Post by Mark T. Locker.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Mars has always held a certain fascination for me. Clearly, its proximity to our own planet (Earth) makes it some low-hanging fruit for the imagination. All the fun (if at times make-believe) hints at life: faces; ice caps; weird lights and shadows just add to its allure. Remember when bunch of Martian movies came out? Red Planet and Ghosts of Mars and, several years prior, good ol’ Total Recall.

Well you can add another work to the pile of Red Planet-themed pieces. Red Rising is the first novel by American novelist Pierce Brown. Like every other book being written, it is part of a trilogy. This one tells the story of Darrow, helldiver of Lykos. He is part of a huge colony living beneath the planet Mars toiling to terraform the planet and make it livable for future generations. Violently oppressed but lauded as heroes for the future of humanity, Darrow’s world is blown open when it is revealed to him that Mars has been habitable for ages and the Reds (the class of people laboring beneath the planet) have been lied to and used for the resources they mine. Darrow is enlisted to help lead the fight against the Golds, the elite who rule over them.

The second volume comes out next week so now is a good time to pick up the first book if you are into exciting, dystopian sci-fi. So far it’s interesting and I hope that the series doesn’t turn out to be predictable. I’ll soon find out!