Red Rising

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
382 Pages

 The first thing people try to do when talking about this book is to compare it to the Hunger Games.  If it had a vampire in it, they'd be calling it the next Twilight.  Put those books out of your mind.  It isn't the next Hunger Games and the main character isn't like Katniss.  A book has to stand on its own and making such comparisons isn't fair.

In Red Rising it is several hundred years in the future and the solar system is colonized.  The Reds live on Mars and mine a substance which is needed for terraforming.  They are promised that once their hard work is done they will join the rest of society in enjoying the fruits of their labor.  However it isn't true.  When Darrow loses everything he loves and discovers the truth he begins a journey of retribution against the society that destroyed his life by becoming one of them.  His struggle to become the best of the Golds means going to a school where the winner of a year long contest of war will have the best chance of obtaining a position of power upon graduation. 

This was an entertaining book that got bogged down in the contest, especially in the power struggle within the House of Mars.  There will be sequel since the story is far from over.