Golden Son: Red Rising Series 2 (Red Rising, #2)

by Pierce Brown

Ender's Game meets The Hunger Games in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.

'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.'

Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope. Until Darrow discovered that it was all a lie, and that the Red were nothing more than unwitting slaves to an elitist ruling class, the Golds, who had been living on Mars in luxury for generations.

In RED RISING, Darrow infiltrated Gold society, to fight in secret for a better future for his people. Now fully embedded amongst the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his dangerous work to bring them down from within. It's a journey that will take him further than he's ever been before - but is Darrow truly willing to pay the price that rebellion demands?

Hic sunt leones.

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.

• ISBN10: 1444759019
• ISBN13: 9781444759013
• Publish Date: 8 January 2015 (first published 1 January 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 May 2016
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

2020: 5 stars
I reread it before reading Morning Star to make sure I remembered everything, and this time I read it physically instead of reading the audiobook. It helped a lot. I'm yet again amazed by a Pierce Brown book.

2019: 4 stars
Again, a really good book and somehow it doesn't seem to be suffering from the middle book syndrome, which is surprising. (At least, I thought this was originally written as a trilogy, but I haven't checked my sources so I can be mistaken.)
I read the first half of this book via its audiobook and maybe audiobooks are just not really my thing? I had a bit of trouble to keep all events straight and focus on what was happening. The second half I read physically and I loved it again so much. The plot twists, the complex characters... I am curious to see how this series progresses.

[inlibrisveritas]

4.5 Stars

Full Review to come!

[Mercy]

Mejor que Red rising pero tampoco es una maravilla.

No soporto a Darrow :\

[Berls]

Good but not as great as the first book IMO. Gull review to follow soon.

[ross91]

Re-read before Morning Star:
I truly madly deeply love this book.
It has it all: war, friendships, violence, losses, love, space battles, greek and latin references, cool names, even cooler characters... It is perfect.

SEVRO, if the society doesn't want you I have a spare bedroom in my house just for you! #mybaby

[violetpeanut]

Reread in anticipation of the release of book 3, [b:Morning Star|18966806|Morning Star (Red Rising Trilogy, #3)|Pierce Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1426928658s/18966806.jpg|26984941]. Even better the second time around.

[adamfortuna]

The 2nd book in the Red Rising trilogy, this follow-up brings the story in an un-formulaic direction. Somehow this book was able to make the switch from personal battles to space battles without skipping a beat all while keeping motivations realistic.

[Rinn]

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

When I mark a book as ‘read’ on Goodreads and I’m planning on eventually posting a review, I often like to leave a reaction GIF as a placeholder. This was said GIF for Golden Son:



Thank you, Emma Stone, for so accurately portraying my feelings at the end of this book. That GIF will remain alongside my review, because as they say, a picture (or GIF, in this case) paints a thousand words.

Golden Son was pretty much everything I wanted and expected from Pierce Brown, after the absolute wonder that was [b:Red Rising|15839976|Red Rising (Red Rising, #1)|Pierce Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461354651s/15839976.jpg|21580644]. However, it was so, so much more brutal than the first book, but that’s what it needed. As the stakes rose, as Darrow’s task grew more and more dangerous and he grew more determined, there needed to be an element to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Brown pulls it off for sure, with this violent and shocking addition to the series that kept me reading and gasping at each twist and turn.

Occasionally, I felt a little bit lost by the (seemingly) endless names, so thank goodness for the character list at the beginning of the book! Whilst I would have enjoyed a bit more about Darrow’s time at the Academy – the book skips a year or so, to move things forward, and I would have liked that element of development, there is really not much else I can fault about Golden Son. The events suddenly felt so much more ‘real’; Darrow was no longer in the confines of his education and training, but out in the ‘real world’. This time, it felt personal.

With a lot more politics this time round, Golden Son had less of the action than Red Rising, but it certainly wasn’t lacking in it. There were so many reveals and surprises, so much going on. And that cliffhanger. Oh… help. I mean, I’m frustrated about having to wait the couple of months between reading Golden Son and the release of the next book, [b:Morning Star|18966806|Morning Star (Red Rising, #3)|Pierce Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461354277s/18966806.jpg|26984941], so I feel very sorry for the people who read Golden Son as soon as it came out, and have had that horrendous wait in between (not long to go now!).

Whatever happens in Morning Star, I feel it is going to be even more brutal, even more heartbreaking, and even more astounding than the events of Golden Son. And that is definitely something I do not want to miss.

[vagasker]

I'll write a review when I've gathered my thoughts. Damn this book fucked with me.

[lisacee]

A lot of characters, many with alias' and nicknames, and lots of military talk. Interesting story, but felt overly-long.