Red Rising

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A very different kind of book than I usually read.

Ben Shapiro recommended it right about the time I started listening to him a month or so ago, and now I can see why.

Set centuries in the future, Darrow is a miner on Mars. Life is hard, and short. He doesn’t realize it, but he is a slave in a strict caste system. He loses his family to the punishment of the state. He is shown the Big Lie of Society, and genetically changed to join and compete with the highest caste as a sleeper agent. I won’t spoil the rest.

With PG-13 language and R violence throughout, this is not a book for the faint of heart. It is a mix of Game of Thrones (gritty, feudal politics), Matrix (plot), Ayn Rand (freedom anthem), Lord of the Flies (civilization lost to barbarism), and Harry Potter (house competition).

Is it worth reading? I think so. Literarily, the plot structure seemed original to me, though I’m no expert in that. The suspense was good, though it lagged at points in the middle.

Red Rising is an insightful study into totalitarian societies – how they work, the tricks used to keep people subservient, to produce the next generation of a ruling class, and the choices individuals can take to fight for freedom. It’s also a case study in Darwinism run amok. What if a society’s ruling class has no brakes in their “kill or be killed” belief? Cheat or be cheated. Get them before they get you. It’s a bloody cautionary tale: we need ethical restraint or it’s just a jungle out there.

Unfortunately, not much is given in the way of what that ethical restraint needs to be. Two themes emerge. First, freedom is expensive in blood and personal sacrifice, but it’s worth fighting for. Second, loyalty is a higher value than survival. But both freedom and loyalty may need to be given up in the short run to achieve them in the long run.

The end also leaves ambiguous whether loyalty can really win over the law of the jungle. And whether individual resolve to take on and change society will win out over society making the individual conform.

There are biblical themes, though I don't know they were intended.
It's told in the first person, and on the last page there are a series of "I will" statements that remind me of Isaiah 14:13-14, which is often attributed to Satan. This goes against the grain of the book's thesis, that Darrow is a sort of Messiah who has to just bend the rules. Is he a Savior or a demon?
There is also a nice "slave to son" development.

I liked the critique of totalitarian societies, but not the view that to change the world you'll have to compromise your ethics.



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