Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Colonizing Mars is the hard brutal but noble work of the Reds. Or is it? Mars is colonized and the Reds are indoctrinated slaves. Darrow learns of his peoples true position

The first hundred or so pages of this book suffer majorly from first book syndrome. Where a lot of stuff is thrown at you to establish the world before you truly get into the story of the book. Once we got into the story I enjoyed it.

Darrow after his transformation is cunning and clever and I really enjoyed his character arc. Not being content with what he's been given and fighting to correct the injustices. Since his life full of injustices, he has to fight for absolutely everything. His time at the institute impressed me.

I also really like Servo. He's just this tiny little guy who's consistently underestimated who ends up being a crucial part of the book.

Spoilery Rant Warning:

One of my biggest gripes about the book is Eo. She is Darrow's motivation to do what he must and we just don't get to know her. We get a few conversations with her but that's it and then she's dead. Her memory is constantly brought up but I didn't have an attachment to her and I felt the build up with lacking.

This story easily could have been structured where we spend most of it in Lykos and it ends with the reveal of the true nature of Mars. But no that's crammed into about 80 pages, the bulk of the story revolves around what happens at the Institute.

Conclusion:

Once I got about a hundred or so pages in I started to enjoy this book. I will probably check out the second book but the first one wasn't anything mind-blowing.