For the past couple of years I've seen Pierce Brown's books everywhere, so when I saw this on Netgalley I went for it. I have to be honest, I hadn't read any other book in the series before I started this graphic novel. Probably not the best decision, but I like to think that I did pick up enough to be able to follow the storyline.
I love the world that is created and I am definitely am reading the other books somewhere this year. The artwork in this graphic novel isn't my favorite. I like it to be more clean and clear, but I guess it did fit the story and the world it was set in.
All in all a very solid graphic novel, which is probably better and more enjoyable if you've read any of the books by Pierce Brown.

As a huge fan of Red Rising series I was grateful for every new insight into this fictional world created by Pierce Brown. I did enjoy reading this graphic novel, yet I have to admit that I had expected so much more from it... More depth, more feels, more everything. Guess I have been spoiled by Pierce Brown’s prose and storytelling in this format was not enough for me.

However, I really liked artistic side of this graphic novel. Art in Sons of Ares is enigmatic and gritty. It has this gloomy quality to it which fits the mood of the story perfectly.

Fair warning: In my opinion, it is required to read Red Rising trilogy first before starting this graphic novel. Not only you would be a bit lost without prior knowledge of Red Rising universe, society and history, but you would also find spoilers for huge twists that take part in Golden Son (book #2). So if you haven’t started Red Rising novels yet but you plan to read them, do it before diving into Sons of Ares.

Recommended for all true fans of Red Rising trilogy!

I received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I'm a love reading comic books and I love reading Pierce Brown – so why am I only rating this 3 stars? First off, the art. It's not bad per se, but the sketchy style only works for some stories. Take Wytches, Volume 1 for example. The out of the lines, half drawn style works because we're dealing with unknown monsters who do leap out of the lines of reality. It just doesn't work when you're trying to talk politics. Because that's what this is. It's a fantastical political revolution and you need to be able to get a sense of the people involved for it to have an impact.

Nonetheless, the story itself was rather good. It was interesting to discover the background of some of our favourite characters. I didn't feel as attached to the characters as I did in the prose, but it was a nice little prequel. If you're a fan of Pierce Brown and his Red Rising series, this is a brilliant addition to the world. If you're just dipping into his universe, I suggest starting with Red Rising first.

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

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.

3.5 stars
This graphic novel is a prequel to the revolution in the Red Rising Saga.

I read some graphic novels and what I like from them is the visualization of the story. Comparing this to other graphic novels I read, the style of drawing lines are fascinating especially in details of the story but the tone of color in the graphic novel is quite dull. The fact that it emphasize a dark history of the Sons of Ares. Colors are a little bit dark and overpowered by the shadow used in the drawing.

I expected a visualization of the "color" of the society race. But like I said, overpowered by shadows in the colors for specific society. It didn't visualize that much.

I hope for the next plan of graphic novels in this saga, I hope for a refined and sharp drawings and vibrant colors because Red Rising saga is a sci-fi novel who needs a vibrant and lively visualization.

THE STORY:

<NOTE TO THE READERS>

Don't plunge with it if you haven't read the saga. It spoiled me with the revelations for [Golden Son since Sons of Ares was introduce in the book. The story revolves around the start of the history of the Sons of Ares. I don't want to spoil anymore of the details but so far I liked the story and historical background in which it is a supplement to understand the happenings on the Red Rising saga.

Graphic novels are not really my book of choice. I prefer my imagination to looking at pictures. That being said I did enjoy seeing another version of the characters after having read the entire series. The artwork is phenomenal and for someone who loves the visuals a graphic novel provides I would highly recommend it to them.

A promising volume to what I feel will be a great prequel series. This provides a back story to one of the characters in Red Rising and in true Brown fashion it was dark, bloody, and violent with a good dose of heartstring-tugging scenes. It was nice to finally see a visual representation of the world this is set in and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

“They say that the colonization of the solar system began eight centuries ago. Mankind lunged for every world it could reach, determined to make each one habitable. Changes were needed for mankind to succeed in these new environments”

When I search for this book, apparently it’s part of the Red Rising Saga, which sadly I’ve never read before. However, the story is interesting to me where humans were divided between many groups and somehow their DNA can’t cross the other group. This is something like a dystopian future, but more on the science fiction side.

The story is quite structured, start from Fischner au Barca’s life as a baby until he becomes a rebel. The story goes back and forth between the past and present of Fischner. The story goes as he tried to rescue his wife (who is a Red) and his baby son (Sevro) from the Board. He has some group of people trying to break into the headquarters of the Board.

The graphic novel is full of action, gory and at times it’s a bit dark. The background settings are dark and mostly grunge style. But I like the depicting of the industrial world on the planets. It’s futuristic with lots of details.

What I don’t like is as the story progressed, the art takes a darker tone and more blurry lines. It’s like a sketchy style that makes it confusing to look at. It’s a very dark and gothic style illustration. The dark is not only for the color, but also for the violence. I think it’s suitable to picture the hard world that they live in.

Recommended for those who like graphic novels with strong gothic style illustration and dark story of the future.

OK. My bad. I should have looked closer and seen that it was a comic, but I got all excited when I thought I was seeing a new entry in the Red Rising series. I thumbed through the comic, but, at least in the PDF I received, there was no dialog, just pictures. Not my thing to begin with. Then no dialogue. I am probably being kind with the 2 stars.Would like to see some "sequel" to the trilogy, however.

Issue 1
With humans having colonized the solar system, there’s a very strict color-coded caste system that essentially treats the vast majority as slaves to the small elite. But there’s a rebellion growing in the lower levels, led by a guy born elite but never good enough to be accepted by them. Whether revenge or social justice, he’s ruthless.
The dialogue bubbles are in different colors, which I think stand for what caste the speaker is in. That’s about the only interesting thing I could pick out in this intro chapter.
3/5
Issue 2
The rebellion has been found out and is under attack. But before they can escape the story goes to flashbacks, explaining how Fitchner became the way he is now. It basically tries to show that survival makes one do all kinds of things they’d rather not. There’s too many memories for any of them to make a lot of sense, as each is done pretty quickly before the next one starts.
2/5
Issue 3
The scene changes from Mars to Triton, a moon still being terraformed. Fitchner is in charge of a work group, but the caste system follows him. At first it seems like he doesn’t even consider the rest of them human, having hardened his heart to survive rather than acting like an elite Gold, but when an earthquake hits he can’t help himself. This leads him to find love and family, and explains what the present-day raid is all about.
This chapter was a lot more interesting, just because it involves people more than the previous.
3.5/5
Issue 4
Still in flashback, Fitchner and his companions move to Mars, where he’s now in a corporate environment. But because he married a woman below his station, he’s easily blackmailed into becoming an assassin.
“I’m going to be an aunt!” Funniest moment in what is really a dreary depressing tale.
2/5
Issue 5
The flashbacks have almost caught up. Fitchner’s wife is captured by his old friend, who has become one of the brutal bureaucrats that wants to keep the bloodlines pure. Rejected by Fitchner, he wants revenge. . . but bites off more than he can chew.
There’s no way I’m expecting a happy ending here, but there really hasn’t been anything that would lead me to believe this is an actual rebellion, or that Fitchner could be any kind of leader. It totally comes off as him doing it for himself, without caring about the masses.
2.5/5
Issue Six
Long confusing ramble of a rescue operation to end it. By most measures it could be said that the whole operation wasn’t worthwhile. At the very end there’s a time jump to lead into the previously written story, wrapping things up finally.
2/5
This is a case of not knowing what I’m missing, because I haven’t read the previously released one; this is a prequel to that one. Despite the story it tells, there’s not much here that’s joyful, or even that new or interesting. Had I known more about it coming in I probably wouldn’t have read it.
2.5 pushed up to 3/5

Red Rising: Sons of Ares is a dark graphic novel with a lot of violence and drama. The drawing is dark and hurried while expressing the overall mood of the book. A society where your worth is based upon social classes due to your birth, a Gold (the top ruling class) fights for all he has to only fall in love with a lowly Red. Violence fills the pages as the world just keeps knocking the hero down.. There is no happy ending in this novel just the promise of future retribution. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

This graphic novel is one that I have been looking forward to reading. I loved the Red Rising series and I was intrigued by the idea of a graphic novel showing more of Fitchner's story. While I really liked this novel, I feel like it could have been fleshed out a little more. It just felt too short. That may just be because I really like this series and I just want more of it.

The art is just OK in my opinion. It could have been better but it did leave certain details (like faces) up to our imaginations.

What I really liked about this graphic novel is how the dialogue was done. Every dialogue bubble was the color of the person speaking. So a red would have red dialogue bubbles and golds would have white bubbles with a streak of gold running through them. It is a small thing but it really helped me keep track of who was talking.

Overall this was a fun, fast read and I would recommend it for any Red Rising fans out there.

I would have hoped for an easier-to-read advert for the original trilogy of novels that what we have here; in the end it was alright, even if I didn't get to learn what consequence is has.

This graphic novel is a prequel to the Red Rising series and I love the series. The graphic novel was interesting for me because I got to see how some characters developed before Red Rising. I do not think this graphic novel is as strong as a standalone book because the events just won't mean as much to the reader. I would recommend this book to fans of the series because it is neat to see the drawings, but otherwise I would not recommend it to anyone else.

Red Rising: Sons of Ares is a prequel to the Red Rising series that was originally released as 6 comics (which of course being a superfan I've already purchased!), I believe the comics are now out of print and only available as ebooks so I think it's fantastic for fans that we're now getting this hardback bind-up of the whole series. The hardback is available in two versions signed or unsigned which is slightly cheaper. I've preordered the signed copy and I can't wait to see it on my shelves.

Now you've got more of an idea what you're actually getting let's get to the interesting stuff like the artwork and the story. This is a prequel so it's set before Red Rising but I definitely wouldn't recommend starting here - you'll end up giving yourself spoilers for the main books if you do. I think fans of the series will love getting to see a younger Fitchner and learning how he met his wife (although this story is slightly different to how it's told in the books) and we also get to see baby Sevro which is pretty cool. It's very easy to see where Sevro gets his attitude from that's for sure! This also shows the reasons that the Sons of Ares was originally founded so it gives us a chance to see the very beginning of the revolution that changes everything for Darrow in Red Rising.

The artwork is wonderful, quite dark in colour but that fits the gory and violent tone of the story perfectly. I love the added touch that each conversation bubble is coloured to match the birth colour of the character speaking. I really enjoying being back in this world but via a more visual format and it left me wanting to reread the rest of the series again. This is one of my all time favourite series so I'll jump at any chance for more from this world and this was a lovely addition.

Quite a gritty tale. Although the dark figure of the main protagonist goes through a journey of redemption and finds love and acceptance, then a need for vengeance - I feel as though I know almost nothing about him. The artist's style make faces nearly incomprehensible, and I feel as though everyone is wearing a mask (even the ones actually wearing masks). I enjoyed the flow of the story and the way the author avoids the monologue explanation for why society is the way it is portrayed. Overall, enjoyable.

Although the art direction was gorgeous and it was handy/interesting to see the "speech bubbles" colour coded to the caste of each character...the narrative was not speaking to me, although I did like the female protagonist saving herself and her child.

A prequel to Pierce Brown's Red Rising book series, Sons of Ares tells the story of how the seeds of revolution were planted. In the future, mankind has spread across the galaxy. Humans are now genetically engineered, and one's status in society is determined by the color of the caste they were born into. Golds are at the top – the super elite, they hold the most important positions and rule all. Fitchner is a Gold, but when he was born he was considered an aberration, not a "true" Gold. In consequence, Fitchner has to fight to survive his whole life, leaving him cold and uncaring. But when he meets Bryn, a lowly Red, he discovers a kindness that he has never known before. Fitchner risks everything to be with the woman he loves... but his risks do not go unnoticed.

One thing I need to say first of all, is that this is my first foray into Pierce Brown's universe. I haven't yet read his Red Rising novels, but I felt that since this was a prequel, I thought it would be interesting to read it first.

I liked the concept of a futuristic world with an extremely strict class system. Caste has been explored countless times in in fiction, but Brown's world has such a grittier, darker feel to it than most others I've read. The caste system in the book is so extreme that almost all the characters accept it as an unalienable truth. Really kind of a scary reminder of how the prejudice that accompanies can get way out of hand.

Coming into this with no familiarity of Brown's Red Rising books, I felt that there were some flaws with the pacing of the story. The explanation of the world is so brief that I had a hard time remembering aspects about it – such as which classes were above the others. The upside of that is that the focus is totally on the characters' stories, but I felt distracted by trying to remember key factors about the world.

The characters, while intriguing, could also use some work. I had a hard time figuring out which characters were which. I knew who Fitchner and Bryn were, but I had to go back and reread to remember who some of the side characters were. Fitchner's ragtag group really intrigued me, and I hope we get more of a backstory about each of them in later volumes.

Part of the problem I had with distinguishing different characters had a lot to do with the art style. I think the art was dark, gritty and sketchy – which definitely contributed to the tone of the story – but I had a hard time telling different characters apart. The style made them look very similar to each other.

Overall, I think Sons of Ares had a very futuristic, yet classically tragic feel to it. The story is a great reminder for how people's prejudices can get way out of hand. I enjoyed reading about Fitchner's struggle, but I hope we get to know the side characters better. I'm really curious to see how the story develops as the series progresses. It's a world I feel eager to go back to, explore, and learn more about.

Not a great fan of the art in this, but it was nice to see things like the torchships and spring razors in action. The art's kind of muddy and sketchy throughout--would love to see this in the hands of a more talented artist. But the story is what makes this worthwhile. You get to see the youth and background of Fitchner and what motivated him to start the revolutionary group The Sons of Ares. Fitchner was born a Gold but became disenchanted with his society, eventually falling in love with and marrying a Red, who gives birth to fan favorite Sevro (featured as a baby/toddler in many sequences here). But this marriage is heretical in this society. Good lead-in/prequel to the Red Rising series. It helps a lot to have read at least one Red Rising book before this comic, though I imagine non-readers could follow this story, too. It just won't be as meaningful (there are a number of characters and Easter eggs here that tie-in to the larger series). I'd be very interested to see what a film version of this (not necessarily this graphic novel, but the Red Rising storyline in general) might look like some day.

This is a graphic novel that takes place in the world of Pierce Brown's Red Rising series.

I have not read the Red Rising series so I am not sure if this is a prequel, sequel or spin-off of the main story. I don't think you need to read the series to be able to enjoy this graphic novel, it stands on its own.

The story takes place in outer space where mankind has spread to. In this world, people are designed to perform certain tasks and are referred to by a color. The color is not their actual skin color but rather refers to the task they perform, red being the lowest caste in this world.

In the novel, a high "gold" falls in love for a lowly "red" and the story revolves around the challenges they face. The book is richly illustrated and the word bubbles are colored based on the person's "caste.

Overall the novel is ok, although I enjoy science fiction I did not love this story.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this publication in exchange for an honest review.