Pierce Brown

Pierce Brown's Red Rising sends a Martian miner named Darrow undercover into the academy that trains humanity's ruling caste, using their own brutal games to bring the whole system down. It's science fiction with the pulse of a war novel, built for readers who want their dystopias to actually fight back.

Golden Son sends Darrow undercover among the Golds he swore to destroy, and the second Red Rising book turns political chess into something closer to a knife fight, for readers who want their space opera to actually cost something.