Book Review: Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown



Golden Son by Pierce Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Del Rey


Summary:   With shades of The Hunger GamesEnder’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation.

Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within.


A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.


This was the book I closed out 2014 with. 4.5 stars. I can't believe it and I wasn't expecting it, but I liked this one even more than Red Rising. This was still another bloody and violent ride but I was also caught up in the political landscape and intrigue. I always want to know what the wider world characters move in, looks like and it's clear in this one Mars was only one stop on the Gold Galactic Tour of Tyranny. I also admit to finding it delightfully macabre that what begins as a lovely, formal, well catered Gold event can so quickly devolve into a fight to the death by opposing faction houses vying for position. It was reminiscent of the fall of the House of Batiatus in Spartacus. If this is ever made into a movie, I look forward to the death matches in formal wear. Another of my favorite aspects of this book was the second look at the Sons of Ares. It's always nice to see characters met in the first book to see what they're up to and I wasn't disappointed here. Darrow, with new information and a more mature outlook is even more an outcast, it turns out. I was glad of this development and liked him more than I did the first time around. I'm still not sorry when he's hard done by or in peril and no amount of obstacles thrown in his path worry me much (I expect him to make it to the last book, of course) but I'm enjoying watching them all. I was also fairly surprised in a few instances and they were good surprises (no spoilers from me because it'll really make you angry if you're robbed the surprise). I'm definitely all in on the final book in this series and there's nothing for me to do now but wait anxiously.

I definitely recommend this one for fans of the series or just scifi fans. And if you like world building, there's a healthy dose of that in this book.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher on Netgalley exchange for my honest review.



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