Red Rising

As with so many other books being published these days, this is the first of an intended trilogy (now completed) by Pierce Brown. Darrow is a young (16) miner under the surface of Mars. He and his equally young wife, Eo, are Reds. That is the human race is now divided into social class by color. The Golds of course are at the top of the pecking order, over and above Grays, Pinks, Greens, etc., each of which has their special function in society. The Reds are miners. They live underground on Mars mining for a mineral that will one day terraform the planet and make it livable for the rest of humanity. They are not well treated by their masters, often going short of food, medicine and other essentials as they are driven to compete for these items by competing with other tribes of Reds to meet mining quotas. Except that this is all a lie. When Eo martyrs herself in order to spur Darrow to take up the rebellion, he instead attempts to follow her to a place beyond death. Instead he is surreptitiously subjected to a fake death and shown the truth, that Mars is already a habitable planet and that Reds are just being kept enslaved to support the other colors. He is transformed through excruciating surgical and psychological procedures into a Gold, with the idea that he will infiltrate, move into the highest ranks, and bring down the Oppressors. It's a compelling tale once you get into it, as he is selected for a rigorous and often brutal selection process where groups of Gold students compete against one another in a simulated world (a la The Hunger Games) to become Primus. Darrow will up-end the whole constructed and corrupt arrangement, making friends with other non-mainstream students and using unconventional tactics to build loyalty among his followers. He has a lot of hard decisions to make if he is to fulfill his mission and the inner conflicts are convincingly portrayed. Reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today. A complete list of characters is provided at Wikipedia.