Monday, September 18, 2017

Review: Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Golden Son
(Red Rising Saga #2)
Publication Date: January 6, 2015
Hardcover, 430 pages, Del Rey
Genres: Sci-Fi

With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’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.

My Review

It took me a while to get to this Red Rising sequel, but boy, am I glad I did. I don’t know how Pierce Brown makes this crazy sci-fi world so addicting, but I dig it.

One major reason I love this series so much is how I never know what’s going to happen next. The storyline constantly surprised me, and that ending was so brutal. If I would have had book #3, Morning Star, with me, I would have immediately started reading it just because I need to know what happens next. Golden Son leaves off on a crazy, terrible, brutal cliffhanger.

Of course, the characters are mostly the same from book one, but I did love Darrow’s development in this book. At first, I was getting sick of his underlying holier-than-thou, I’m-the-man attitude, but by the end of the book, he’d redeemed himself so very much. I felt like his development was a natural progression within the storyline.

As for why I’m only giving the book 4.5 stars instead of the full five, well… there’s really two reasons. One reason has to do with the lack of competent, powerful women in this series. I feel like sometimes the few women who are in the book rely too much on Darrow and other men to make things better, or they’re made out to be martyrs. The women on the opposing/evil side are, of course, made out to be wicked stepmother-ish. It wasn’t a huge problem for me while I was reading, but I did catch it happening.

Another small complaint I have is the jargon. Sometimes, it was hard to follow because of the crazy language. I know that that’s what a good sci-fi novel is based on, its ability to create new and unique worlds, but it got a little crazy at times, especially during battle scenes. But, man, were those battle scenes crazy. Again, every scene completely surprised me.

All in all, this series is one I’m happy to continue with. I have Morning Star on hold at my local library, and I’m going to be impatiently waiting for Iron Gold to release next year.


*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

1 comment:

  1. I am so glad you enjoyed this one! I just loved it. The series is really solid. I can't wait for the new book to be published.

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