Booklog 32/2023: Pierce Brown: Red Rising – Red Rising #1 - Audiobook

Darrow is a young, daredevil hell-diver, a Red living underground, and working in the mines of Mars. He has friends and he's happily married to the love of his life and unwilling to disturb the status quo. They are working to terraform the planet for the future of humanity. It's a harsh life, but he's content, not really recognising that the Reds exist as slaves. His wife rebels and is executed by their overlords - the Golds, and he discovers it's all been a lie, Mars has been successfully terraformed for generations. There's a whole society living on the surface, and the Golds rule it. Taken in by rebels he's transformed into the very thing he now hates, a Gold, and sent up above to infiltrate Gold society and bring it down from the inside. This first book follows him through the academy where training is more or less kill or be killed. Only the tough survive to earn placements in the great houses. Darrow must rise to lead his squad, and then they must beat the other squads, except that's not what happens. Darrow goes rogue, building his own team from the dregs and deserters from the others. Expect grief, violence, betrayal, unexpected loyalty, and more violence. Tim Gerard Reynolds does a good job on the narration.