Golden Son

Great read, catered to male audiences, action packed with great plot twists.

The Godfather Part II. The Empire Strikes Back. The Dark Knight. What do all these have in common? They are considered to be better than their predecessor. Grant it, these are all movies, but the same concept can be attached to books. Now, I have read a lot of series and rarely have I come across one whose second book leap frogs over the first (mind you there are still series that I have yet to finish so this may change). So imagine my excitement and my mind being blown away as I was reading through Pierce Brown’s Golden Son, the second book in the Red Rising Trilogy. Considering how I loved the first book, Red Rising, I expected to get a great follow up. I just didn’t expect it to be this good. While the first book was an introduction to Darrow’s world and plight, the second book is an action-packed bonanza filled with subterfuge, strategies and plot twists that just catapults the story to another level. I loved how Brown paced the story, spreading out the action/fighting scenes in a way that the story isn’t hyped up on Ritalin, going 100 mph without giving you time to breathe. But that doesn’t mean that the down time between the action sequences are slow by any means. There’s just a different kind of action occurring. Here is where Brown makes the book work: supplementing the action with the emotion/human aspect of the story. There’s the threat of betrayal, suspicions, secret plotting and strategizing. Even when there isn’t any action, there are still things happening that keeps you engaged and entertained where you get that down time in between battles and yet revs you up for the next upcoming one. As I mentioned before, having amazing battle sequences would be wasted if there wasn’t an actual story to hold everything together. As with the first book, Brown incorporated the human aspect, specifically Darrow’s continuing journey to change/shape the world around him for the betterment of, not only of the Reds, but all colors. This second book is where Darrow really becomes that sort of tortured, out of the box (within the context of the series’s world) hero you gravitate to and root for. He’s not perfect, he makes mistakes and more importantly, as great of a strategist and fighter that he is, there is that notion of luck having played a good deal in his success leaving room for the concept of vulnerability and doubt. You really get the sense that he’s just trying to find the best possible path for him, his friends and people. He’s not all powerful, but you realize that his strength and the thing that makes him that hero you root for, is his genuine trust and belief in his friends and comrades regardless of their color, associations and family to the possible detriment of his end goal. I can’t do this review without some special shout outs. The first being to Brown’s writing. The whole world that he created is this intriguing mix of a technologically advanced future with the old traditional formalities. And it’s so evident, not only culturally and socially, but in Darrow’s narrative and dialogues. The stiff and formal narrative and dialogues have moments where they veer off toward casualness and fun. Suffice it to say, it helps make for an interesting read. The second shout out goes to Sevro. While the other supporting cast were great, Sevro took the spotlight. I loved him in this book. He’s that great smart-aleck, right hand man that is loyal, dependable and great comic relief. Not to mention those one-liners. I’m a reader who’s pretty hard to impress a second time around. So when it does happen, the book itself had to be something special and Golden Son fits the bill. Which is surprising since I loved Red Rising. But this book managed to take what the first book started and took it to another level where the end product was more exciting, dramatic and smarter. I don’t know if the next book can get any better and it’s possible that it can leave me wanting. But I’m sure eager to find out and based on the previous two ins