Red Rising by Pierce Brown: audiobook vs book, which should you choose?
This is book 1 of the Red Rising Saga. One narrator tells it in the present tense, and it is set in a society of colour-coded castes with its own vocabulary.
Short answer: for the Red Rising audiobook vs book choice, we say listen on Audible (100% confidence, clear cut). The audiobook is read by Tim Gerard Reynolds and runs 16 hours 12 minutes, unabridged. Print shows how the invented slang and coined words are spelled. One viewpoint, one narrator and an Earphones Award recording favour audio, and nothing confirmed points to print.
Listen on Audible
One narrator reads the single first-person viewpoint, and the recording won an Earphones Award, which favours audio. Nothing confirmed favours print.
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Confidence 100%, which puts it in the clear cut band. Bands run from close call at 50 to 64, through leaning at 65 to 79 and clear at 80 to 94, up to clear cut at 95 and above.
The audiobook at a glance
| Recording | Tim Gerard Reynolds (Recorded Books) |
|---|---|
| Narrator | Tim Gerard Reynolds, solo |
| Length | 16 hours 12 minutes (16h 12m) |
| At 1.5x | 10h 48m |
| At 2x | 8h 6m |
| Abridged or unabridged | Unabridged |
| Audio publisher and year | Recorded Books, 2014 |
| Print length | 400 pages (Hodder paperback) |
Also available: GraphicAudio's full-cast dramatised adaptation, sold in two parts. In the US: the GraphicAudio parts run 7h 31m and 8h 19m (15h 50m combined, calculated), and the Del Rey paperback is 416 pages.
Lengths checked 13 October 2026. Speed times are calculated from the listed length.
Red Rising
Pierce Brown
- Genre
- Dystopian science fiction
- Published
- 2014
- Length
- 400 pages (Hodder paperback)
- On audio
- 16 hrs 12 mins
- Narrated by
- Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Series
- Book 1 of the Red Rising Saga
On this page
Why we reached this verdict
Every book on this site is checked against the same thirteen questions. They are based on research into what most people find easier to follow in each format, not on whether the book is any good.
Listening: single point of view and narrator (7), award-winning or praised narration (6), 13 points. Reading: nothing confirmed, 0 points. 100% of the confirmed points favour listening, so the verdict is listen on Audible at 100% confidence (clear cut).
The recording in detail
- Narrated by
- Tim Gerard Reynolds, unabridged, released 28 January 2014
- Also on sale
- GraphicAudio's two-part full-cast dramatised adaptation (2023), about 40 performers, lead credit Stewart Crank
- Series continuity
- Reynolds reads all six books; Iron Gold and Dark Age add other narrators alongside him
- What audio adds
- One steady voice for Darrow, and a spoken form of every invented name
- What you miss
- The spelling of the slang and coinages, and the map endpapers in the 2025 deluxe edition
What this book actually is
Red Rising is book 1 of Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga, first published in 2014 and issued in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton as a 400-page paperback. Six books are out. The seventh and final novel, Red God, has no release date.
It is told by one narrator, Darrow, in the first person and the present tense, across a prologue, four parts and 44 chapters. Its world is a society divided into Colors, with Golds at the top and Reds as the lowest-status labourers, and it comes with its own slang and its own compound words. On audio it is the shortest book in the series: Golden Son runs 19 hours 3 minutes and Dark Age 33 hours 58 minutes.
The case for reading it
Print shows you how the words are spelled. The mine slang (“gorydamn”, “bloodydamn”, “slag”), camel-case coinages such as gravBoots, pulseShields and highLingo, and a spelling like “Demokracy”, with the hard C turned into a K, are all things you see in print but cannot hear on audio. Read aloud, Demokracy sounds the same as democracy.
The opening is where this matters most. One reviewer says the first 50 pages are “not unpleasant, they are just unpromising” because of the jargon, and a member of a Goodreads buddy read said they were “so lost and confused” they almost gave up. In print you can flick back to where a term first appeared. The UK deluxe edition from December 2025 also adds endpapers with a new map.
The case for listening to it
The structure is the kind that suits audio best: there is one narrator and one point of view, and the story is told as it happens. Tim Gerard Reynolds reads all six books, so you hear the same narrator from the first book to the last. One Audible UK reviewer found his voice “uncomfortable to hear” at first, before it became “THE voice, Darrow's voice”; another says it is “easy to distinguish which character is speaking”.
Audio also tells you how the invented names are pronounced, which print does not. And if one voice is not enough, GraphicAudio's dramatisation uses a full cast of about 40, with music and sound effects.
The audiobook in detail
The main recording is Tim Gerard Reynolds' unabridged solo reading for Recorded Books, released on 28 January 2014. It runs 16 hours 12 minutes on Audible UK, which is 10 hours 48 minutes at 1.5x and 8 hours 6 minutes at 2x. At the time of writing it is rated 4.7 from 5,521 ratings there. Reynolds' other credits include Ascendant by Craig Alanson.
GraphicAudio's version is a different kind of product: a dramatised adaptation with about 40 performers, released in two parts in 2023 and bought separately. The lead credit on Part 1 is Stewart Crank. Audible UK does not show its length; in the US the listings give 7 hours 31 minutes and 8 hours 19 minutes, 15 hours 50 minutes combined. No bonus PDF is listed for the Reynolds recording.
Who should ignore this verdict
Anyone who knows they struggle to follow invented vocabulary on audio, especially in the jargon-heavy opening, will find print an easier way in. Anyone buying the deluxe edition for its map endpapers, which audio cannot give you. And listeners who try a sample of the solo reading and want more than one voice: the GraphicAudio parts give you a cast instead.
Read differently from most people? The app, coming soon, will let you switch off any of the thirteen checks. Get notified →
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Start hereHow we decide
The thirteen questions behind every verdict on this site.
Questions people ask
Who narrates the Red Rising audiobook?
The Red Rising audiobook is read by Tim Gerard Reynolds, solo and unabridged, for Recorded Books (2014). GraphicAudio also sells a two-part full-cast dramatised adaptation with about 40 performers.
How long is the Red Rising audiobook?
The Red Rising audiobook is 16 hours 12 minutes (16h 12m) long, unabridged, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds. That is 10h 48m at 1.5x and 8h 6m at 2x (calculated).
Is the Red Rising audiobook abridged?
No. The Red Rising audiobook read by Tim Gerard Reynolds is unabridged. GraphicAudio's version is a dramatised adaptation, sold in two parts.
Should I read or listen to Red Rising?
Listen on our checks (100% confidence, clear cut). One first-person viewpoint, one narrator and an Earphones Award recording favour audio, and nothing confirmed favours print.
What order should I read the Red Rising books in?
Publication order: Red Rising, Golden Son, Morning Star, Iron Gold, Dark Age, Light Bringer. The seventh and final book, Red God, has no release date.
Is there a Red Rising TV show?
No. Pierce Brown confirmed in March 2026 that the TV project would not go forward, and hinted at a different live-action project without naming it.
Do you agree with this verdict?
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How this verdict was reached
Every book on this site is checked against the same thirteen questions, set in advance and applied identically to every title. They are based on research into what readers and listeners generally find easier to follow in each format, not on personal preference, and they are published in full so you can check the reasoning yourself. Verdicts are never paid for, sponsored or influenced by affiliate partners.
- The criteria: read the thirteen questions in full.
- What we checked for this book: the Recorded Books and GraphicAudio listings on Audible UK, the Hodder edition pages at Waterstones, library catalogue records, and reviews that describe the book's invented vocabulary.
- Verdict last reviewed: 23 October 2026. Editions and narrators change, so verdicts are rechecked annually.
- Prefer different criteria? The app, coming soon, will let you change which of the thirteen questions matter to you.
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