Book Review: Golden Son by Pierce Brown
Golden Son (#2 in the Red Rising triology)
by Pierce Brown
464 pages
Published: January 6th 2015
Genres: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopia
Read: December 2015
So, after being completely mind blown by Red Rising (read my review of that beauty here, and also read Marlene's review of it here) I finally got a hand on the sequel, which I've been dying to read. It'd been a while since I read Red Rising though, so I was a little worried I wouldn't remember everything. But then I opened and book and it just felt like coming home. I'm back, right where I belong.
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.
The Plot ★★★★☆
The plot still continues to amaze me, as it has been doing from page one of this triology. The Plot behind the triology in itself is just perfect, and the plot behind Golden Son is fast-paced, action-filled and just brilliant. Never in my whole freaking life have I experienced so many plot twists in a book. There were several times I cried out loud during the reading of this one, which I normally don't do. I woke my sister up with a "Holy shit?!" one night, just to give you an example. That even turned out to be one of the smallest surprises of the book. The plot most definetly makes it harder to put the book down.
And that ending?! I mean, how can you do this to me when the third book hasn't even come out yet?! Seriously. I have absolutely no clue as to how the story is going to continue after this. For reals, I have absolutely no idea, no suggestion at all, and I cannot believe how it is supposed to be only one book left because I cannot in any way possible imagine how everything is going to be solved in only one book or at all. Seriously. That ending. Holy shit.
The World ★★★★★
The World in the Red Rising triology continues to amaze me. Pierce Brown is one of the writers that managed to make a whole world and make me believe in it. It' so easy to just picture how it's like. The Red Rising triology is dystopian, and the whole point of the book is to create a new "world" (which is not a spoiler, it's a freaking dystopia), so naturally, there's not much about this world you actually like. As in, you would'nt really be a part of this. Yet, it geniously made. I love how everyone is divided by colors, and how it's the universe and how big everything really is
The World in the Red Rising triology continues to amaze me. Pierce Brown is one of the writers that managed to make a whole world and make me believe in it. It' so easy to just picture how it's like. The Red Rising triology is dystopian, and the whole point of the book is to create a new "world" (which is not a spoiler, it's a freaking dystopia), so naturally, there's not much about this world you actually like. As in, you would'nt really be a part of this. Yet, it geniously made. I love how everyone is divided by colors, and how it's the universe and how big everything really is
But yeah, it's so very well explained how everything works throughout both the first book and this one, it's easy to imagine how it's like and I'm so excited about how everything is going to turn out - if the world is changing, how is it going to be like then?
In Golden Son, we get to know even more about the world and it still isn't a single thing about it that makes me doubt it. So yes, five stars. No doubt about that either.
Characters ★★★★☆
I think that absolutely every character in this book/this triology is built up perfectly. They all have depth, and always do things that makes sense that they would be doing because you know their personality. Except like five times in this book. A shitload of the plot twists in this book is actions that are based on characters that I seriously thought I knew doing something I seriously thought they would'nt be doing. Does that make them even better chracters? Yes and no.
It's kind of hard to talk about this without spoiling, but one of the characters I never really liked became one of my favourites after this book, and one of the characters I kind of liked is now on my top 10 hate-list of all fictional characters ever. Both of this surprises definetly made the book better.
Then, there's a plot twist in this book I kind of can't believe, because it still makes no sense that this character would do that, so I'm left hoping Pierce Brown will plot twist it back (like, a plot twist in the plot twist that shows that the first plot twist was really a lie and the second plot twist is the truth... you get me?).
During this book, my feelings for Darrow started to get complicated though. I kind of loved him in Red Rising. I did, because he's a protagonist that has a personal purpose, he has his own personal reasons to do all the things he has to do, and he just felt so human. But, I kind of lost that a bit in this book. I'm not really sure if that negative or not, because a part of me think maybe I'm supposed to feel this way. In many way, he feels more human than ever, which is actually perfect and makes me like him more. But in another way, there's something about this development that makes me like him a little less. Or more? Seriously, I'm so confused about this...
Mustang however, I absolutely loved in Red Rising and now, I absolutely love her even more. Brown has given her so much more depth in this book, and she seems so much stronger and smarter. She was in the first book as well, but in this book it's just beautiful.
"Now, I'm sure you understand that I felt lost. One, because I thought I'd found someone special in you. Two, because I felt you were abandoning the idea that gave us the ability to conquer Olympus. Consider that I was vulnerable. Lonely. And that perhaps I fell into Cassius's bed because I was hurt and needed a salve to my pain. Can you imagine that? You may answer."
I squirm on my cushion. "I suppose."
"Good. Now shove that idea up your ass." Her lips make a hard line. "I am not some frill-wearing tramp. I am a genius. I say this because it is a fact. I am smarter than any person you've met, except perhaps my twin. My heart does not make my brain a fool."
And Sevro. Seriously. He has been my one favorite since he came into this story and now I think he's made my list of Top 10 Fictional Characters I will Love Forever. Seriously.
“You are but a mortal," Roque whispers in my ear, riding his horse alongside the chariot, as per tradition.
"And a whorefart," Servo calls from the other side.
"Yes," Roque agrees solemnly. "That too.”
So, even though there now are some characters I used to like but now dislike, and some I used to dislike and now like, I'm actually quite pleased with the character development in this book. Except for Darrow's development, which I seriously can't figure out if I'm satisfied with or not.
Writing style ★★★★★
This one is a little hard for me, because I'm reading it in my language (Norwegian), so I can't really say anything about the original writing. What I can say however, is that I almost never read translated books. Almost everytime I do that, I get annoyed by the poor translating and how no one ever seems to get the words right in translation. That didn't happen this time. So, my five stars on this one goes to Torleif Sjøgren-Erichsen who translated them to Norwegian, for doing a job I so very few times find people skilled enough to do.
Dramaturgy ★★★☆☆
To be honest, I actually wished the book would slow down a little bit at times. It felt a little bit like watching a movie with only action-scenes and nothing else.
Although it made me want to finish the book the same day I started it and it made it so exciting all the way, I sometimes actually had to put it down just to be able to comprehend everything that had just happened before a shitload of new things would happen. I seriously feel that all of this could have been made into two books, because there is so much going on. But, I still love the book, so it's not that bad. And I'd take this a thousand times instead of a boring dramaturgy.
All in All ★★★★☆
Golden Son get's a solid 4 star rating from me. It felt so incredibly right to be back in that world again when I started reading, there are so many things happening in this book that just makes me want to laugh and cry and jump up and down in frustration and I'm almost dying here because I cannot understand where the story goes from here, or how the freaking hell Pierce Brown is going to solve all of this in just one final book and how all of this is going to end because... yeah, I have no clue. I need to read that last book and I need to do it yesterday seriously. But yeah, I loved the book, although it was a little to well action-filled and could have given us a little more pauses. Apart from that, this is brilliant. And, If this triology is not made into movies, I don't understand humanity anymore.
