Mars and mining are the setting, and it's not an easy life. The miners live in poverty, men working from the age of thirteen, the girls on short rations if they don't marry aged fourteen. They mine helium three to aid the terraforming process and enable others to someday live on the surface of the planet. In RED RISING, Darrow who is young and rash enough to take risks in the hope of a performance bonus, is married to little Eo, and they are Red clan, miners and silkworkers. Orange are Technical workers, Yellow are doctors, Obsidian are soldiers and Gold are at the head of society. It's hard to improve your life when you don't have enough to eat and a terrorist group called Sons of Ares are trying to bring change through violence.

Supply ships from Earth bring goods to the colony but they are not shared equally and competitive Gamma usually wins the bonus. Darrow cuts all the corners he can, but then realises that his clan will never be given a bonus, they are just used as slaves. He's not even allowed to walk with Eo in a garden. Rescued from a death sentence by the rebels, he is shown daylight for the first time and sees that cities, gardens and wealth already adorn the surface - all his people have been fed lies. Terraforming is complete, and his people just make others richer.

Pierce Brown has built a world somewhat like Brave New World with its castes, added gravity boots and biometric suits, set it down in the Valles Marineris and let it run. As Darrow explores this new world, so do we, learning about aboveground society and the infighting and concerns of the Gold families, the testing games to see who are worthy to be leaders. This is at times quite a violent tale which is aimed at adults rather than young people, and many science fiction fans will enjoy the setting. Pierce Brown ends RED RISING with the capacity to develop the Martian scenario further and continue the tale into a series.