Audiobook Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Book: Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1)

By: Pierce Brown

Published: January 28, 2014

Published by: Random House

My Thoughts: Red Rising is compared to the Hunger Games, and to Enders Game, and though I could see similarities when I looked for them, it is in a class all its own.

Red Rising follows Darrow, a “Red.” They’re the miners of Mars, and their job is to collect elements from below the surface of mars to make the surface inhabitable for humans and the “weaker” colors like the Golds, the Blues, and the other colors. Each of the colors has a job, and the Reds are told that they are humanity’s last hope, that they are the pioneers. Only everything he has been told is a complete lie.

He learns that The Golds have been using them as slaves. One day though, Darrow’s life changes and he disguises himself as a Gold and joins their command school, to compete in the battle to be the best of the Golds. What ensues is a battle unlike any I have ever read before.

I don’t often read books from male POV’s, but this book makes me rethink that. Sure there were no references to hard packed abs, but there were also thankfully no references to swelling breasts despite there being a hint of romance. This was all action and internal thought, and awesomeness. I also usually don’t like books with their own slang terms, but this one didn’t overdo it, and they added a bit of something to the book instead of taking away from it. I can’t even do this book justice.

The Narration of this book was awesome. The Narrator had just the right tones to adequately portray all the varying characters and completely brought the book to life for me.

I give this book 5 huge stars. I would recommend it to fans of dystopian novels and science fiction. If you liked the Hunger Games or Enders Game, or even Poison Princess by Kresley Cole, then you would also probably like this one too. Its full of action, and backstabbing and secrets and lies and tells you that despite all the dividing lines between classes, everyone has good and bad inside them.