Red Rising
.jpg)
First edition cover
|
|
| Author | Pierce Brown |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Tim Gerard Reynolds |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books (US) |
|
Publication date
|
January 28, 2014 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 382 |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | Golden Son |
Red Rising is a 2014 science fiction novel by American author Pierce Brown and the first book and eponym of a trilogy. The novel, set on a future planet Mars, follows lowborn miner Darrow as he infiltrates the ranks of the elite Golds.
In February 2014, Universal Pictures secured the rights for a film adaptation, to be directed by Marc Forster.
It has been seven hundred years since mankind colonized other planets. The powerful ruling class of humans has installed a rigid and color-based social hierarchy, where the physically superior Golds at the top rule with an iron fist. Sixteen-year-old Darrow is a Red, a class of workers who toil beneath the surface of Mars mining helium-3 to terraform the planet and make it habitable. He and his wife Eo are caught in a forbidden area and arrested. While she is publicly whipped for her crime, Eo sings a forbidden folk tune as a protest against their virtual enslavement. She is subsequently hanged on the orders of Mars' ArchGovernor, Nero au Augustus. Darrow cuts down and buries his wife's body, a crime for which he is also hanged. However, Darrow awakes to find that he has been drugged and delivered into the hands of the Sons of Ares, a terrorist group of Reds who fight against the oppression of the "lowColors". They have adopted the video of Eo's song and execution as a rallying vehicle for their cause. Darrow joins the Sons when he learns that Mars was already terraformed centuries before and that the Reds have been tricked into perpetual servitude and subjugation.
Darrow is conscripted to impersonate a Gold and infiltrate the Society to bring it down from within. He is physically transformed by Mickey, a Violet "carver", who gives him the abilities and appearance of a Gold through painful surgeries, treatments and implants. Using a fabricated identity, Darrow is accepted into the Golds' elite Institute, where he befriends the charismatic Cassius au Bellona and alienates the arrogant Antonia au Severus. Darrow is selected for House Mars by its gruff Proctor, Fitchner. To continue to the next stage, Darrow must complete the Passage, a test in which the 100 newly chosen students in each House are paired and tasked to kill each other as a means to eliminate the weaker half. Darrow is forced to murder Cassius' brother Julian to survive, but Cassius can only guess who may have killed him.
Each House is assigned a fortress to defend within the Institute's confines, with the goal of warring with each other until one House dominates all others. Mars fractures into factions: one led jointly by Darrow and Cassius, one by Antonia, one by Titus au Ladros, and the antisocial Sevro going off on his own. To neutralize the violent and tyrannical Titus, Darrow enlists House Minerva, led by the young woman he met briefly upon his arrival at the Institute and whom he has dubbed "Mustang". Mustang and her troops take the Mars fortress and imprison Titus. Sevro helps Darrow escape and capture Minerva's standard, which he trades to reclaim Mars' castle. Darrow takes over as the Primus (leader) of Mars, and Sevro and his group of "Howlers" declare their loyalty to him. Darrow realizes from the captive Titus' manner of speech that he is a fellow Red impersonating a Gold. To maintain his troops' discipline, Darrow allows Titus to be executed. Darrow captures Minerva's fortress and defeats their strongman Pax au Telemanus. Before she escapes, Mustang reveals the existence of "the Jackal", the leader of House Pluto who is terrorizing other Houses. Antonia and some of Titus' former followers attempt to overthrow Darrow, but he manages to thwart their plan. Lilath, a messenger from the Jackal, secretly reveals to Cassius that Darrow killed Julian. Cassius challenges Darrow to a duel outside Mars' fortress, severely wounding him and leaving him to die in the snow.
...
Wikipedia