Red Rising by Pierce Brown 

The book is Red Rising by Pierce Brown. It was originally published in 2014 by Del Rey books. I read the paperback edition. I read this in October of 2023.  

The title refers to the main character Darrow a “red” in the dystopian future where all people are categorized by color coded classes. Darrow is a red which is an oppressed, low working class color. The story is about his rising up against the ruling class golds.  

I read this on the recommendation of a friend. I almost never read popular fiction, especially popular science fiction. I don’t have the imagination for it.  

When the author starts describing space ships and alien monsters, I just don’t see it. And it’s always some sci-fi version of things we have now.  

Like in this book, they refer to a “burner” which is the sci-fi version of a cigarette. So all I’m seeing in my head is a cigarette. That’s just annoying. I like sci-fi comics and movies.  

To me sci-fi requires a visual medium. That’s half of the point of the sci-fi genre, it’s the spectacle. It’s supposed to look really cool. But if the spectacle is relying on what I can imagine in my head from the otherworldly descriptions. I’m out.  

Brown is writing about class and class struggle. The oppressed rising up over the oppressors. It’s set in a dystopian Romanized future. What Brown is really trying to do is make a movie franchise.  

When the movie Dune came out in 2021, I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. Dune was always touted as this science fiction masterpiece. So many people say it’s awesome and groundbreaking. I read it. I hated it. I didn’t even watch the movie. Still haven’t seen it.  

When I told my friend I was going to read Red Rising, I said “I better not get Duned.” I really wanted to like Red Rising. It had been a really long time since I read a popular fiction series.  

I was feeling nostalgic about back in the day when me and my friends all read Harry Potter together as they were coming out. That was fun. I really wanted this series to be good and to get caught up into the fandom.  

But unfortunately, I didn’t get Duned. I got Hunger Gamed. This book is basically sci-fi Roman hunger games. It leans into its Young Adult genre hard. I can’t stand these battle royale, fake fighting war game stories.  

The conflict between the characters is literally artificial. Why are they at war? Because they’re in a training program to train for war. That’s so uninteresting to read. The stakes and my investment in the characters are immediately lowered.  

My main takeaway? This book was ass. It sucked. It’s too Young Adult. It’s begging hard to be turned into a movie franchise. This is library fiction.  

The style overcame the story. Odd spectacle is expected from sci-fi but this was overwhelming. When a book becomes too much about the world it’s placed in, that’s when the story has been captured by style.  

Also, sci-fi cussing. I hate that shit. Words like “Slag off” and “gorydam” mean nothing to me as a reader. It doesn’t have the impact foul language is supposed to have in a story.  

Brown spends too much time world building and not enough with character and relationship development. So many things happen so fast, it feels rushed and the characters feel like cardboard cutouts. No depth or pathos created. There’s not enough time. They feel like fast scenes from a movie.  

There’s a principle in creative writing that says “show, don’t tell.” Pierce Brown is telling all the things that happen and how everyone feels. He’s telling you how you’re supposed to feel about characters and events, instead of showing it all to the reader and letting the reader either feel it or not. That’s the risk he’s supposed to take as the writer.  

He’s not taking the time to show it and have it play out. And he leaves nothing to the reader to interpret for themselves. Everything is tied up with a perfect little bow. It’s like spoon feeding the reader. The most interesting stories raise questions that don’t really have clean cut answers, or have multiple possible answers.  

The book I read previously to this was Rubicon by Tom Holland, so I was primed for all the Roman references. I appreciated that. Brown is good at the Roman theme as far as the backstabbing and social politics. Strong men building an army and warring with each other. That’s historically accurate.  

If Brown ever writes a historical realist, adult novel set in Rome, I’d read that. I’ve been told that the next books in the series aren’t this way. It’s okay for a series to get better as it goes but it has to be good enough from the beginning to keep the reader coming back for more.  

There were a lot of characters and a lot of things happened really fast. It got confusing keeping up with who is who. He spends so little time developing each character, I lost track.  

I’d recommend this to 13 year-old girls. They’ll love it. But don’t buy it. They can pick it up at their local library aka homeless bathroom. I’m sure they’ll have plenty of copies.