Absolutely gut wrenching! In the best way.
Golden Son is the second book in the Red Rising series where we continue to follow Darrows journey of infiltrating the golds. Book 1 in the series was already good, but book 2 definitely stepped it up a notch.
Non-Spoilery Thoughts:
We are immediately thrown back into the action and Pierce stepped up the tension by introducing a fleet of new characters to root for and wish dead (also fleet cause there are more spaceships in this one. Get it?). The pacing of this book is intense. Every time I think we will settle into a boring section of the book a new twist or plot direction is introduced. Every time I think I know what will happen, a character does an unexpected action that sends our progress on its head. You never know what to expect and it is brilliant.
This book introduced a greater sci-fi element with space battles. Really interesting concepts of spaceships and breaching doors as well as powered suits up the tension of the “normal” fighting we saw in book 1. Of course, the entire concept of the Iron Rain was just epic.
The dynamics changed interestingly now that Augustus is so close to Darrow and our other characters. He is still a leader of the golds, but now we get to see his power struggles and pettiness. Everyone who seemed untouchable and all powerful becomes more human and greedier as we watch Darrow ascend in society (with some ups and downs).
Finally, this book doesn’t care about your emotions. It will have characters do as they would do, not how you want them to. It reminded me of back when Game of Thrones was at its peak and people didn’t know which character would make it out on top of the struggle and which would fall.
Rating: 10 /10 easy
Spoilery Thoughts:
One thing that annoyed me a bit is that Darrow deliberately steps away from his friends to pursue his ambitions. It is true to his character, but at the end of the last one he and Mustang were on good terms and in the same house, and in this one they split up or went separate ways and we don’t see it happen. We just hear about it.
But that negative is really me just nit-picking. I have a hard time finding something wrong with this story. It might be my current favourite book. Though I must say, I was relieved when the Howlers finally made an appearance. Sevro and Darrow are both my favourite characters of this series and seeing them back together again was fantastic.
Pierce Brown manufactures conflict in a way that I just eat right off the page. The war between Bellona and Augustus is entertaining, but the rivalry between Darrow and Cassius is fantastic. The fight between Cassius and Darrow was really intense. Of course, this fight also led to the plot reveal that Darrow trained with Lorn au Arcos, an epic fighter who we haven’t seen fight, but everyone knows is a certified badass. I loved hearing about Lorn before meeting him, and I liked the man just as much when he finally got introduced.
But I am getting ahead of myself. First, a quick note on Octavia au Lune, the Sovereign and new introduced biggest ruler of the galaxy. With Nero au Augustus becoming more of a mentor than a tyrannical ruler, Octavia seems to slot right into the missing power vacancy. She is also the person people like Nero must answer to. What I loved is that Pierce Brown stayed true to his introduction of the golds. Octavia seems untouchable and infallible but turns out to be as corrupt and greedy as the rest of them. When Darrow makes questionable decisions, it is these actions that remind us that he is trying to change things for a reason. The golds suck!
Finally, the ending of this book. Man. I did not see that coming. We just finished the greatest battle of the series so far. We got to witness what an iron rain was. We have had zero time to let our minds settle. And then, at the end of the book, when you expect to finally let things settle as we set up the next book in the series, everything goes tits up. The Jackel killing his father and everyone at the victory ceremony who stood against him was vicious, brutal, and absolutely not what I was expecting. He has become a new favourite book villain of mine. Someone who is not just outright evil but twisted and manipulative. We leave this book with Darrow defeated, a good chunk of his friends presumed dead, and the biggest evil since the beginning, Nero au Augustus, dead. When I read this scene, I involuntarily thought back to “Star Wars The Last Jedi” when they killed the big bad Snoke and left us with no plot for the last movie. That is not how you replace the big bad. But GOLDEN SON! THIS! This is how you kill off the big bad. By overthrowing him with an even greater evil. And we know that other ruling golds exist on multiple other planets. Our good meaning and conflicted protagonist Darrow has lost everything, and is facing insurmountable odds. What a crazy way to end a book. I picked up the third book immediately… No one is leaving me with an ending like that for long.
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