Red Rising

May 20, 2013
Debut author Pierce shoots for the next Hunger Games with mixed results in this melodramatic SF series opener. Sixteen-year-old Darrow is a Red miner, the lowest worker caste on Mars. Darrow’s people live in hellish conditions underground and mine the precious silvery helium-3 needed to terraform the planet. Darrow’s father was hanged for performing a traditional dance, and when Darrow’s wife, Eo, discovers that Mars’s surface has been livable for centuries and then sings a forbidden dirge in public, she too is executed. Awash with grief, Darrow is recruited by the rebel Sons of Ares to infiltrate high-caste Gold society and help overthrow the government. After weeks of surgery and training, Darrow enters Mars’s most selective school, but being accepted at the Institute is one thing; surviving a murderous hazing, ruthless power struggles, and a brutal war game won’t be so easy. Determined to lead his people to a better future, Darrow will do anything to win. Pierce offers a Hollywood-ready story with plenty of action and thrills but painfully little originality or plausibility. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Associates.

Narrator Tim Gerard Reynolds's portrayal of a virtual slave trapped in the life-sucking mines of Mars is top-notch. The story could have been as easily set in a feudal European camp as on the distant red planet. The rugged dignity of the hero, Darrow, who escapes and challenges the universe's ruling class, is almost Shakespearean. His righteous hatred is visceral. Reynolds portrays him like a brawling Irishman who realizes he'll never defeat his masters until he becomes one of them. As Darrow changes mentally and physically, Reynolds's portrayal slowly changes as well. In addition, his depiction of the ruling class as golden-skinned perfect people rings true, as does their disdain for the lowly Reds who live short lives mining for the precious metals that sustain their totalitarian society. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine