Golden Son

GOLDEN SON (Red Rising #2)

Written by Pierce Brown

Published by Del Rey, January 6, 2015

My star rating: 4 stars

THE SYNOPSIS:

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. Find it on Goodreads

MY REVIEW:

I’m not going to lie, this one was a little hard for me to get into. I almost wanted to DNF it in the first 100 pages. I found it a little slow, confusing, and I had lost sight of Darrow’s mission. Or, more so, I think that Darrow himself had lost sight of his mission. His time at the institute was over, and here he was, accepting a position from the man that killed his wife. But he had gotten into a bit of a comfort zone and was trying to survive and thrive in his new position.

I think the main problem that I had getting into this book was that it starts off many months after Red Rising had ended, and I was a little left behind. I knew things had happened but wasn’t sure of the details. Once I had time to catch up, it wasn’t as bad. But I was sitting there wondering who was who again, as there were so many players in Red Rising!

And I was right though. Darrow had lost the focus of his mission. When he gets the reminder that he so desperately needed, the story takes off like a rocket! He had spend so long out of contact with the people that sent him on this mission in the first place, so when he finally remembered his wife and what she died for, along with giving him some clear direction, Darrow slowly morphed into the person that I remembered – The Reaper. And when he has a goal, you better watch out. He will go to any length to get what he wants and thinks on his feet quickly when plans change.

The other thing that I was missing in the first bit of the book – Sevro!!!! He is hands down my favourite character! I always have a thing for the underdog and he’s kind of a genius!!! I love him and his intellect SO MUCH! He is the least “Gold” out of all of them. He seems to have this underlying hate for who he is and he seems to strive to be different.

Like I said, the beginning of the book is slow but, once it starts to pick up, the pace is insanity! I actually struggled to keep up with it! There are so many moving parts to his plans! And, after a few changes, he actually has a sense of the people that he can trust. He starts to let people into his plans and allow more of his true self to be seen. So sometimes there were elements to these plans that you didn’t know were happening until things were literally blowing up in your face. When you had those “A-HA” moments, it was a thing of pure bliss! You began to put all those tiny little details together and it was mind blowing sometimes.

Now, after finishing this book, I realized that there was one thing that stuck in my mind the most (aside from the insane plot twists that is), and that’s the dialogue. The dialogue was perfection! Their conversations laid out the crazy plot twists in such a way that you, along with the enemy that was currently being screwed over, understood every detail and the plans that went into it, And then there was the witty banter between the Golds as they threw around insults left, right, and centre. They seemed to be able to carry on a conversation without cutting each other down in some way. What made it even better was that they didn’t seem to care! They just came back with yet another insult.

The one thing I will say that I struggled with – the amount of characters. There were just so many! And when they all have different and interesting names, it gets harder to keep them all straight. I switched back and forth between reading physically and listening to the audiobook, and I will say that the audiobook made it a little easier. I wonder if some of the book, the connections, the reveals, and the twists, were lost on me a little sometimes because I couldn’t remember who was who.

This series is just amazing though! I love a good story where the low class citizens fight for the chance at freedom and equality. But when it’s all mixed in with elements of space, politics, games, infiltration, spies, and so much more – it becomes an incredible book just like this! Prepare yourself for the ending though…..

Until next time, happy reading!