Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Published: January 6th 2015 by Del Ray

Amazon: Golden Son

As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor while dreaming of the better future he was building for his descendants. But the Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Darrow’s kind have been betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds—and their only path to liberation is revolution. And so Darrow sacrifices himself in the name of the greater good for which Eo, his true love and inspiration, laid down her own life. He becomes a Gold, infiltrating their privileged realm so that he can destroy it from within.

A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.

I feel like I should really be kicking myself for not picking this series up sooner. I picked up this book as soon as I had finished Red Rising and, like book 1, this book had me hooked from beginning to end. What I liked most about this book was that it focused on other aspects of the world and the rebellion where the fist book didn’t – so I feel that the continuation really did a great job of building the events even more.

I liked the fact that this book focused more on the political side of things, rather than character building etc. like the first book did. Whilst there was character and plot building going on, I felt that focusing on the politics of the rebellion and the society really helped to solidify why Darrow was doing what he was doing, as well as give us a better understanding of the society itself and the Gold race. I loved the hypocrisy shown by the Golds within their politics and the system that they have created.

It was also interesting to watch Darrow struggle to come to terms with what he was doing and what he was becoming. He has friends amongst the Golds, which he never believed he would have, and a relationship with Mustang that he also believed he would never have – so he struggles to internalise that with everything that he has to do for the Rebellion to free his own people. I liked watching him grow as a character and how he faced and dealt with new problems and how he learned from new mistakes that he makes along the way. There were times where I really wanted to shout at him because I felt like he was acting pretty stupid, but that’s just Darrow.

It was interesting to see how the relationships between Darrow and other characters really formed and developed within the book. There was a lot of betrayal going on and it was difficult to really know who you can trust and who was going to stab Darrow in the back – and I often times chose wrong! There were characters who I really believed wouldn’t betray Darrow, despite the fact that he kept pushing them away because of the struggle he was having with himself, and there were other characters who I was expecting to betray Darrow, who really stuck by him throughout everything.

The plot itself was fast paced and had me completely hooked! I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next, and there were a lot of twists and turns that I did not see coming! Can I also just mention the ENDING?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!? What even did I read in that end? I stared at my kindle for about 20 minutes before I even moved, I was that shocked.

All in all, I absolutely LOVED this instalment to the Red Rising series. I am currently reading Morning Star, but I haven’t gotten that far because of the hectic that was Christmas, however, I am hoping to get some more read later today! I really should have picked this series up sooner than I did *Facepalm* I gave this book 5/5 stars.

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