It's kind of like an R-rated version of The Hunger Games. It takes about 60-70 pages to get going, but after it did, I couldn't put it down. It's missing a few passages that might make the plot smoother and congruent, but it's a great novel for an author's first attempt. This is what my friend wrote as a review for the book, and I think he pretty much nails it.
The inevitable "Red Rising", Hunger Games for dudes.
Red Rising is a cynical cash grab. It's a blatant assignment of an agent tasking his talent for "one of those teen books." Red rising also just happens to be outstanding.
After a painfully obvious first act, something strange happens. What starts out as another teen dystopia knock off suddenly starts to form a life of its own. Like a space ship shedding its bulky booster rockets, Red Rising escapes the gravitational pull of a mediocre beginning and takes off.
Sure we have all the tropes of modern teen dystopias. The class systems that the genre borrowed from Harry Potter are turned up to eleven. We have classes, we have families, leagues and layers. Indeed, the author exhausts the entire rainbow of his colored castes and is forced to resort to metallic shades. There is the inevitable Hunger Games, with patrons favoring the various Houses. There is the background politics which muddy the waters, and obscure motivations.
And how does our hero navigate this treacherous, uncertain challenge? Usually with a surprise punch to the trachea. Think less Catniss, and more Conan. Darrow is a protagonist short on temper and long on "slangsmarts"Â, the novel's term for out of the box problem solving that usually involves head butting a dude. The palpable sense of rage the author is able to infuse his main character with is what makes him so compelling. These sorts of novels usually build tension by the sense of powerlessness their characters feel; with Red Rising we have a 90's era adolescent male power fantasy nestled inside the structure of a modern teen novel, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Sure the author tries to confine his characters inside the modern progressive world view: the confident female charters have important leadership roles, would be rapists are dealt swift justice. But inevitably conflict descends into hyper masculine utra-violence in a way that feels almost politically incorrect.
And that's not all you get. This is future Mars as New Rome, a Percy Jackson in space with rocket boots. The author knows no shame and the result is an embarrassment of riches. There is much to love in this beautiful mess. Here's to the inevitable two sequels and the 4 picture movie deal they spawn.
