Book Report 17: Red Rising

My friend recently recommended I read 'Red Rising.' At first, I wasn't too sure, as I had not heard about this book before, but trusting his opinion (and the fact that he bought the book for me), I felt inclined to read it.

The book began a bit boring for me, to be honest. The author is overly descreptive of situations and environments, and uses extremely elaborate ways of describing the surroundings. A bit too much 'fluff' for me, and I felt i wasn't fully reading those sections. But as time passed and I read more, I realized why he did it, but also realized that while they're good to read, they're not 100% necessary for the story. Since I realized i could skip over that part, i got more interested in continuing to read the story.

The story is about how humanity has advanced from Earth to the other planets. However, humanity is divided by a hieracy. There are different 'colors' of people who have different classes. People who are 'Gold' are at the top, and look at those under them as less than human at times. Those that are 'Grays' run security for the Gold, the 'Pinks' provide pleasure, the 'Reds' are the hardworking poor slaves (though they don't realize they're slaves), and various other colors with other responsibilities (colors for doctors, economics etc).

This shows that there is a big class society set up. Which ,while this is a futuristic world where humanity has traveled and settled on other planets, shows that humans are still subject to looking down on others and using others. The Reds have been told that their hard work will eventually bring them money, food, and other luxuries. However, we read that they're being lied to, and the Golds who run society have no intention of helping the Reds. When some Reds find this out, they plan a rebellion, and that is where our main character comes in.

Without wanting to spoil the book, he is the main character to try and bring Society down. However, to go beyond this concept, i do love how the book shows how humanity will act when pushed too far. Even the Golds, when pushed far, will fight each other and treat each other poorly, which is important to show that it's not just Golds vs Reds, it can be Gold vs Gold, Red vs Red.
This is a good notion on how humanity as a whole can be against one another.

In all of this though, it seems that it also shows there are 'good golds' and 'bad reds,' meaning that we cannot lump an entire race together. All races have good and bad, all humans have good and bad traits. It's how the individual acts and makes decisions is what's important.

I do recommend this book if you like sci-fi futriristic societies, and are interested in reading how the author depicts how human's act when pushed to the limit.