Golden Son is a continuation of the Red Rising series, happening a couple of years after the first book. It begins with Darrow being a lancer for the House of Augustus and failing to come in first at the Academy (a school designed to further the military training of golds). The rest of the book mainly deals with Darrow having to prove himself to Nero au Augustus and starting a civil war amongst the golds for the benefit of the Sons of Ares.
Darrow is continually struggling with his moral compass and has difficulty in trying to choose between the friends he has made as a gold and his mission for the Sons of Ares. This is made especially difficult given the fact that the Sons haven’t been in contact with him since before the institution in the first book. And when he does find them, it’s a fraction of the group that has gone completely rogue and has started bombing/killing innocent civilians in order to eliminate golds. Believing this to be the way the Sons operate now, Darrow begins to contemplate whether he should continue working for them. When he finally does decide, he becomes closed off to most of his gold friends due to him knowing that he will eventually have to betray them. This causes a few of them to betray him first, however.
We do see a lot more of the other colors in this book, specifically the blues and the obsidians. The addition of Ragnor fills the role that Pax had in the first book and more. Through Ragnor we are able to get a sense of how golds hold so much authority over colors that could easily overpower them with their strength and fighting skills. Darrow also uses Ragnor to show others that he will not discriminate based off of color which causes a little bit of dissent amongst the other golds (he gave some obsidians gold weapons during battle).
Instead of focusing on its characters like Red Rising did, this book was more plot-driven, which makes sense because it’s a book that focuses on war and what is morally right/wrong when trying to win one. The first book took a while to really get going whereas this one takes off from the beginning and doesn’t really slow down. Seriously, it was nonstop action from start to finish. The one bad thing about this though, is that a lot of the characters suffered because of it. We didn’t really get to see much growth for characters like Sevro and Mustang.
I was not suspecting Fitchner to be the Son of Ares, although looking back now it makes sense. Especially because of how Sevro is described as being uglier and shorter than the rest of the golds. I really can’t wait to see how this effects him in the next book. But even more then that, I can’t wait to see how this cliffhanger is resolved.
Overall, I’d give this book 5/5 stars. It was one of the best books I’ve read so far this year and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.
Side note: when is book 5 coming out?
The Book Lover's Coffeehouse 