Red Rising

** I received this novel free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

** MINOR SPOILERS IN REVIEW**

In a recent review I mentioned that sometimes books come to you at the wrong time, Gnomon, a book which has some of the most beautifully crafted sentences I have ever read and vocabulary to DIE FOR took me a punishing six months to read. At another point in life I would have loved it, sadly at this time of life I didn't.

And the next book I read, Pierce Brown's 'Red Rising' came to me at exactly the right time. I've been a bit jaded with reading and it was only that I received it for free that I committed to read it and review. Wow! I am so glad I did! Although it clocks in at almost 400 pages I read this in two days. This book reminded me of my joy of reading in general, and of reading something where 'you have to know what happens next'. No high brow convoluted plot to make one think, just a fast paced story that made me want to read 'one more chapter'.

And the funny thing is... there is loads in this book that I normally DO NOT LIKE. There are loads of reasons why I shouldn't like this book but I do - it pushes the right buttons at the right time for me.

The setting grabbed me mostly because I'm in an Eclipse Phase roleplaying game at the moment so the themes of mining on Mars got to me straight away. The Reds (underground miners) are quite a clearly defined 'race' of humans living under the ground, drilling and living on subsistence rations. Brown is quite effective at detailing this society, effectively a slave society and their cruel overlords. We have a 'plucky young hero coming from nothing who is exceptionally talented' digging deep down below and I did a massive YAWN. How often do we read in fantasy novels in particular of the stable boy becoming King. This was here and it is so predictable! It felt like I was reading 'every fantasy novel ever'.

Said hero and 'perfect, yet downtrodden by the system' sneak off for some 'cuddle time' and lo and behold our hero discovers there is sky above Mars for the first time.

Fast forward a bunch of meanness from the overseers and our hero Darrow decides to rise up and fight back and FREE THE REDS!!!! Yep, you've heard it all before. (Did I tell you there was a lot about the book that normally bugged me). But bloodydamn it I kept reading and devouring every page.

Darrow then gets to above ground and discovers that there are more than Reds and Greys (the overseers of the mining colony). He discovers that humans have been living on the planet for ages and that the Reds are slaves, not for the forthcoming of colonisation of Man but to empty the bins and stuff. He learns that there are a thousand cities each with a hundred mining colonies, each with a number of tribes under the ground. He learns of the high and low-Reds, the Pinks (the sex slaves), the Silvers, Greens (media types or was it science), Blues, Purples (one doing research the other accountancy), Browns (domestic staff - reminiscent of black houseservants and the Marthas in The Handmaid's Tale,Obsidians (the super soldiers) and the Golds....

The Golds are revered as gods by the Reds, distant super humans of exquisite beauty and perfection. They rule stuff and are generally not nice.

What I like about this setting is that it's basically a bunch of colours and a really rigid hierarchical system that screams unfairness and segregation. It plays on very real feelings of unfairness and people 'knowing their place'. It pushes buttons on racism, beauty and body image. It's all simple as the book is aimed at a Young Adult audience but it's effective rather than clunky. I never felt like I was getting bashed on the head by the book saying RACISM IS WRONG. It's obvious and is there for all to see.

Do Darrow the Red hooks up (rather easily) with a bunch of Reds Under The Bed (see what I did there...) and goes to smash up the Golds....

He does this by undergoing significant body modification and to me, this was one of the more interesting sections of the book as he undergoes radical transformation into one of the super Golds. His skin and hair is changed, his body taller, stronger, leaner, faster. He becomes Gold. I really liked this section as said earlier, I've been into Eclipse Phase and Transhumanism and body morphing is something I am all over at the moment (right book, right time!!)

And then sadly, the book changes....basically Darrow the Gold goes to the equivalent of officer school to become one of the best and get a top place in the hierarchy of Golds so he can blow stuff up later.

The rest of the book becomes a The Hunger Games or Battle Royale knockoff. A bunch of elite kids get to play capture the flag in a natural landscape (that feels more Earth than Mars) to see who is the best. I was a bit disappointed with this as I felt the early sections building up to the 'rich kids fight it out' portion of the book were the better. Each of the kids are drafted to a House and each House has a castle to defend and slaves to capture. It's presented as a game of leadership and as you may expect it doesn't work out that way.

I requested the book because I've been on a bit of a grimdark trip recently and the publisher promotion for this described it as 'Game of Thrones in Space'. That hooked me in as something I want to read. Well, sadly it isn't particularly GoT although I can see why it has been tagged as such. Yes, there are wealthy Houses forming alliances and betraying each other and all that jazz. Yes there are some particularly gruesome scenes cutting oneself out of a dead horse to surprise an enemy was awesome. That said, it didn't feel particularly Machiavellian, all the protagonists have the same goal and when in the 'game' despite being bloodthirsty it didn't feel particularly bleak or cruel.

I feel like I am being unfair on the book, because for all the things which normally bug me I did read it quickly and was looking for time to go back to it. I wanted to see how Darrow would get on. I did root for him. The world was convincing and I cared about the characters throughout.

I'm not a fan of YA at all but this gets a solid Four Stars for entertaining me thoroughly for the last few days.