Red Rising (2014)
Pierce Brown – Book One of the Red Rising Trilogy: Book Review
Cast
· Darrow, a Red who is
remade into a Gold named "Darrow au Andromedus" to infiltrate and
destroy the Society. He is later called "The Reaper" by his
classmates, for the sickle-shaped blade he carries
as his weapon.
· Eo, Darrow's wife who’s
hanging for treason ignites his desire for revenge against the Golds.
· Nero au Augustus, the
ArchGovernor of Mars who orders Eo's execution.
· Virginia au Augustus,
daughter of the ArchGovernor and leader of House Minerva at the Institute.
Initially not knowing her given name, Darrow calls her "Mustang".
· Adrius au Augustus,
Virginia's vicious twin brother, leader of House Pluto at the Institute. His
nickname is "The Jackal".
· Cassius au Bellona,
Darrow's former ally and friend in House Mars who later turns on him.
· Jullian au Bellona,
Younger brother of Cassius who is paired with Darrow in “the passage”.
· Roque, Darrow's friend
and ally in House Mars, a self-styled poet.
· Sevro, Darrow's friend
and ally in House Mars, a low Draft with an antisocial attitude.
· Antonia au Severus, a
ruthless Gold in house Mars.
· Titus au Ladros, a
violent and tyrannical member of House Mars.
· Pax au Telemanus, a
massive warrior aligned with Virginia in House Minerva.
· Tactus au Rath, a
duplicitous member of House Diana.
· Fitchner, Proctor of Mars
at the Institute, Sevro's father.
· Narol, Darrow's paternal
uncle, rescues Darrow after his execution and sends him to the Sons of Ares.
· Dancer, Darrow's mentor
in the Sons of Ares who first reveals to him the lies of the Golds.
· Harmony, Partner of
Dancer who helps train Darrow during his carving
· Mickey, a Violet carver
who remakes Darrow's body and physically transforms him into a Gold.
· Matteo, a Pink who
educates Darrow all about the society, its history, politics and arts.
· Octavia au Lune, the
Sovereign of the Society.
Pierce Brown creates a solar system of hierarchal repression
reminiscent of The Hunger Games. The world that Pierce creates is segregated
strictly by classes designated by colors.
Yellows are the doctors, blues are the pilots, pinks are the prostitutes
and on it goes. The Golds are the
tyrannical leaders (of course). The hero
of this book (first in the Red Rising
Trilogy - Golden Son and Morningstar
come next) is Darrow (a Red), a
devil diver, who works (like all reds) far underground on Mars mining helium-3
that can be used to terraform Mars and the rest of the solar system. His wife
Eo is a frustrated anarchist and when she and Darrow are arrested for a minor
offense she sings a forbidden protest song for everyone, including Nero au
Augustus (the Gold ArchGovernor of Mars), who orders her death by hanging. Darrow then cuts down her body and buries her,
which also happens to lead to a death sentence, and he is also hanged. However, he is saved by his uncle Narel and
sent to the rebel group, Son’s of Ares.
Why? They plan to perform the
ultimate plastic surgery and turn him into a Gold with the hope of his working
his way into a position to topple the society.
Dance and Harmony are part of the Son’s of Ares and talk
Darrow into going through with the carving to become a Gold. Mickey is a violet
who is a carver who is on the sleazy side of plastic surgery in this
world. He is also talented. The description of the carving of Darrow is
interesting. Virtually every bit of his
body needs to be modified to achieve the herculean stature of a Gold. Matteo is a pink who teaches Darrow all of
the social skills necessary to be a
Gold.
Following a written test, Darrow enters the institute- one
of a thousand. He is drafted into house
Mars along with 99 others. He meets many
of the people that will impact his life moving forward. Julian and Cassius, Titus, Sevro, Rogue, and
Antonia. The first night in house Mars they
are each beaten by Obsidians and taken to a room with one other student. Finchner (proctor of house Mars) tells them
that it is a fight to the death and only one student leaves each room. Darrow is paired with Julian and after much
angst, kills him and joins the survivors.
They are then taken to a castle to enter the project that is
the institute. That is that each house
is battling the others for supremacy. Within each house the students fight to
be the leader - Primus. I think Pierce Brown does a very good job
with this section. He describes the
miseries of having bad water or no fire and the results. Darrow becomes for all
intents the leader of house Mars with Cassius as his right hand man until Cassius
learns, through the Jackal, that Darrow killed his brother Julian in the
Passage. He, seemingly, mortally wounds
Darrow in the forest and leaves him to die.
Fortunately for Darrow, Mustang is also a refugee hiding out and nurses
him back to health. Together they band
the stragglers and misfits into an army and look to defeat the rest of the
houses until they meet the Jackal who, because his father is Nero au Augustus,
is getting help from all of the proctors. Darrow takes on the proctors and
defeats them and then sends Mustang to bring back the Jackal who has just
slipped away. Finchner then confides to
Darrow that Mustang is Virginia au Augustus the daughter of Nero and twin
sister of the Jackal. He needn’t have
worried as she faithfully brings the Jackal in and Darrow wins the institute. He then becomes the apprentice to Nero au
Augustus that is the set up for the following book of the trilogy - Golden Son.
Summary
If you like other such books - Hunger games, divergent
series, Ender’s Game - you will probably like this. If you don’t then you probably won’t like Red
Rising either. I liked it. The next two books are not quite as good
without the focus on the institute. They
seem to be rushing for the end that we all know is coming.
Golden Son (2015) Pierce
Brown - Book Two of Red Rising Trilogy
· Darrow, a Red remade into
a Gold named "Darrow au Andromedus" (The Reaper) Lancer of House
Augustus.
· Virginia au Augustus,
nicknamed "Mustang", daughter of Nero au Augustus and twin sister of
Adrius.
· Adrius au Augustus,
Virginia's sociopathic twin brother, called "The Jackal".
· Nero au Augustus, the
ArchGovernor of Mars and father of Virginia and Adrius.
· Victra au Julii, lancer
of House Augustus, half sister to Antonia au Severus.
· Roque au Fabii, lancer of
House Augustus.
· Tactus au Rath, lancer of
House Augustus.
· Ragnar Volarus, Stained Obsidian
· Kavax au Telemanus,
father of Daxo and the late Pax.
· Daxo au Telemanus, son of
Kavax and Pax's brother.
· Cassius au Bellona,
lancer of House Bellona, brother of Karnus.
· Karnus au Bellona, lancer
of House Bellona, Brother of Cassius.
· Octavia au Lune, the
Sovereign of the Society.
· Lysander au Lune,
grandson and heir of the Sovereign and grandson of Lorn au Arcos.
· Aja au Grimmus, the
Sovereign's Protean Knight.
· Lorn au Arcos, the former
Rage Knight.
· Fitchner au Barca, former
Proctor of Mars at the Institute, father of Sevro.
· Sevro au Barca, leader of
the Howlers, son of Fitchner.
· Antonia au Severus-Julii,
Darrow's ruthless longtime enemy and Victra's half sister.
· Pliny au Velocitor,
Nero's chief of staff.
· Dancer, Red lieutenant in
the Sons of Ares.
· Harmony, Dancer's Red
lieutenant.
· Mickey, a Violet carver
who remade Darrow as a Gold.
· Evey, a Pink former slave
of Mickey.
At the end of Red Rising our hero, Darrow, becomes a Lancer
for his enemy, Nero au Augustus. At the
beginning of Golden Son we see Darrow lose a mock space battle to Karnus (Cassius’
old brother). This loss prompts Nero to
tell Darrow that he is going to put his contract up for bid at the next summit of
the great houses. Before the meeting
he sees Adrius (the Jackal) who has his own schemes. He also meets Harmony who
tells him that Dancer is dead (a lie) and tells him that Ares wants him to be a
suicide bomber at the House Summit.
Darrow is about to do this and then has another idea. He challenges Cassius to a duel. It turns out that Darrow has been training
with Lorn au Arcos (former Rage Knight) and is able to defeat Cassius and is
about to kill him when the Sovereign calls of the fight to save him. Darrow chops off Cassius’ arm in frustration
and chaos incuses.
The Sovereign asks Darrow to join her and has a truth
telling contest with him using special scorpion-like creatures called
oracles. Darrow finds out that the
sovereign was planning to destroy Augustus and give Mars to Bellona. Mustang signals Sevro and the Howlers who
rescue Darrow and take the Sovereign’s grandson Lysander as a hostage. As they are escaping Aja crushes Quinn’s
head. On the escape, Adrius (the Jackal)
pretends to operate on Quinn but actually (we find out later) kills her. Now we have war!
Darrow attacks and takes the largest ship in the Sovereign’
s fleet. He renames the ship the Pax in
honor of his friend from the institute.
Also of note is the appearance of a stained obsidian – Ragnar Volarus. Ragnar is one of the most interesting
characters in the series. The whole
culture of the obsidians is designed to make Golds as god-like figures and
prevent the obsidians from uniting. For
if they do they would be a massive force.
Darrow, wisely, gives Ragnar his freedom. This is not an easy thing and Ragnar rejects
freedom but Darrow finally convinces him.
This, of course, makes Ragnar even more loyal to Darrow then
before. He becomes a member of Sevrus’s
howlers. I would really like to see
Pierce Brown write a book with an obsidian as it’s main character. Maybe a prehistory to this when the obsidians
fought the Golds (and lost).
Darrow plans an “iron rain” and to take Mars from the
Bellona for Nero au Augustus. First he
needs more ships and men and seeks these with his teacher Lorn au Arcos who is
forced to join Darrow when the Sovereign’s forces turn up to kill his family
and Darrow saves them. Darrow’s former
friend Tactus escapes Darrows first trap and is in position to kill Lorn’s
family. Darrow convinces him to come
back to him. A very positive moment
which is very short when Lorn kills Tactus for threatening his family. Second Chances seems to be a theme for Darrow
which occasionally gets him in trouble.
I think it humanizes him and makes him a much more believable character.
With Lorn’s forces they initiate the battle for Mars. In the fight he is rescued at one point by
Fitchner who reveals himself to be Ares.
Turns out that his wife (Sevrus’ mother) was a red who was put to
death. Sevro had already told Darrow
that he knew his secret. He tells
Mustang his secret and she considers killing him until Ragnar intercedes.
As Sevro becomes closer to Darrow, Rogue is pulling
away. He blames Quinn’s death on Darrow
(as Cassius blames him for killing Julian).
So it is not a big surprise when at a victory feast he stabs Darrow with
a tranquilizer. They present him with a
box containing Fitchner’s head (Cassius killed him) and Adrius (the Jackal) kills his father, Nero. Rogue, Cassius and Adrius are in a plot with
the Sovereign Octavia. Antonia shoots
here half-sister Victra in the back. They
know Darrow’s secret and plan to dissect him to find out how it was done - we will see what that means. Probably torture
and eventual death for Darrow (and Eo’s dream).
Why would Rogue betray Darrow? He blames Darrow for Quinn’s death. The
sovereign ordered Aja to kill Quinn and Adrius finished the job. Well maybe to maintain the Gold’s way of
life. But if Rogue didn’t betray Darrow
then what would be the plot of the third book?
Sort of an odd plot twist that didn’t make good sense to me. I could see Rogue fighting against Darrow but
not betraying him.
Remaining Questions:
Will Darrow give Rogue and Cassius another chance to get on
the right side?
Where is Mustang?
Are the Son’s of Ares gone?
How will Ragnar and Sevrus fit in?
Where is Darrow and how is he going to escape and lead the
revolt to victory?
Next up: Morning Star
Morning Star (2016) Pierce Brown, Book Three of the Red Rising
Trilogy
· Darrow of Lykos, a Red
physically remade into a Gold to infiltrate and destroy the Society, (The
Reaper).
· Virginia au Augustus,
nicknamed "Mustang", daughter of Nero, the former ArchGovernor of
Mars.
· Adrius au Augustus,
Virginia's twin brother, the sociopathic ArchGovernor of Mars, also known as
"The Jackal".
· Victra au Julii, Darrow's
loyal lieutenant, half sister of Antonia au Severus-Julii.
· Sevro au Barca, Darrow's
best friend and second-in-command, acting leader of the Sons of Ares.
· Cassius au Bellona, the
Sovereign's Morning Knight, Darrow's nemesis and former friend.
· Roque au Fabii, Imperator
of the Sovereign's Sword Armada, Darrow's former ally and friend.
· Antonia au Severus-Julii,
Praetor of the Fifth and Sixth Legions, Victra's half-sister.
· Octavia au Lune, the
Sovereign of the Society.
· Lysander au Lune,
grandson and heir of the Sovereign.
· Aja au Grimmus, the
Protean Knight and the Sovereign's bodyguard.
· Ragnar Volarus, Darrow's
Obsidian lieutenant.
· Sefi the Quiet, Ragnar's
sister and leader of the Valkyries.
· Holiday ti Nakamura, a
Gray Legionnaire secretly working for the Sons of Ares, and Darrow's deputy.
· Regulus ag Sun, nicknamed
"Quicksilver", a Silver and the richest man in the Society through
ownership of the helium-3 refineries on Phobos.
· Dancer, Darrow's mentor
in the Sons of Ares and later the Sons' liaison for the Reds.
· Mickey, a Violet carver
who remade Darrow as a Gold.
· Lilath, Gold, captain of
The Jackal’s bonerider’s (personal killers)
Morning Star begins with our hero Darrow being tortured in a
box. This has been te case for about a
year. Victra has been tortured by her
half sister Antonia. Everyone in the solar system thinks Darrow is dead because
the Sovereign stages a mock execution of some poor slob made up like
Darrow. Everyone but Sevro - who never stopped believing. He is possibly the most interesting character
in the books. Sevro sends Holiday and
Trigg ti Nakamura to rescue Darrow and they get Victra as well but Trigg is
lost in the battle – killed by Aja – She is a beast.
Mickey (the carver) is brought back to fix Darrow and
Victra. I was disappointed that Mickey’s
character was not developed more as he is the key to this whole saga. Oh well.
Once they are well they set off to kidnap Quicksilver (a rich
gray). They arrive to find Mustang,
Antonia, and Cassius in a peace conference with Quicksilver. After a battle, they capture Quicksilver and
find out that he was a co-founder (with Fitchner) of the Son’s of Ares. Next up
- Sevro and the howlers serve up a distraction
on Phobos while Darrow and Ragnar head to Ragnar’s home to try and enlist the
Obsidians in their battle. Along the way
they are met by Mustang who joins them.
Aja and Cassius follow them and both ships crash land. Darrow and Mustang caputure Cassius. Aja kills Ragnar (hard to believe) and then
escapes.
Darrow and Mustang then convince Ragnar’s sister Sefi to join
their cause. They do this by unmasking
the Gold’s in the temple who are pretending to be gods. Sefi beheads her mother, Alia Snowsparrow,
when she disagrees with Sefi. There are
a lot of themes about parent and child relationships in this series. Mostly bad ones.
Next they convince Romulus au Raa, one of the moon lords of
Jupitor, to align with them over a counter offer by Rogue representing the
Sovereign. So the big space battle
commences. Pierce Brown is no Alistair
Reynolds when it comes to space battles but this one is interesting. Darrow suckers Rogue in close thinking he has
won and then Darrow and a team of reds take clawdrills across and tear straight
to the bridge of Rogues ship (helped by Rogue’s Pink). Antonia escapes leaving Rogues fleet exposed. Rogue sees that all is lost and despite
Darrow’s pleas for his to comeback to his side.
Rogue commits suicide. Noble and
poetic to the end. Victra captures
Antonia. Sevro stops an uprising of the obsidians who are hanging every Gold in
sight. He does this by first hanging
Cassius for killing his father (Fitchner) and then (dramatically) hanging
himself for his various murders. Sefi
cuts them both down and unites the obsidians (once again) under Darrow. Sevro and Victra are married. Their kids will be demons.
Before the final battle Darrow suggests letting Cassius go as
someone is bound to kill him. As he and
Sevro and Mustang are doing this Cassius steals Sevro’s gun and kills him. He lets Antonia go and they steal a shuttle
and take Darrow, Mustang, and Sevro’s body (why?) to the Sovereign Octavia who
is there with her grandson and Adrius (the Jackal). Octavia orders Darrow’s right hand to be cut
off. This is done. Octavia orders Aja to
kill Antonia because she fled the battle and left Rogue outflanked. Adrius plans to kill Darrow with Sevro’s gun
(why?) and discovers that it is full of blanks.
Cassius then reveals that he is actually on Darrow’s side after all. They
fight Aja until they get in position to awaken Sevro (right Sevro is not really
dead – big surprise). Together they are
able to defeat Aja and kill the Sovereign.
Then Adrius (that Jackal) has one more curve. There are 100 nukes on Luna and he will set
them off one by one unless Darrow commits suicide and Mustang and Cassius let
him assume the throne. Lilath is the
button pusher in her space ship. Instead
of killing himself Darrow punches Adrius in the throat and rips out is tongue
(Sefi is envious) . With the help of the
Ash Lord they pummel Lilath and prevent her from setting off all of the
Nukes.
Mustang becomes the sovereign and Darrow is her consort?
Husband? Cassius takes Lysander off to
explore the solar system. Sefi is off to
unite all of the obsidians (trouble brewing).
Everything tied up very nice if you ask me - but wait.
What was Mustang doing during that year that Darrow was being tortured
in a box? Having a baby apparently. She introduces Darrow to his son – Pax. Now
everything is tied up nice and pretty. I
think Eo would be happy – Bear the Chains.
Summary:
A good book along the lines of Hunger Games. A much bigger geography with the whole solar
system. While not many space battles
there are some terrific moments such as when Darrow and the Reds take the
clawdrills into Rogues ship. A lot of
vicious politics, which is fun. Some of the situations escape belief but that
is nature of these sorts of novels. I
liked it a lot and recommend it.
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