The “Red Rising” series by Pierce Brown has two parts. The original Red Rising trilogy and a quartet sequel to the original series. Currently, only three of the four in the quartet have been released. However, despite the series being unfinished, one thing can become clear. This series is absolutely legendary.

The saga takes place in a sci-fi world where civilization has advanced much farther, with space settlements and different technological innovations. While these are incredibly interesting, the real part of the world comes out in the social hierarchy Pierce Brown has set up. In this world, people are divided into different castes of society, with the Reds being the bottom and the Golds being the ruling class. The interesting thing about this stratified social hierarchy is that it reflects that of real-world issues and problems. For example, the discrimination the main character, Darrow, faces can be equated very similarly to discrimination we can see in everyday society. This adds a new dimension and perspective to an already brilliant story.

The original trilogy is beautifully written. The first book, “Red Rising,” is an excellent introduction to the world. This is followed by “Golden Son,” which actually provides the big picture of what is actually happening and what this means for the society that the main characters live in. These transitions between books are flawless throughout the series and show the complexity of the work. 

While this series is outstanding, I do have a few critiques of the work. To start, in the original trilogy, we only see the perspective of Darrow, the main character. It would have been incredibly interesting to understand the story from another character’s perspective in that period of time. Pierce Brown fixed this in the fourth addition to the saga, “Iron Gold,” but I would have still liked to see that in the earlier books. This leads me to my next issue with the series, which is that the transition between the trilogy and the quartet is very steep and in my opinion, a bit rough. This was disappointing to me, as I was really excited to read the sequel series.

Despite these critiques, I still believe that the “Red Rising” saga is an incredible read, and anyone interested in the sci-fi or fantasy genre can start here. The book has incredible, elaborate worldbuilding and truly immerses the reader.

On this blog, members of the Carmel High School chapter of the Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists (and the occasional guest writer) produce curations of all facets of popular culture, from TV shows to music to novels to technology. We hope our readers always leave with something new to muse over. Click here to read more from MUSE.