was probably the most memorable part for me, and the writing was one of the best I've seen in a YA novel. I can think of a bunch of other characters who undergo bodily transformations and the authors/creators just kind of gloss over it, but with Red Rising, readers really feel the pain of the experience and get a sense of what’s happening on a micro level.
4. Seeing People as Complex: From the get-go of this novel, readers are led to view the Golds (people in power) as all vain, shallow, power-hungry oppressors. Some of them are like that, certainly, but this book shows readers that not all of them are terrible people. Such a multi-valenced view thus leads readers to hate the social structure that is the main problem of the book and not the individuals themselves.
Things I Didn't Like
1. Women: There is a definite lack of females in this book. But while some may be quick to point out that there are Golds who are named and have active roles in the plot, aside from one named Mustang, they don’t seem as well developed as the male characters. Additionally, a number of things made me uncomfortable in regards to the female characters: 1.) The main character’s wife, Eo, dies at the beginning of the book, and though she technically isn’t fridged (she kind of chooses her death), her death serves as the impetus for the main character’s storyline. He does what he does in memory of her, and throughout the book, we are constantly reminded of her death by means of his flashbacks, pining, and grieving. 2.) In the Red society, there are male and female jobs based on typical male and female gender roles. 3.) In the Institute, the threat of rape and the actual committing of rape is rampant. While I recognize that historically yes, rape does happen in war, I was disappointed that it had to be all over the book during the Institute’s war game. 4.) There is definitely an imbalance of gender in this book. Most of the main characters are male. The only exception is Mustang. There are other females, yes, but we see so little of them, comparatively. I would have liked to see one of the other characters as a different gender so the war game didn’t seem so much like a testosterone fest.
2. Chosen One Trope: Darrow, the main character, is a low-born person disguised (sort of) as a high-born person in order to infiltrate and take down the oppressive society on Mars. The thing is, Darrow is made to be almost perfect. He’s chosen for seemingly no real reason other than he has a kind of passion (he doesn’t, really. Eo had more potential and drive than he does) that the rebel band likes. He consumes some sort of intelligence booster that makes him smarter, so no problem there. They change his body so it is perfect. Great. He cannot really fail. He succeeds at everything. He is the Chosen One. After a time, I was wishing that Eo had been the one to ascend and infiltrate the Golds as opposed to Darrow.
Recommendations: Pick up this novel if you're a fan of science fiction and the colonization of Mars, and also if you're a fan of war games or Roman/Greek mythology. You might also like this book if you liked The Red Queen, The Hunger Games, or Ender's Game.