The Red Rising Saga: A Dystopian Sci-fi Story
An age long question of humanity since the beginning of space travel, or even the discovery of space, is the question whether there is extraterrestrial life in our solar system, and beyond. Sci-fi is a generally interesting topic for most; the 5 books of the Red Rising series create a world so real and vivid with exquisite writing that nearly all can be entertained by throughout the long, and interesting story.
So is there life on Mars?
To give you a quick intro to this story, throughout the sequence of books, you will follow Darrow. He begins the story as a simple miner on Mars under the Red faction. The society is broken up into a caste system; the system begins with Red at the lowest, and Gold at the highest. After witnessing the death of his wife at the hands of the Golds, he goes down a path of revenge, tragedy, and conquest. Darrow aims to stop the wheel of society, crumble the high-ups of civilization, and create a more equal society for those who were previously forced into their lifestyles.
What makes this different?
As mentioned, being a widely fascinating topic, space in sci-fi works of art is commonly represented as an extremely futuristic/modern evolution of civilization. The author of the books, Pierce Brown, develops the world in a very unique way. Brown shows his greatest strength: worldbuilding. The universe feels like it could be real. Throughout the entirety of the series, everything from character names, to concepts of architecture are inspired from past civilizations in history. While the world does evolve to display the modern advances of humanity, it does so gradually so that you are not overwhelmed. There is a progression. The first two books, Red Rising, and Golden Son are more grounded than the others; whereas as you move into the later books like Morning Star, or Iron Gold the scale, and scope of the world, and its characters is much more substantial.
But is it a good read?
While the world is vast, and complex, the books aren’t. The series is a very compelling read through its use of graphic, and evocative description alone. Compounding this is the masterfully crafted story that is purely addicting to read. You watch as characters grow and evolve throughout the story, adapting to adversities along the way; subsequently immersing you into this crescendo of conflict. I would definitely recommend this book series to most people, as do most reviews.
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