Claire Fortney
Contributing Writer
The newest installment in Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series, Light Bringer, has long-term fans and new readers alike highly anticipating its July release. Having started and caught up with the series back in May of 2021, I’m certainly among them.
Light Bringer is to be the sixth book in the series, the first five being Red Rising, Golden Son, Morning Star, Iron Gold, and Dark Age. The series takes place in a futuristic society where rank is determined by color caste, such as Blue, Red, Obsidian, Gold, and Violet. While the Golds dominate the social ladder, the Reds sit at the bottom. When Darrow, a Red from Mars, loses his wife at the hands of a Gold, he makes the fateful decision to infiltrate the ruling class and tear them apart from the top-down, not only for the sake of avenging his wife but for the sake of salvaging civilization and democracy. With the help of a revolutionary group, Darrow disguises himself as a Gold and enrolls in the Institute, a deadly academy where young Golds train to rule through a years-long battle with their classmates. It’s very reminiscent of the competition in The Hunger Games and capture-the-flag in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians. Moreover, each House at the Institute is named after Roman gods, such as Mars, Venus, Apollo, and Jupiter. The character names are also an ode to Ancient Rome with three of the novel’s leading characters (and fan favorites) being Cassius au Bellona, Virginia au Augustus, and Sevro au Barca.
However, despite being considered a single series by many of its fans, the Red Rising books are actually split up into two trilogies. Iron Gold, Dark Age, and Lightbringer form a trilogy that takes place ten years after the events of Red Rising, Golden Son, and Morning Star. That number of books may sound daunting, but reading the series is definitely worth your time, as I’m sure the thousands of fans would agree. Light Bringer comes out in six months, and there are currently only five books, so I encourage you to begin your reading journey.