The Rising of Reading

*Spoiler Warning*
Against a sea of troubles, Darrow O’Lykos, faces life and death. He chooses to stick it to the man.
I want to get this out of the way, this book was an absolute joy to read. I’d go as far as to say it’s one of the best science fiction books to come out in recent years.
And when I say recent years, I mean relatively new. This book came out in 2014, but so far has aged incredibly well.
Frankly, even though this book is ~400 pages, it went by very fast, and covered some very heavy themes such as loss, grief, hatred, and rebellion.
This world is set in the far future. Approximately the 33rd or 35th century. The book mainly stays on the planet Mars, and our Moon.
Here’s the setting. In a deep Helium mine, in the underground colony of Lykos, there is a “Red” called Darrow. He is a miner, and is very good at his job. So much so, he holds a very dangerous position called “Helldiver”.
After a shift, Darrow takes his wife to a restricted area, to share a private moment. They’re caught.
The punishment for this crime is a public lashing. It should be mentioned before we go any farther, that the “Reds” have a very music imbued culture. Some songs are even banned.
While they are being lashed, Eo (Darrow’s wife) starts to sing a forbidden song, and is executed.
Her song echoes through the mines, and through the hearts of her kin. She is the perfect martyr.
Darrow, now distraught, is beaten and left for dead. However, his uncle saves him, and brings him to the hideout of the resistance, and finds out that there is much more than just the “Colonization” of mars.
Almost everything the “Reds” have been told, all their lives, has been a lie; because almost the whole solar system has been conquered and settled.
This exposition is bonkers. Everything the audience had learned up till this point, had just been torn to shreds. And learning how the world is outside of the mines is terribly corrupt, and bent on keeping “order” is fascinating.
The hierarchy alone could be studied.
Humans have been split into different colored tiers. Golds being almost gods, and Reds being “barely” human.
With the start of the book, being this good, the next arch of the book gets even better. Introducing complicated character relationships, insightful views on ethics, and the power that Golds have as a birthright.
I would absolutely recommend this book, and even the next books in the series. I’m currently on the last of the trilogy, and am stoked to finish it.
“The measure of a man is what he does when he has power,” – Plato & Mustang