Why this book: Selected by my SEAL book club.

Summary in 5 Sentences: The setting is a civilization from Earth several centuries in the future now living on Mars, where society has been stratified to be led by an elite group called the Golds. There are several subgroups, under the Golds, and at the bottom of the hierarchy are the Reds who live underground mining the materials that facilitate the comfortable lifestyle of the society above ground, while the Reds are kept ignorant of the world above ground that they are supporting. Our protagonist Darrow is a particularly strong, intelligent, and resilient Red, and is selected by a subversive group as one who they believe can lead a revolution against the Golds. Their intent is to change his identity to be able to pass for a Gold, which requires that he secretly go through a grueling and intensive reeducation and physical transformation to make him appear to be part of the Gold culture, which would then allow him to go through the extensive and brutal rite-of-passage that the Golds require of those who will become leaders in their society. Most of the story is about Darrow’s leadership of a group of aspiring Gold leaders going through this rite of passage, called “the Institute,” which simulates battle and life and death competition between groups, with the goal of determining who is strong and weak under pressure.

My Impressions: I wasn’t crazy about the book but I did enjoy reading it – as it was written to be a page turner, and I was indeed sucked into the drama of Darrow’s journey and ultimately his role as a leader of his team in “the Institution.” I was reminded a bit of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers in that the society has an elite class of warriors who at least theoretically model and enforce the rules of the society. But the book is often compared to The Hunger Games, which I haven’t read.

Darrow, the protagonist and hero of the story, is selected by a subversive group for this role to lead a revolt, but he is also motivated by the desire for revenge at how the Golds treated him, his family, and his wife, ultimately killing her for standing up to them. Then when he learns that he, his family and community worked in the mines not in order to build a better civilization as they were told, but rather to support an elite that already existed above ground, of which they were unaware. The realization of the degree of his and his community’s exploitation motivated him to go through the grueling transformation to make him appear to be one of the Golds and then go through the battles in the institution, where indeed, the hardships he had endured as a miner working for years underground made him better prepared than the others for the hardships of the Institution.

The themes of social justice, treachery, revenge, honor and battlefield acumen are all at play – he forms alliances within his team in the Institution and then, alliances with other teams he defeats in order to “win” the faux battle and the grand prize of the Institution. The story ends with Darrow learning that his main rival in this final battle was the son of one of the leaders of the Golds, had received unfair help from the proctors – that the game had been rigged and was not “fair” – setting the stage for future tensions and rivalries in the follow on books.

Red Rising had me rolling my eyes from time to time, but by suspending disbelief and going with the story it was indeed a fun read. Not great literature, but as science fiction for action addicts, it has won a devoted following. In the SEAL book club, a number of the younger guys have created a sub-group to read the next 6 books in the series – while many of the older guys put the book down early and chose not to finish it. I’ve been told that book two, which is less about faux battles in the Institution, and much more about Darrow’s political fight as he enters the world of power politics in the Gold community, is indeed better. My Sci Fi book club has decided to read book 2.