Sci-Fi
Audiobooks Like Red Rising
Red Rising
If Tim Gerard Reynolds' banked, slow-burn fury as Darrow is what kept you listening, this list starts there.
What makes Red Rising work: a low-caste outsider who infiltrates a brutal elite, a rigged, murderous academy that doubles as a war, and Tim Gerard Reynolds' controlled, simmering narration. Every pick on this list shares at least one.
All 10 picks at a glance
| # | Title | Author | Narrator | Runtime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Will of the Many | James Islington | Euan Morton | 28h 14m |
| 2 | The Rage of Dragons | Evan Winter | Prentice Onayemi | 16h 15m |
| 3 | Steelheart | Brandon Sanderson | MacLeod Andrews | 12h 43m |
| 4 | Iron Prince | Bryce O'Connor | Luke Daniels | 33h 55m |
| 5 | The Poppy War | R. F. Kuang | Emily Woo Zeller | 19h 27m |
| 6 | Blood Song | Anthony Ryan | Steven Brand | 23h 40m |
| 7 | Empire of Silence | Christopher Ruocchio | Samuel Roukin | 26h 06m |
| 8 | Empire of the Vampire | Jay Kristoff | Damian Lynch | 26h 51m |
| 9 | The Combat Codes | Alexander Darwin | Donald Chang | 15h 01m |
| 10 | Leviathan Wakes | James S. A. Corey | Jefferson Mays | 20h 56m |
What keeps listeners hooked
Tim Gerard Reynolds narrates Red Rising like a man holding a grudge he refuses to put down. His Darrow is pure banked heat: a Red from the deep mines of Mars who buries his grief so deep that when it finally breaks through, Reynolds lets it shatter the whole performance open. That restraint is what makes the Institute chapters unbearable in the absolute best way. Every betrayal hits harder because he never tips his hand early.
If Reynolds' slow-burn fury and Darrow's impossible climb up a rigged society kept you hooked, every recommendation below chases that exact high: a gifted outsider infiltrating a brutal empire, learning its rules, and bringing the whole thing down.
The ten audiobooks below are ranked by how completely each recording recreates that experience, with narration quality weighted highest in our scoring model. Pick one is the closest overall match. A few lean more toward brutal training and combat progression than outright rebellion, and where a pick runs slower, darker, or further from the political revolt at the heart of Red Rising, it is flagged so you can choose accordingly.
The picks · 1–10
Ten, ranked by how close they get to Darrow.
Order reflects how completely each recording recreates the Red Rising experience, with narration weighted highest.
The Will of the Many
Best for listeners who want the undercover-outsider-topples-the-empire story told almost beat for beat.
Why it matches: An outsider hides his identity, survives a merciless elite academy, and plots to bring the empire down from inside, the exact shape of Darrow's mission.
Vis hides his true name and infiltrates the elite academy of a Roman-inspired empire, playing the high-stakes games from the inside while secretly planning to tear the system apart. It's Darrow's mission almost beat for beat, moved from terraformed Mars to a marble republic.
Euan Morton, a Tony-nominated stage actor, brings the exact banked control Reynolds gives Darrow. He rations Vis's anger so tightly that a single raised syllable resets the tension in a scene.
The Rage of Dragons
Best for listeners who came for the sheer physical grind of the Institute.
Why it matches: A lowest-caste outsider turns his body into a weapon to climb a caste ladder built to crush him.
Born into the lowest caste of a war-torn society, Tau turns his body into a lethal weapon to climb a caste ladder designed to crush him. Swap Mars for a dragon-plagued coast and the DNA is identical: a rigged class system, brutal combat training, and a protagonist fueled by sheer spite.
Prentice Onayemi gives the duels real footwork. You can hear the physical choreography in his pacing, letting beats land right before a counterstrike.
Steelheart
Best for listeners who want Darrow's grief-fueled revenge in the fastest, pulpiest package here.
Why it matches: A personal loss becomes a mission to bring down an untouchable ruling class, at breakneck speed.
When ordinary people start gaining superpowers, every single one turns into a tyrant. After watching the tyrant Steelheart murder his father, David spends years working to join an underground rebel cell that hunts superbeings down. It's Darrow's grief-fueled revenge poured into a fast-paced action movie.
MacLeod Andrews balances David's wisecracking bravado with the underlying grief, nailing the comedic timing in heist and shootout sequences without slowing down the action.
Iron Prince
Best for listeners who want the Institute's rigged academy stretched into an all-week epic.
Why it matches: A dirt-poor outsider everyone expects to wash out claws up a brutal, highborn-dominated military ranking ladder.
A dirt-poor kid bonds with a top-tier combat AI and is thrust into an elite military academy full of highborn cadets bred for war. The Institute parallels are immediate: an outsider everyone expects to wash out, a brutal ranking ladder, and non-stop combat progression.
Luke Daniels keeps a massive cast distinct and trackable. He leans heavily into the training-montage momentum, making every sparring match build with real stakes.
The Poppy War
Best for listeners who loved the Institute's class contempt and academic knife-fights.
Why it matches: A despised outsider aces the empire's exam, enters its elite academy, and rises through raw spite before war erupts.
A dark-skinned war orphan aces an imperial entrance exam, lands at the empire's premier military academy, and unlocks godlike magic just as war erupts. The first act gives classic Institute energy, class contempt and fierce academic rivalry, before spiraling into dark, epic territory.
Emily Woo Zeller tracks Rin's dark transformation in real time. The sharp student in chapter one sounds radically different by the end, earning every step of that journey.
Blood Song
Best for listeners whose favorite part was the training and testing of the Institute.
Why it matches: A boy is stripped of his past and forged into a weapon by an institution that claims total ownership of him.
Left at the gates of a merciless martial order, Vaelin Al Sorna is stripped of his past and forged into a deadly weapon by an institution that claims total ownership of him. If the survival training of Red Rising was your favorite part, this stretches that brutal grind across a full epic lifetime.
Steven Brand brings a steady, soldierly calm fitting for a legendary figure reflecting on his past, underplaying the violence so every battle feels earned.
Empire of Silence
Best for listeners who want Red Rising in reverse, told at a slower, more philosophical burn.
Why it matches: A highborn son fights in the gladiatorial pits and turns on the very empire that made him.
Hadrian Marlowe is born into the ruling high-caste of a galaxy-spanning empire, but through tragedy, winds up fighting in gladiatorial pits before becoming the man history blames for genocide. It's Red Rising in reverse: the noble son who turns his back on the empire that made him. It runs slower and more introspective than Red Rising, closer to Dune in tempo, so come for the ideas as much as the action.
Samuel Roukin uses a dry, aristocratic register perfect for a man recounting his own dark history, allowing the philosophical moments to breathe between sudden explosions of violence.
Empire of the Vampire
Best for listeners who want the grimmest, bloodiest edge of the Red Rising spectrum.
Why it matches: A last holy warrior recounts a blood-soaked resistance against an unbeatable ruling power that has swallowed the world.
In a world where the sun never rises and vampire houses rule the land, one of the last holy warriors recounts his story in chains. Packed with dark humor, heavy betrayals, and blood-soaked resistance against impossible odds, this hits the grittiest edges of Red Rising. It is more last-stand survival than organized rebellion, so come for the atmosphere and the venom.
Damian Lynch voices Gabriel as a man who has run out of everything except contempt, wringing maximum flavor from the framing device.
The Combat Codes
Best for listeners who want the tournament-and-training itch scratched by a title nobody's recommending yet.
Why it matches: An underclass bred for the fighting pits, and one discarded kid whose rise threatens the whole caste system.
In a world where nations settle political disputes through single combat, an underclass is bred specifically for fighting pits. A disgraced grandmaster pulls a kid out of the slums to train him, threatening the entire caste system. It scratches that precise tournament-and-training itch, and it rarely shows up on the standard also-bought rails, which is exactly why it earns the discovery spot.
Donald Chang delivers fight choreography with crisp, martial precision, keeping every bout clear and distinct while highlighting the sharp class divide in his voicing.
Leviathan Wakes
Best for listeners who want Red Rising's caste war shifted into grounded, realistic sci-fi.
Why it matches: An exploited underclass that mines the air everyone else breathes begins to fight back against the inner-planet elite.
In the Asteroid Belt, the workers mining air and water for the inner planets are treated as disposable labor by the elite. When a missing girl sparks a system-wide war, an exploited underclass begins to fight back. Think Red Rising shifted into grounded, realistic sci-fi.
Jefferson Mays is a master narrator who gives every character a distinctive voice. His tired detective Miller and idealistic Holden are immediately recognizable from the very first line.
About the narrator
Tim Gerard Reynolds and the voice of Darrow
Tim Gerard Reynolds
Red Rising's anchor voice · sci-fi and fantasy mainstay
Tim Gerard Reynolds is one of modern sci-fi and fantasy audio's definitive voices, and his trademark is discipline and restraint. Where other voice actors might shout Darrow's fury at max volume, Reynolds keeps it banked, a simmer under the surface, so that when the emotion breaks it strikes like thunder. Add in his ability to give hundreds of Gold, Red, and Obsidian characters distinct identities without descending into exaggerated caricatures, and it's easy to see why his performance sets the standard. Every pick on this list was measured against the vocal bar he set.
Adjacent shelves
If Red Rising was the gateway
Where Red Rising listeners cross over next.
Frequently asked questions
FAQ: Audiobooks Like Red Rising
What audiobook is most like Red Rising?
The Will of the Many is the closest overall match. James Islington writes the same undercover-outsider-infiltrates-a-brutal-empire story, right down to the merciless elite academy, and Euan Morton narrates it with the same banked control Tim Gerard Reynolds brings to Darrow. If you want the pure physical grind of the Institute instead, go straight to The Rage of Dragons.
Are there sci-fi audiobooks like Red Rising, not fantasy?
Yes. Empire of Silence is the strongest sci-fi match, a galaxy-spanning empire and gladiatorial pits told at a slower, more philosophical burn. Leviathan Wakes moves the caste war into grounded hard sci-fi through the oppressed Belter underclass, and Iron Prince delivers the elite-military-academy climb in a far-future setting. Steelheart is a fast superhero dystopia about toppling a tyrant.
Which picks are closest to Red Rising's rebellion, and which drift from it?
The Will of the Many, The Rage of Dragons, Steelheart, and The Poppy War hit the rebellion and rigged-caste core most directly. Iron Prince, Blood Song, and The Combat Codes lean more toward brutal training and combat progression, while Empire of the Vampire is closer to last-stand survival than organized revolt. Each is flagged in its write-up.
Which pick has the shortest runtime?
Steelheart at 12 hours 43 minutes is the quickest entry point, comfortably under Red Rising's 16 hours. The longest is Iron Prince at nearly 34 hours, built for listeners who want to disappear into a world for a week.
Who narrates Red Rising, and is there a narrator spotlight?
Tim Gerard Reynolds narrates the entire Red Rising saga by Pierce Brown, and his restrained, slow-burn performance is the vocal standard every pick on this list was measured against. A dedicated ListenNext narrator spotlight for him is in the works.
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How we picked
How we picked
Every title was scored before it was ranked. The test for each pick was simple: would it satisfy a listener who just finished Red Rising and wanted that same feeling again, a gifted outsider clawing up through a brutal, rigged hierarchy. Narration quality carried the most weight in our scoring model. Same-scenario matches with weak, flat, or distracting narration were cut.
Picks one through five sit closest to Red Rising's rebellion-and-caste core. Iron Prince, Blood Song, and The Combat Codes lean toward brutal training and combat progression, and Empire of the Vampire trades organized revolt for last-stand survival. Where a pick runs slower, darker, or further from the political revolt at the center of Red Rising, we said so in the write-up.
Red Rising is science fiction, but many of the truest experiential matches are fantasy, so the list crosses genres on purpose and names the shift each time. The Combat Codes is our discovery pick: a martial-arts sci-fi that the standard also-bought rails rarely surface for a Red Rising fan, included to broaden your listening map without breaking the core appeal.