Why is this brilliant book not more universally known? I discovered it by chance in a Waterstones store and loved it and its successors.

The Hunger Games series, the Red Rising books share a vision of powerful elites cruelly ruling divided societies, but if anything the class structures Brown imagines are more sophisticated and  cruel.

Society’s dominant Golds rule with an iron fist, putting to death those who dare challenge them. Red Rising’s hero Darrow is a Red, society’s lowest caste, expected to risk his life in the mines of Mars.

He accepts his place and worries more about his wife and family than the politics that controls them. But when Darrow unwittingly breaks a rule, the savage response forces him to face the truth.

Darrow is drawn into a battle with the tyrants that rule the Solar System. There are six books in this series and I heartily recommend the first five, which I have read. They pack an emotional punch as great as The Hunger Games.

To my knowledge there are no plans for a Red Rising film or TV series, but it’s so dramatic maybe that is only a matter of time.

The Red Rising books are:

Red Rising

Golden Son

Morning Star

Iron Gold

Dark Age

Light Bringer