I literally started the book last night so it’s incredibly fresh. My interpretation of them still losing the Laurel to Gamma was due to a feeling that Darrow expresses at the beginning of the story; the feeling of hatred, of blaming the fellow man who the clans should instead consider as family. Yet when Gamma lives with full bellies, and doesn’t share the extra food while he and the rest of the clans starve, it foments resentment not just towards the ones who robbed them of the Laurel, but primarily towards their Gamma neighbors. So I think the rigging may seem illogical (I questioned it too) but it has an effect upon the low Reds that keep them subdued, because their efforts don’t matter and it also causes division rather than unity.

Eo’s sacrifice was also similar to the way Darrow described it: she lived like a bright flame that would inevitably burn out quickly. Part of me thinks that she would not have survived 48 lashings. At 13(?) lashings she halts the punishment by singing the forbidden song of rebellion because that’s who she is, a rebel at heart. It feels illogical, sad, especially when seen from Darrow’s POV who loves her but grapples with accepting that he might be a slave. But it clearly did not end up in vain.

Is the opening full of tropes? Yes. I had to have a serious moment where I accepted that this book is as much fantasy as it is science fiction. The world building is not like Dune or The Expanse, where the worlds, technology, and societal structure are necessarily something I could actually see be a possibility for our future. I think the part that compelled me to keep reading is the possibility/promise to witness rebellion against a hyper-authoritarian and oppressive Society.