Usurper from Below
It took about three chapters to get into this debut novel by Pierce Brown but after that I couldn't put it down.
I read about Brown in one long-form essay that Buzzfeed does on occasion. Brown was put on this planet to build imaginary worlds, like he did on Mars in Red Rising. He seems like a guy I could have been roommates with in college, he is also someone I find myself slightly jealous of because he is twenty-six years old and has a trilogy deal that has also been optioned by Universal for a movie. But more than jealousy, there is a deep respect for someone like Brown who seemed to take all of his life experience—however short—and generate a science fiction world that has more than just a hero origin story; he has created a world that seems real, firmly rooted in the imagination but familiar all the same.
The familiarity comes from Darrow—the main character in the novel. Take the best of Katniss from The Hunger Games without any of the whining and estranged lovers and the brilliance of Ender from Ender's Game and you have a glimpse of Darrow.
The book takes place in the far future where we have colonized Mars by Terra Forming the planet to make it habitable for human life. Darrow is part of the Red caste—the lowest of the low. They are the miners and live in a lie that the Golds (the highest caste in the social order) have been telling for hundreds and hundreds of years. The reds believed they were preparing Mars for the rest of earth to come and colonize but the truth is it's already happened, they are all already there and the planet is lush and green and fully livable but the reds still mine away beneath the surface and live short and near meaningless lives. The rest of Mars lives off the Reds backs.
The story is a heroes journey following Darrow through: death, transformation, training, spying, growth, and becoming a Gold himself to try and usurp the ones that have enslaved so many for so long. It's a retelling of the colonization of America. The Reds live lives where they have their traditions of dance and story. They have little but share everything with their different camps. The Golds are powerful with their star-ships and fleets; taking what they please from the Reds while telling them they are living for a higher purpose. To defy the Golds meant certain death.
This novel takes Greek mythology, science fiction, dystopian future, action & adventure—throws it all in a blender and somehow comes out with a story wholly original and completely engrossing. I feel like a teenager who has discovered a new band and can't wait for the next album to drop so I can sing along to every song.
Darrow goes through so much in the first book that I can't imagine what Brown will do with him in the next. There are so many analogies, I feel like it deserves another read through just to unpack the different metaphors that Brown has placed for the reader. I can't wait for the next book.
