Review - Red Rising by Pierce Brown

As I've stated before, I prefer the thriller genre but I do love a good sci-fi/fantasy story.

I commute about two and a half hours every day to work, so I purchased a subscription to Audible. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to books that I may have never found otherwise.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown is one such book. I happened across this book by accident. The description caught my attention, so I decided to try it out... and I'm so happy I did.

This story has shades of The Hunger Games, intertwined with Greek and Roman mythology, as well as a smattering of Norse folklore.

The story takes place in a dystopian future in which Earth is dying and humanity has expanded to other planets and moons of the solar system. Civilization has developed into a multi-color class system ruled by the Golds.

Red Rising follows a Red, the lowest color of society, named Darrow. Through a series of events, Darrow's life is drastically altered.

Brown weaves a thrilling story that speaks to human nature. Old versus new. Powerful versus powerless.

Brown develops his characters in a way that makes the reader (or listener, in my case) become invested in what happens to them. We feel what they feel. We want the best for his protagonist and his allies and we despise those that Darrow despises.

The way Brown brings Greek, Roman and Norse history and mythology into the fabric of the story is masterful. The way he uses the locations and secondary characters to build the world in the story is beautiful.

This is the first book in a series and I highly recommend this to all who love a good story.