Reviews with content warning for Grief - Golden Son

I’m screwed… I already rated the first book in the series 5 stars… After reading Golden Son I think I’m going to need more stars. This book truly captured my heart and broke it in two.

Unlike the first novel in the series (Red Rising) which focused on a Hunger Games inspired battle arena this novel expands into a galactic civil war. If you enjoyed Enders Game but would have liked more violence this is for you. Not to mention the amount of twist and turns you will never see coming is chefs kiss.

Pierce Brown does well to make even the characters who are evil seem compassionate. In return he also makes the characters you believe to be good grotesquely dark and twisted. In this book you’ll never know who is going to stab Darrow in the back or be his saviour.

But… at least you can always put your faith in Darrow & Servo. Darrow is a man born Red & made Gold but Servo… Servo is a man of two colours. If anything bad happens to Servo in this series I will throw a fit.

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grets_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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laguerrelewis's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

All your favorite (surviving) characters from the last book + a few new faces move to battle in space with this installment. The political intricacies, violence, and undercurrent of revolution are all still present in mostly the same ways, but now instead of the Institute, Darrow and his allies have entered the actual society. While there was a lot that I liked that carried over, there was also a lot that I didn’t like. The writing style of these books makes it hard for me to truly get into them. Pretentiousness with little substance, undercutting the few moments where it’s actually fitting. I especially don’t like how women are discussed—this book is incredibly horny, which is distracting, off-putting, and hurts the female characters. If you can get past all that the action is great, the build is pretty engaging, and this book at least meets the level of its predecessor.

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astrea13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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literarycavy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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cheshirevixen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love these books so much, to the point where I struggle to find substantial flaws. The characters are so loveable and interesting, the plot is intense and fast-paced, and the themes explored are framed in a nuanced way. Darrow's journey is one of if not the most compelling and emotional stories I've read and he's one of my favourite protagonists.

Overview

Characters: 7/7

Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
Interesting: 5/5
Consistent: 5/5
Development: 5/5
Flaws: 5/5
Relationships: 5/5
Conflict: 5/5

Setting: 3/3

Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
Interesting: 5/5
Internal Consistency: 5/5

Plot: 5/5

Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
Setup: 5/5
Payoff: 5/5
Logical: 5/5
Pacing: 5/5

Characters:
Both the main character and side characters in this book are complex and interesting to read about, and their relationships and interactions are wonderful. The main character experiences a lot of internal conflict about the morality of his actions and how he may affect those he has come to call friends. He struggles to keep people at a distance, and the way in which he acts causes rifts and conflict between him and the other characters which drives the plot forward. Because this book is written in first person we don't get to see what the other characters are thinking, which leads the audience to feel how Darrow does, not knowing if anyone can be trusted. There are also many strong friendships and relationships in this story that are heartwarming and beautiful. There are so many amazing characters in this book, but my personal favourites would be Darrow, Sevro & Ragnar :)

Setting:
This book like the last kind of throws you head first into the action and the setting without explaining much of what's going on. I find that with the first book I also felt a little disorientated at the beginning, with little idea of what some things were. While I'm not sure of how everything works in this world, I get the sense that the main character and author do. I'm not a huge fan of info-dumps, but I like to have a firm grasp on everything in the world. That being said, I know that these things may be held back from the audience as a reveal later on, and the parts of the world that are in the spotlight are really interesting and make a lot of sense.

Plot:
The plot of this book is fast-paced with tons of twists and turns. The story is told in first perspective, but the main character is somewhat unreliable, so the audience will often find out his plans as they are unfolding. I find this is kind of similar to Six of Crows in this sense, which I also adore. The payoffs are setup up really well in my opinion, and there is a sense of tension throughout which makes it hard to put down.

Themes:
I really enjoy the way that this story explores the reality of rebellion and overthrowing regimes, and the sheer scale and number of people it takes to do something like this successfully. Particularly, I think that there's a lot of nuance when discussing what might happen after. I also think that it allows people from the 'evil side' to be good and moral, and people from the 'good side' to be consumed by rage and immoral. They all choose their own path, and the main character worries numerous times how he might have acted were he to have a slightly or drastically different past.

As I've made abundantly clear, I love this book and everyone should read this series ;)

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