Mini Review: Sons of Ares (Red Rising Saga) by Pierce Brown, Rik Hoskin, Eli Powell

Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis

In the future, when mankind has spread across the stars, the hierarchy of man is dictated by the color of one’s caste. The Golds rule all, but what will happen when one falls for a lowly Red? See how a forbidden love will set the course of events for the future and lead to the formation of the formidable Sons of Ares!

Written by author Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Trilogy) and Rik Hoskin (Heroes of Skyrealm, Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand), with art by Eli Powell (Yakuza Demon Killers, The 13th Artifact), comes the in-continuity story of revolution and Red Rising!

Review

Things to like about it:

• Extra Red Rising Content
• More Fitchner
• Completes the aboves story arc (or fills it out)
• Razor duels in full colour
• Artists impression of all the tech

Cons:

• Doesn’t necessarily fit in with the style, or voice, of the books (in my opinion)
• There’s not a lot in Fitchner’s story that this sheds light on

So, I’ve just finished my reread of Golden son, you can see the review here, and I thought it would be a good time to read the Sons of Ares comic I’ve had sitting around; Fitchner’s backstory ties in nicely with the events of book 2.

It was great to see what we already know fleshed out, and I’d always wanted to see what Red Rising Saga would look like in full colour. The Razor duels were some of my favourite scenes, with all the nasty tech that the Golds have thought up. Seeing all the colours lined up and how their differ in size, clothing and general look on the page was fun.

With regards to the story-line, it was very face-paced. It seemed to use the narrative of a story briefly told in Golden Son and turned that into a bit more. We got to see House Mars in Fitchner’s time at the institute. The trials, despair and gore that all took place on his time through it were … reminiscent of what happened to Darrow and Sevro and in that respect it allowed me to relate his character to theirs.

The only problem for me with this one was the art style, I’d always imagine Red Rising to be a lot more … refined, especially the Golds. And I don’t necessarily think that this style helped show that. There’s a lot of detail in Red Rising and this missed it in some respect.

Overall, I certainly would only recommend this comic book series to die-hard fans of the books. It doesn’t standalone from the main series enough. Though, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fitchner is a great character and it was cool to see where he came from and how his beginnings mirror Darrow in some respect, and how he’s grown from that.