Red Rising
by Pierce Brown
I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.
Why read it
Darrow is a Red, mining beneath the surface of Mars so that humanity can one day live above it, until he learns the planet has been terraformed and habitable for generations and his people are slaves to a lie.
Brown launches a brutal science-fiction saga about a color-coded caste society ruled by the godlike Golds, and one low-born man surgically remade to infiltrate their ranks. It fuses dystopian revolution with the savage crucible of an elite academy where students wage real war to be crowned.
Published in 2014 as Pierce Brown's debut, Red Rising became a New York Times bestseller and launched a series that now spans multiple books. Brown reportedly wrote several unpublished novels before this breakout success.
- 01
A society built on lies
What awaits is a caste system justified by manufactured scarcity, and a hero who learns the whole order is a fiction.
- 02
Grief into rebellion
Darrow's transformation is fueled by devastating personal loss that hardens into purpose.
- 03
The Institute's war games
The Golds' academy pits houses against each other in a survival contest with no rules and real casualties.
- 04
The mask and the man
Living undercover among the enemy forces Darrow to question who he is becoming to win.
Eo's act of defiance and its consequence, the wound that drives Darrow to join the rebellion.
The bloody, tactical warfare of the Institute, where alliances shift and Darrow claws toward command of House Mars.
