Golden Son is a 2015 science fiction novel by American author Pierce Brown, the second in his Red Rising trilogy.
The sequel to 2014's Red Rising, Golden Son continues to follow lowborn Darrow's plan to destroy the Society from within. It debuted at #6 on The New York Times Best Seller list and won the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction.
The third novel, Morning Star, was published in February 2016.
I loved the complex characters (Darrow and Mustang especially my girlie deserves even more pages) and complex world building, the writing was efficient and poetic at times, though I really had to focus, and some action scenes lost my attention a little. I knew what would happen in the end, being a reread, but the enjoyment was still there and I recommend this Sci Fi saga to whomever this appeals, even a bit, to.
I have to say that this tale was good, right up to the last 50 pages or so. The end was uninspiring. I may read others in this series, but the end of this work left me much less enthusiastic than I was when I began this second novel.
Friendships take minutes to make, moments to break, years to repair.
Superb! The Red Rising trilogy continues to fire on all cylinders and delivers an excellent middle instalment. The story picks up a few years after Red Rising #1 and the scale of what's at stake hasn't decreased at all.
I would not have raised you to be a great man. There is no peace for great men. I would have had you be a decent one.
Familiar characters from Red Rising #1 make an appearance, friendships forged at the Institute are questioned and all the while the story continues to question the caste structure in place. Amongst the fast paced tale there are moral questions raised, challenges of preconceived notions and a sprinkle of heartbreak.
I am a child of hell, and I've spent too long int heir heaven.
Darrow continues to have a wonderful story arc as he …
Friendships take minutes to make, moments to break, years to repair.
Superb! The Red Rising trilogy continues to fire on all cylinders and delivers an excellent middle instalment. The story picks up a few years after Red Rising #1 and the scale of what's at stake hasn't decreased at all.
I would not have raised you to be a great man. There is no peace for great men. I would have had you be a decent one.
Familiar characters from Red Rising #1 make an appearance, friendships forged at the Institute are questioned and all the while the story continues to question the caste structure in place. Amongst the fast paced tale there are moral questions raised, challenges of preconceived notions and a sprinkle of heartbreak.
I am a child of hell, and I've spent too long int heir heaven.
Darrow continues to have a wonderful story arc as he struggles with his upbringing and who he has become. He looks for the good in everyone and embodies MLK with his ambition of having "people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
This has been a fun couple of books and no reason to stop now, so I will plunge head first in to Red Rising #3.
I highlighted a few other passages from the book, and to avoid them being lost forever I'll include them below: - Everyone's honest till they're caught in a lie. - In a world of killers, it takes more to be kind than to be wicked. But men like you and me, we're just passing time before death reaches down for us. - Power is resolute. It is the mountain, not the wind.
It keeps uo the frantic rhythm of the first book and if anything ups the stakes. It is again, like a young adult fiction that's aware of politics. Good fun summer reads, good twists, good action... but I am not spoiling it for you. Go read it!
I didn't like this one quite a much as the first because it got a bit... disjointed i guess, from the protagonist characters origin, also they got a bit superheroish.
J’avais déjà beaucoup aimé le premier tome de cette trilogie, la mise en place des personnages et de l’univers proposé par Pierce Brown m’avait conquise. Et pourtant, cette introduction me paraît à présent bien en dessous des volumes suivants, Golden Son et Morning Star.
Wow. This book has a lot of flow. Of momentum. The author references the idea quite a bit from the protagonist's life as a Helldiver. I found myself often swimming with this flow and enjoying so very much of it.
Psychologically, there is a bit too much strife going on in Darrow's head. I have a hard time struggling with the 20-something-year-old at this points point of view but I get it more often than not; again it's a novel for the youthful struggle and within a construct of some very delicate political maneuvering which is executed very well.
The alliances, the stress within the moments, the inevitable--and sometimes surprising betrayals. Especially the betrayals. Did we have a red wedding moment here? I think we did. Goodness. My heart rate monitor spiked 20bps and made my blood go cold.
I await the next book, wtf is transpiring here. ;)
Like Red Rising, I loved this book. I get very attached to well written characters and there are plenty of them here. The first of the series cut me and then the process of healing, having the wound reopened, healing, reopening and on an on ad nauseam began. It's the kind of hurt that grows on you though.
Here's the "spoiler": as much as I really really enjoyed this book, the end sort of cemented my issues of naïveté within the characters. I so want good to win, but sometimes these characters seem dumb as stumps. Like, they deserve these horrible things that happen to them. I understand that this is the flow of this type of story. I suspect that there will be much more personal tragedy before Darrow accomplishes his mission. I just wonder what the final cost will be. I might be irritated by this ending, but...I'll …
Like Red Rising, I loved this book. I get very attached to well written characters and there are plenty of them here. The first of the series cut me and then the process of healing, having the wound reopened, healing, reopening and on an on ad nauseam began. It's the kind of hurt that grows on you though.
Here's the "spoiler": as much as I really really enjoyed this book, the end sort of cemented my issues of naïveté within the characters. I so want good to win, but sometimes these characters seem dumb as stumps. Like, they deserve these horrible things that happen to them. I understand that this is the flow of this type of story. I suspect that there will be much more personal tragedy before Darrow accomplishes his mission. I just wonder what the final cost will be. I might be irritated by this ending, but...I'll be starting the final book this evening. SMH.
Audiobook I had this book in my queue for a while but didn't rush to listen to it because while I did like Red Rising, I didn't feel the rush to go back to that world.
What a mistake. This book is better than the first, faster pacing, much more intrigue etc. I usually only listen to a book one maybe two hours at a time, this time I raced through it because I just had to see what comes next. The upside to waiting so long to read this is that I finished it days before the release of the third book, which is at the top of my queue now.
TL;DR Intrigue-stuffed Rome in Space follow-up to Hunger Games in the Middle Ages. If you enjoyed [b: Red Rising|15839976|Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy, #1)|Pierce Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1369153188s/15839976.jpg|21580644] and speak Latin, this book is for you.
Some time has passed since the first book. Darrow has been to the 'Academy' and learned to fight space battles. Augustus is his mentor or sponsor or whatever-you-want-to-call-it while the Sons of Ares seem to have vanished. Darrow is a rising star about to win the final fight of the Academy tests with his coterie of friends and ascend to be an Imperator of the fleet. Of course nothing ever turns out the way it is planned. And the old saying still holds: the higher you rise, the deeper you fall, especially when your grav-boots give out.
This book is full of treachery, intrigue and missed connections. I believe there are several characters that change their allegiance …
TL;DR Intrigue-stuffed Rome in Space follow-up to Hunger Games in the Middle Ages. If you enjoyed [b: Red Rising|15839976|Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy, #1)|Pierce Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1369153188s/15839976.jpg|21580644] and speak Latin, this book is for you.
Some time has passed since the first book. Darrow has been to the 'Academy' and learned to fight space battles. Augustus is his mentor or sponsor or whatever-you-want-to-call-it while the Sons of Ares seem to have vanished. Darrow is a rising star about to win the final fight of the Academy tests with his coterie of friends and ascend to be an Imperator of the fleet. Of course nothing ever turns out the way it is planned. And the old saying still holds: the higher you rise, the deeper you fall, especially when your grav-boots give out.
This book is full of treachery, intrigue and missed connections. I believe there are several characters that change their allegiance so often it becomes hard to keep track whose side they are on. Add to that Darrow's countless attempts to make things right with his friends by resolving to talk to them, and then not following through ... it makes for a rather stressful read.
There are a few exciting reveals, but most of this book consists of extremely long action sequences that cost me two good nights of sleep because I don't put down a book in the middle of a fight scene. Those sequences are too bloodydamn long. Too many fight scenes with too much description of "he moved there and hit him here" drown out the characters and sometimes even the plot.
And then there's the nearly satisfying climax which had just the right note of bitterness, until it turns Red Wedding and half the cast dies ... again..
Minus 2 stars because (a) this book could and should have been shorter, (b) too much confusion in the plot, and (c) I still don't like Darrow. This is a purely subjective rating based on how much I personally liked this book. The actual book is better than my rating.
