Red Rising
by Pierce Brown
★ Top 25 book of 2014 · #16 on Best Books of 2014
Darrow, a lowly Red, toils on Mars believing he is preparing the planet for future generations, only to learn that humanity already lives there in luxury. Driven by love and a hunger for justice, he infiltrates the Golds' brutal Institute.
Best for: Sci-fi fans who enjoy rebellion, caste struggles and fierce competition
Red Rising is #16 on BookWard's Best Books of 2014, out of 66 2014 books that cleared our data bar.
What Red Rising is about
On Mars, in a future society ruled by a rigid hierarchy of fourteen Colors, the superior Golds sit at the top and the Reds sit at the bottom. Darrow is a sixteen-year-old Red miner who digs Helium-3 deep underground, believing the work will one day make the surface habitable. Then his wife, Eo, is hanged for singing an illegal protest song, and his world begins to change.
The rebel group Sons of Ares tells him that Mars has already been terraformed and that the Reds have been lied to. Darrow is physically remade as a Gold and sent into the Institute under a false identity, where students are split into Houses, watched by Proctors, and set against one another. There he forms bonds with Cassius and with Mustang, who leads House Minerva, and the line between loyalty and revenge gets harder to hold. Brutal, epic and fast-moving, it suits readers who like stories of class struggle, rebellion and power.
Red Rising on the Best Books of 2014
Red Rising came out in 2014. Of the 66 books first published in 2014 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #16 on our Best Books of 2014 list.
Why it made the list: 1,036 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (102 ratings); 34 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2014 list
- Roller Girl Victoria Jamieson, #14
- Being Mortal Atul Gawande, #15
- Mr. Mercedes Stephen King, #17
- Archer's Voice Mia Sheridan, #18
See all Best Books of 2014 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2013 Best Books of 2015.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 850 want to read it, 34 are reading it now and 152 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.9 out of 5 from 102 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 83 | 55% |
| Reader love | 32 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 76 | 20% |
Questions about Red Rising
When was Red Rising published?
Red Rising by Pierce Brown was first published in 2014.
Was Red Rising one of the best books of 2014?
Red Rising is #16 on BookWard's Best Books of 2014, out of 66 2014 books that cleared our data bar. 1,036 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (102 ratings); 34 are reading it right now.
Why is Red Rising on the Best Books of 2014 list?
1,036 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (102 ratings); 34 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2014
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before Jenny Han, #1
- The Long Haul Jeff Kinney, #2
- Surrounded by Idiots Thomas Erikson, #3
- Zero to One Peter A. Thiel, #4
- After (After Series, Book 1) Anna Todd, #5
- All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr, #6
See the full Best Books of 2014, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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