Monday, January 27, 2014

Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown



Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Series: Red Rising Trilogy, #1
Publisher: Del Rey (Random House)
Expected Publication: January 28, 2013
Pages: 400

The war begins...

Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars. Generations of Helldivers have spent their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that one day people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.

Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. Mars is habitable - and indeed has been inhabited for generations by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. The Golds regard Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

With the help of a mysterious group of rebels, Darrow disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside.

But the command school is a battlefield. And Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda...
I received an arc in exchange for an honest review - thank you to Random House for sending me a copy of this book. 

This is a very hard book to review. It is very good for a debut book, and very good for a dystopian. Many other reviews on this site will tell you all about the fantastic plot and gripping characters, and I agree with them. I have no doubt this book will go places. But I think it's going to be very controversial, more so than even The Hunger Games.

More controversial than kids killing kids, you say?! *gasp* Yes, it's true, and let me tell you why (in a non-spoiler way, of course). 

In most dystopians, the bad guy can be pointed back to one or a few figures: Big Brother, President Snow, Captain Beatty, etc. In this book, the prejudice and power that plagues society is an illness found in not only the government, but many of the citizens, even a few, dare I say it, of the oppressed. Normally, I'd find this appealing and refreshing. Except, I would expect growth, some kind of recognition of the fact that what's going on is wrong kind of thing. And I did in most characters. But not all. Which normally is okay, but again, not in this case because I didn't find it in the most crucial character: the protagonist. Who is our narrator, Darrow.

I did not like Darrow - I don't think he was written to be a likable character. This dystopian society is very much influenced by Greek and Roman mythology, and a large part of that society is lack of accountability for one's actions because "the gods were responsible." Well, in this society, the government is responsible. So people find their choices are limited, caught in Catch-22's, can only chose between two evils. Therefore, they pass off accountability. I understand this. It is very hard for me to sympathize with it. I'm not trying to sound snobbish or naive when I say I'm a very moral person - it's a product of my upbringing and the books I love. Not to say I haven't read a lot of immoral books, I have. I just don't like them because they don't lead to a lasting happiness. And I hate it when a character does something wrong, and doesn't acknowledge that it's wrong. It's okay for character's to make mistakes, to do bad things, and then repent and learn. But that wasn't a theme here. In fact, it was noticeably lacking, and that's what largely put me off the book. 

Perhaps it was an intentional choice, dystopia's being dystopia's and all. But it's still not one I agree with. That SPOILER *highlight to view* moment in the beginning during the passage when Darrow kills Julian left a bitter aftertaste for the rest of the book. I enjoyed parts. But I kept waiting for that moment of realization that yes, there was a choice, and I made the evil one, sacrificing the innocent for the future, and that was wrong. It never came. And I'm not much of a "the means justify the ends" kind of person. So, no perfect score for this book. I'm curious to see how it turns out, but will likely not reread or follow the others.

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