I found this amazing youtube video created by Jayme Thysell that gives you a good overview of what's going on in Red Rising. Basically, there's a Red being turned into a Gold - you're still asking yourself what that means? Well, let's start at the beginning ...

Overall, I'd say Red Rising is a dystopian novel with huge sci-fi elements that takes place seven hundred years in the future. It's about a young man born and raised on Mars. According to his knowledge, Earth is overcrowded. For this reason, his people - the Reds! - were sent to Mars. They are meant to mine the precious helium-3 which will then be used to transform the planet and make it habitable for humans. This young man is named Darrow. His life is simple. He works hard. He loves his wife. He believes his people are humanity's last hope. However, when his wife falls victim to the cold power of authority, he finds out he was wrong!

Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations. The ruling class - the Golds! - regard Darrow and his people as slaves whose work power may be exploited without second thought. They will continue to do so, if no one has the courage to stand up to them. So Darrow lets himself be turned into a Gold and agrees - on behalf of a secret rebel group called Sons of Ares - to infiltrate the Golds' elite school for future commanders: The Institute. If everything goes as planned, Darrow is meant to graduate first-class, obtain a leading position within society and take down his former oppressors from the inside. However, everything is not what it seems and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.

I didn't fall in love with Red Rising at first sight. On the contrary, it was more like being thrown into a thunderstorm and I was desperately trying to make sense of the scope of this world that is so unlike anything I've read before. There's a huge amount of world building in the first one hundred pages that felt too fast, too overwhelming and too much a mixture of dystopian, sci-fi and fantasy elements for someone who's completely unfamiliar with the setting. However, there is still something intriguing about this story of a young man who heads out to pursue his wife's dream of a better world. Even though Darrow is very ambitious, he has yet to uncover his full potential. In the beginning, he relies a lot on his family - and particularly on his wife - for guidance and he continues to do so throughout Red Rising. I think Darrow's dependence on others for guidance towards a specific purpose makes it so hard for readers to connect with him for the first half of the book. He lacks depth since there is no inner conflict of his own except for what happens in Part I and it takes a while to fall for and appreciate that kind of character - who may surprise you after all 😇

In fact, the second part of the book completely drew me in. That's when the characters get more shape, when everything starts to make sense and when Darrow does not only meet Mustang but also his worst opponent, the Jackal. The ending was phenomenal - there was one line I had to read thrice in order to make sure I wasn't mistaken. And the last page - not too much of a cliffhanger, but still slightly unexpected. So much for my overall thoughts. In the following, I'd like to address certain topics that stood out to me while reading Red Rising and those are most certainly why I came to the conclusion that Red Rising is one of the most original stories I've read in a while.

1. The Color System in Red Rising
2. Politics in Red Rising
3. Women in Red Rising

The Color System in Red Rising

First of all, I'd like to draw your attention to the world building that gave me a headache for a good amount of pages. However, the further you dive into Red Rising, the more comfortable you'll be in this world full of colors, technology and violence. It's real ... or at least, it feels real as soon as you get into the political background that I'll talk about in a bit. However, at an attempt to make sense of the Red Rising universe, I think it's best to start with the color system. In Red Rising human society in divided into different colors which I found a very unique and intriguing idea. Basically, human society formed a hierarchy that was then reinforced by genetic and surgical manipulation. For this reason, every human in Red Rising has eyes of a particular color. By that I mean, there are people with golden eyes, green eyes, grey eyes or red eyes ... Besides, everyone has colored sigils in the shape of a winged circle with a dot in the center on the back of each hand.

The color pyramid of the Red Rising universe

As you can see, the Golds are on top of the Red Rising hierarchy whereas the Reds are on the bottom. While the Golds are supposed to be the fiercely intelligent rulers of humanity, the Reds are unskilled manual laborers conditioned to brutal environs. Therefore, Darrow is about to make a jump from the bottom to the top and turn this hierarchy upside down. If you'd like to know more about the color system in Red Rising, click here.

Politics in Red Rising

My favourite part about Red Rising is its politics. Having a degree in political science that might not be that much of a surprise, but I've never read a novel - least of all a YA novel - that - to me - felt like an overall critique or evaluation of politics in itself and I loved that! Pierce Brown approaches politics in a very analytical way without making it too obvious for the reader. Instead of positioning good versus evil or tyranny versus democracy, he uses Darrow's voice in order to question each political system so that the reader may ask himself/ herself as well: What shall we do about the current state of affairs? The idea to use power and leadership for the benefit of everyone is great, but every political system has its flaws and there's nothing you can do about that. So Darrow and his fellow characters in Red Rising attempt to find a balance which proofs to be a most ambitious undertaking. I'm pretty certain this quest of finding a way to determine what constitutes good governance will be left unfinished since there is no ideal solution when it comes to politics in the end. However, I love the idea to address this conflict in a novel and I'm very curious to see where we go next. Now, let me draw your attention to some quotes so that I can show you what I'm talking about.

Politics and Economics

The first (political) criticism I noticed while reading Red Rising was the interdependence of politics and economics.

"It was in the early stages of the Colonization when the wealthy Luna began to realize Earth was nothing more than a drain on their profits. Even as Luna colonized the Solar System, they were taxed and owned by corporations and countries on Earth, but those same entities could not enforce their ownership. ... Economics  turned Luna into the power and port of the Solar System. And the Solar System began to change into what it is today - an empire built on Red backs."

In other words, Luna became too wealthy and the Golds always wanted more which is why their empire had to be built to the disfavor of others - in this case, the Reds. This is a lesson very common in history since most well-known empires tolerated slavery, e.g. the Romans. Up to this day there is a huge scholarly debate on how politics and economics interact since corporations still have a huge influence on politics via special interest groups so ... very important topic!

Democracy

As I have mentioned before, what I really like about Red Rising is that its criticism is universal. Instead of saying empires are bad because they tolerate slavery, Brown also points out that other forms of government might be just as dysfunctioning. For instance, democracy ...

"I see why Demokracy is illegal. First comes yelling. Frustration. Indecision. Disagreements. Ideas. Scout. Fortify. Gather food. Lay traps. Blitz. Raid. Defense. Offence. Pollux spits. Titus knocks him out cold. Antonia leaves. Sevro says something snide to Titus and drags his wolf off to God knows where, never having lit a fire."

Hence, we are introduced to the basic problem of democracy which is indecision. When a political system is based on consent, it's paralyzed if consent is out of reach which then leads to a situation that can be used in order to bring down the system. Basically, that's what happened in the Weimar Republic. Modern democracies try to reduce this risk by forming institutions and rely on supervisory authorities but even modern democracies can be misused for the sake of dictators (e.g. Turkey).

The Institute

Certainly, the most brilliant thing Brown could have done is putting Darrow onto a battlefield that's meant to teach its students the roots of politics. Well, that ... yeah, that comes close to being a genius 😉 The Institute is not an ordinary school. It takes its students back to the state of nature so that they can experience the founding of the state. I guess someone has read Thomas Hobbes 😇 Of course, this is a very cruel undertaking that opens up the stage of all kinds of very interesting character developments. Let's see how the idea of the institute is depicted in Red Rising ...

"They have us here because this valley was humanity before God ruled. Fractured. Disunited even in our very own tribe. They want us to go through the process that our forefathers went through. Step by step, this game will evolve to teach us new lessons. Hierarchies within the game will develop. We'll have Reds, Golds, Coppers."

In a nutshell, ...

Overall, Red Rising centers around the idea of power and how it should be exercised for the good of all people - quite ambitious. It is a novel thoroughly influenced by political theory and politics in general and it's a book that's supposed to make you think. So once you get into the world building it's actually very good! I'm not quite sure how much of the political background is obvious to readers who never studied the subject before, but it is still beautifully done and there need to be more books like this 💗 Since Red Rising was basically used to show the flaws of different kinds of political systems I'm really curious to see where this debate goes in Golden Son. So far, it's obvious what the Society stands for is flawed, but what would be a good alternative?

Women in Red Rising

Above all, what made me fall in love with Red Rising is how women are represented in this novel. Since Darrow relies on guidance he often leans on women he admires and he's particularly gifted to determine which woman may have a positive effect on him. Still, I love how respectfully and equally he approaches every woman that crosses his way - no matter what color she is - and how he listens to them and treats them kindly. I guess you can almost say that Darrow has a tendency to put women on a pedestal which is quite refreshing, especially in YA 💖  I think the reason why the representation of women stood out to me in Red Rising is that we read the story from Darrow's perspective. Using a male point of view allows the author to shape the perception of his female characters which he does beautifully in a way that there are strong female characters who don't need to be physically strong, loud or of any particular importance to authorities. Instead, they can be quiet, compassionate and smart and they don't have to be the chosen ones in order to get attention from the reader. Darrow is constantly trying to protect women against injustice which is very lovely and makes him an overall excellent role model for how young boys should be raised to regard women in the first place. If you are looking for a novel in which women are represented as strong individuals without having to be a princess, an assassin or more likely a man, this is certainly the book for you 💞 Let me share one of my favourite quotes regarding women in Red Rising:

"She leaves me alone with Evey. Today, as always, her face is as quiet as the snow I've seen on the HC. I watch her in the mirror as she cuts my hair. The room is dark but for the light over the mirror. It shines from above, so she looks like an angel. Innocent and pure. But she's not innocent, not pure. She's a Pink. They breed them for pleasure, for the curves of their breasts and hips, for the tautness of their stomachs and the plump folds of their lips. Yet she is a girl and her spark has not yet gone out. I remember the last time I failed to protect one like her." (Red Rising, p.93)

Last but not least, I'd like to address an issue that is directly related to the representation of women in Red Rising and I feel like it is important to point out how well it is dealt with in comparison to other well-known fantasy novels. In the course of war, Red Rising also covers rape and violence against women which is, of course, a very sensitive topic. Overall, I think that Red Rising sets a good example of how to present rape - especially in the context of war - to young readers who will encounter this topic as opposed to real romance based on mutual interest and respect. It is consistently marked and punished as something entirely unacceptable and I think reading that from a male perspective is also very important. After all, due to its strong representation of women Red Rising is definitely a story that men as well as women will identify with and I am very happy I read it till the end.

Recommendation: Yes or No?

Love, Sarah