To commemorate Labor Day, here’s an episode about a slave uprising gone glorious!
Mike Savara is a good friend and extraordinary social worker, government worker, addiction counselor, and the one who introduced me to the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown.
Today we talk about Lightbringer, book 5 of the Red Rising series. This is book 5 of 6, and there’s tons of spoilers, but we highly recommend you read the whole series because we really love it.
We start off owning that we are mental health professionals and not literary experts…but feel ok with that because we believe that reading good books and thinking carefully about them is a discipline that is good for everyone, and certainly a good way to connect with good friends.
Lightbringer itself is a majestically grand fantasy epic set 700 years in the future where humanity has colonized every sphere of the solar system, and stratified all of human society into a strict caste system based on colors. The higher colors are genetically bred to be super strong, super smart, beautiful, and rife with corruption. The lower colors are genetically bred to perform all the basic functions that society needs done to function.
Our protagonist, Daro of Lycos, is a Red, a miner from underground Mars, and of the lowest caste. Over the last 5 books, he has risen from the mines to infiltrate Gold society(the highest caste) to influence, to govern, to conquer, and to break a tyrannical empire.
But empires don’t die easily. His chief rival is Lysander au Lun, a true Gold, a descendent of the most powerful Sovereign to ever live. Through Lysander’s story, we’ve seen him grow from a somewhat innocent boy into an eager and idealistic young man. We’ve seen him come to a junction where he can hold to his ideals and become a hero, or give in to the corruption that so dominates his color. Whichever he chooses, though, Daro and everyone he loves are in the crosshairs of the Gold.
What will happen? Who will these characters become? Are heroes made through might or through mercy? Is strength in guns and armaments, or rather in love and kinship?
We tackle these questions and more in this discussion of Red Rising.
This episode of literary analysis and cultural commentary is made possible by generous support from our listeners. If you find this helpful, or at least entertaining, please like, share, and review, as well as supporting us through patreon.com/mosesbernabe!
Moses can be found on instagram @mosesbernabe
Mike Savara can be found at mike.savara@gmail.com
Thanks for listening!
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