Pierce Brown’s Red Rising: Sons of Ares enlightens us to what happened before the YA Red Rising Trilogy, as told by Fitchner.

Brown, writing with Rik Hoskin (Heroes of Skyrealm, Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand) provides us with an insight to how a caste system begins to break down purely because an elite member of the Gold caste is not supposed to love a lowly Red, so the Red begin to rise!
The art by Eli Powell (Yakuza Demon Killers, The 13th Artifact), takes us one a fun and informative journey across the universe, and delivers a peek in the events which lead to the uprising, in previous trilogy. All is not what it seems.

It's a spin-off that pretty much hits the tone of the series spot on. Although, I h
ave to say it's not quite what I expected in terms of content and art, which is dark, shady and obscure at times, but nevertheless it's a fun read with romance! If you like gritty, sci-fi comic book action, which grows even more tense as the plot progresses, you should still enjoy this read featuring forbidden love of opposing castes, where sadly their love for each other is their downfall. ( )

In the YA series, Red Rising by Pierce Brown, readers were thrown into a future where mankind has spread to other planets. A caste system has developed ruled by the Golds while the Reds, the lowest caste, are brutally exploited. But a rebel group, the Sons of Ares had risen to fight back. In the graphic novel, Red Rising: Sons of Ares, we learn the backstory story of the rebel group and its leader, a Gold named Fitchner.

Red Rising: Sons of Ares collects issues 1 – 6 of the comics of the same name. It is well-written and –plotted edition to the story. It was fun learning Fitchner’s early story and how a member of the Golds came to lead a Red revolutionary group. I was less enthusiastic about the art although I found the use of colour in the dialogue bubbles to denote the different castes an interesting idea. Overall, though, I found the art somewhat muddy. Still, I am a huge fan of the series and found this a nice edition to the story. Although I believe it would work as a standalone, I really recommend reading the series because it’s one gorydamn good tale.

Thanks to Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )

A fun prequel to the Red Rising series (it focuses on a specific backstory of one character) in a different medium, graphic novel. The text flows well and it's pretty easy to follow the artwork as well. I wouldn't mind another one with a different character's background to follow up. For graphic novel fans and readers who loved Red Rising.

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Satisfying, though not as grand a story as I expected.

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through NetGalley.)

Fitchner au Barca is a goblin among Gold Gods. In a world that places a premium on physical perfection, he is short, scrappy, and ugly. But he's also a survivor, one who makes it through the Passage even though he was sent there as a sacrificial lamb. He weathers the Institute by swallowing his pride and aligning himself with the leader of a rival house. But his loyalty goes unrewarded: rather than serve by his friend Arturius's side, Fitchner is forced to sell his contract after graduation. He's sent to a terraforming colony on Triton, where he falls in love with a lowly Red named Bryn. The rest, as they say, is history.

Based on the Red Rising trilogy, Sons of Ares gives us a little glimpse of proctor/terrorist/freedom fighter Fitchner's backstory: his time at the Institute, his relationship with Bryn, the birth of Sevro, and the injustice that would prove the seed of the rebel group Sons of Ares.

The story itself is interesting; while there isn't much new here, it does at least flesh out Fitchner's past for us. That said, and especially considering Brown's intro, I half-expected the roots of the Sons of Ares to go deeper, for the tale of the rebellion to be a little grander and far-reaching. Fitcher might have been the match that lit the spark, but I'd love to know more about the many men and women who provided the kindling and accelerant leading up to Bryn's murder. Certainly he couldn't have done this all on his own? It takes a village ... over many generations.

It feels more like Fitchner's memoir than a people's history of the uprising, if that makes any sense.

Sons of Ares is constructed as a standalone story, but most likely fans of the series will enjoy it most: newbies might find it difficult to get fully invested in the characters, given the sheer scope of Brown's universe and the comparably short length of the comic.

3 stars for non-fans, 4 for Howlers.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2018/03/16/pierce-browns-red-rising-sons-of-ares/ ( )

3.5 Stars

Full review to come! ( )