First-time reader? Here’s your beginner’s guide to the Red Rising space opera series

Here’s everything you need to know about Red Rising, Pierce Brown’s beloved dystopian book series which has remained a definite pick of almost every top 10 sci-fi listicle in the past decade.

Taking place in the far future, Red Rising combines elements of conventional space opera epics with Asimov-inspired motifs to open a new chapter in spacefaring storytelling. Brown’s fast-paced narrative, richly-detailed worldbuilding, and lifelike characters have all contributed to Red Rising’s massive success over the years.

The American author has written 6 books in the series so far, with a seventh and final installment expected to bring the series to a conclusion in the near future. There’s also a live-action series in the works at Universal Pictures, though we’re no closer to hearing anything new about that project than we were when interest in a potential adaptation grew in 2021. But you’re here to know about the story itself, so let’s get ride to it.

What is the plot of Red Rising by Pierce Brown?

Taking place several hundred years in the future, the first Red Rising novel opens on Mars. Humanity has colonized planets and moons in the Solar System, and but regressed back to a splintered hierarchy of social classes designated by color. At the top of this pyramid are the Golds, who rule with an iron first and have enhanced their physical abilities and features thanks to genetic engineering and breeding programs.

Next comes the Silvers, the Coppers, the Pinks, the Obsidians, the Blues and the Yellows, each taking up a unique function in society. Last comes the Reds, who are laborers and miners and generally considered the lowest class, essentially slaves in all but name.

Our main protagonist is a Red named Darrow. He and other fellow Reds are working underground on Mars to make the world habitable for future generations, little knowing that Mars has been habitable for quite a while. A tragedy turns Darrow’s life upside down, putting him in touch with a group of rebel Reds (called the Sons of Ares) who are trying to infiltrate the Golds and dismantle the prejudiced system from within.

This sets the stage for Red Rising’s main narrative thrust, and though it may sound too cliche and worn at first glance, Pierce Brown’s story is anything but, weaving together history and philosophy in an action-packed plot that will have you at the edge of your seat from the first few chapters to the very end. Red Rising is nothing if not a page-turner.

How many books are in the Red Rising series?

As mentioned earlier, Pierce Brown has written 6 main books in the Red Rising saga. These are:

• Red Rising (2014)
• Golden Son (2015)
• Morning Star (2016)
• Iron Gold (2018)
• Dark Age (2019)
• Light Bringer (2023)

The final book in the series, titled Red God, is currently in the works, and hopefully, we won’t have to wait for it as long as we did between Dark Age and Light Bringer. Brown himself has confirmed via an Instagram post that Red God would be releasing “soon after” Light Bringer. As such, many fans believe 2025 will be the year when the Red Rising saga finally comes to a conclusion.

There is also a prequel comic series centering around the Sons of Ares (released under the title of Red Rising: Sons of Ares) and how they came together to oppose the Sovereign’s tyrannical government.

What can you expect from Red Rising, tonally and thematically?

As I already touched on this, Red Rising can feel derivative and downright cliche, especially when you’re reading the first book. Pierce Brown draws a lot of influence from The Hunger Games and other Battle Royale-esque stories of the last decade, so much so that at times, it might even remind you of some of the other prominent Young Adult novels out there. But Red Rising is more than the sum of its parts. 

Book 2, Golden Son, marks a massive improvement over the original, both in prose and storytelling terms. And by the time you’re done with the first trilogy, Red Rising will have turned into one of your favorite sci-fi stories. The setting is dystopian and brutal, the action scenes can be gritty, and there are a lot of grotesque elements like sexual violence to wade through when you’re starting out, so make sure to consider all of this if you decide to give Pierce Brown’s imaginative futuristic world a go.