Red Rising

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R25KEG3P2YDZS1?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl

I liked this book far more than I really should have.

I purchased and started reading [[ASIN:B01LX8EFGX Red Rising and Philosophy: Break the Chains! (Popular Culture and Philosophy)]] before I had even heard of the Red Rising trilogy. I am addicted to the Pop Culture and Philosophy series, and the articles that looked at the issue of whether Darrow remained the same individual during his transformation or discussed the implications of a culture organized around occupation-based “colors” seemed interesting. So, purchased the first book as an audiobook and a digital book.

It is a captivating page-turner. The story begins with the teenage Darrow, a “Red” miner on Mars, working like the rest of his class to harvest helium-3, which will be used to transform Mars into a livable environment. The first several chapters deal with Darrow's discovery of the corrupt treatment of his clan of Reds, who are defrauded into pushing themselves to the limit by promises of bonuses they will never receive. Darrow's beloved wife, Eo, is executed by the White Governor of Mars, which pushes Darrow into his own act of rebellion for which he is punished. Darrow is then sucked up into an underground revolutionary movement, the Sons of Ares, and is genetically redesigned into passing for a White.

Then, Darrow is admitted to the Institute, which separates the rulers of White society, a society that includes all the planets of the solar system. The Institute turns out to be an anarchy where the students are again split up into “houses” based on personality types. Darrow is placed in the House of Mars, which is for the wrathful.

From here, we see the students murder, betray, plot, die, torture, maim and fight. Unlike a lot of other YA Dystopias, these are presented as real events; White's die. A nod is given to the concept that White culture is organized around evolutionary/eugenic principles and that these deaths are intended to promote the vigor of the White class. Maybe, but it does seem wasteful. The same concept shows up earlier in the book when Darrow displays an uncanny agility; the Reds are evolving, also.

In one passage, there was this exchange:

“He shrugs. “Doesn't count for much.

So I'll give you facts, brotherman. This is the system. The lower Colors have their children by use of catalysts. Fast births, sometimes only five months of gestation before labor is induced. Except for the Obsidians, only we wait nine months to be born. Our mothers receive no catalysts, no sedatives, no nucleics. Have you asked yourself why?” “So the product can be pure.”

“And so that nature is given a chance to kill us. The Board of Quality Control is firmly convinced that 13.6213 percent of all Gold children should die before one year of age. Sometimes they make reality fit this number.” He splays out his thin hands. “Why? Because they believe civilization weakens natural selection. They do nature's work so that we do not become a soft race. The Passage, it seems, is a continuation of that policy. Only we were the tools they used. My ... victim ... was, bless his soul, a fool. He was from a family of no worth, and he had no wits, no intelligence, no ambition,” he frowns at the words before sighing, “he had nothing the Board values. There is a reason he was to die.”

The “13.6213 percent” figure seems familiar. I'm not sure if I read it in Mein Kampf or some work by an Amerian eugenicist.

Darrow performs brilliantly at the Institute, of course. He makes friends and enemies who will obviously be with him to the end of the trilogy. For example, the odd, oddly loyal and oddly deadly character of Sevro seems designed for the long haul. He also finds love in the form of Mustang, who, naturally, turns out to be the daughter of the Governor of Mars, and he finds an enemy in the Jackal, the son of the Governor of Mars. More importantly, Darrow discoveries principles that will enable him to bring about the revolution against the White society.

This story is a YA dystopia, and it seems to incorporate the tropes of this genre. Thus, we have teenagers on the verge of adulthood being sorted and trained for their future. We have the sorting into both classes, occupations and personality types. We have a testing to destruction of the teenagers, where to wash-out is to lose everything.

To me, though, it seemed to be more than a YA dystopia; it seemed like something of a throwback to pulp science fiction with an empire that spans the solar system and pulpy scientificish technostuff. I could almost feel the ghost of A.E. Van Vogt and Buck Rogers in the plot.

I enjoyed the audiobook where the narrator was able to present the Reds with a Scottish accent and the Whites with a plummy Brittish accent.

This is a plot-driven, pulpy, page-turner. It is a lot of fun. I'd recommend it to teens and adults with a lively sense of fun.