Brown wrote six novels and faced rejection from over 110 agents before publishing
Red Rising. He wrote the novel in two months above his parents' garage in
Seattle, Washington. and hit #20 on
The New York Times Best Seller list. The 2015 sequel,
Golden Son, hit #6 on the same list and was equally praised by critics. In 2016,
Morning Star reached #2 on the
New York Times Best Seller list in Adult Hardcover, Digital Book and cumulative. It also reached #1 on the
USA Today Best-Selling Books list. In February 2014, shortly after the release of
Red Rising,
Universal Pictures acquired the rights for a film adaptation in a seven-figure auction.
Marc Forster is set to direct, with Brown writing the screenplay. Brown told
Entertainment Weekly that after completing the original trilogy, "I took a meager little break, mostly to stretch my screenwriting muscles." As of February 2016, the film was still in development, with Brown having written the first two drafts. He said in March 2016, "I have written the first two drafts of the film and now we're on the third. Hopefully it will be greenlit this year. The vision from the film makers is
Lawrence of Arabia in space', which is terribly exciting for me as it's my favorite film." The rights eventually reverted to Brown, and in January 2018, Brown said he was developing
Red Rising as a television series. Brown confirmed in October 2018 that the project had a director and a
showrunner, and added that the film rights had also been resold to an unspecified studio. Brown announced a sequel trilogy in February 2016, Brown said of his writing: The author has said that his writing has been "hugely" influenced by his readers' feedback, explaining: Brown also noted the popularity of his novels among the
LGBT community, saying "It's amazing that they have found a home in these books ... All these lost souls in my books have connected with people and I find it incredibly moving." with Brown having announced this on his official Instagram account. In September 2024, Brown took to Instagram again to announce that the Red Rising saga had sold 6 million copies. In September 2025, Brown announced
The Book of Lorn, a new story set in the
Red Rising universe. Described as a hybrid between a novella and a graphic novel, the project features artwork by Giannis Milonogiannis and is released in serialized form via Patreon. ==Reception==