Brown, Pierce

Entry updated 31 July 2023. Tagged: Author.

(1988- ) US author whose Red Rising sequence, comprising Red Rising (2014), Golden Son (2015) and Morning Star (2016), soon proves more interesting than its Young Adult Dystopia trappings might hint. The tale is set on Mars, where society is divided into castes according to imposed colour branding [for Colour-Coding, as more usually found in fantasy, see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]; the protagonist Darrow, member of the lowest caste, works Underground with his fellow Reds under the delusion that his task is to Terraform the surface. But the surface has already become a paradise for the upper classes, known as the Golds. Darrow's Conceptual Breakthrough, escape from his Pocket Universe, and vengeance-fuelled rise in rank through his facility at various Games and Sports, all evoke traditional sf by authors like A E van Vogt as well as, more recently, Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (2008); but the narrative is vigorous, and his life in the world of the Golds, as he works out how to bring the downfall of this rigid but precarious world, believably interweaves personal sacrifice and epic action; and an ending, perhaps de rigueur in this subgenre, laced with constructive hope, though, also de rigueur, the world Darrow enters in Iron Gold (2018), after he has triumphed, offers its own challenges and disillusion. [JC]

Pierce Brown

born Denver, Colorado: 1988

works

series

Red Rising

Red Rising (New York: Random House/Del Rey, 2014) [Red Rising: hb/Sail, uselessarm.com]
Golden Son (New York: Random House/Del Rey, 2015) [Red Rising: hb/Sail, uselessarm.com]
Morning Star (New York: Random House/Del Rey, 2016) [Red Rising: hb/Sail, uselessarm.com]
Iron Gold (New York: Random House/Del Rey, 2018) [Red Rising: hb/Spencer Fuller/Faceout Studio]
Dark Age (New York: Random House/Del Rey, 2019) [Red Rising: hb/]
Light Bringer (New York: Random House/Del Rey, 2023) [Red Rising: hb/]

links

previous versions of this entry

Internet Archive