*Heavy Spoiler Alert*
Where Red Rising was The Hunger Games in space, Golden Son is Game of Thrones in space.
Conflict between factions, political battles, and space armadas going head to head is exactly what this book is structured around.
Darrow (As covered in the book review of Red Rising) is effectively a spy in this world, bouncing from planet to planet, fight to fight, and other assortment of mazes he has to navigate to get information, while not blowing his cover as a “Peerless Scarred”. Effectively a killing machine, tasked with handling the dirty work of the “High Families”, which are the main influences of power, besides the Sovereign, Octavia au Lune.
Octavia is a cruel ruler of the society, focused on the upholding of tradition and the hierarchy.
Hills and valleys, twists and turns, however you want to describe it, that’s what this book is filled with. It’s hard to put down. 464 pages of entertainment made it hard to sleep at night, without trying to guess what would happen next.
I once stayed up till 3am reading this because there was no point in the climax where it would be okay to stop.
Even being two-thirds into the final book in the series, I believe this book beats it out as the best in the series so far, but I won’t be getting ahead of myself until I finish the final book.
But it should be said that it’s quite rare for a middle book in a series to be the best. Afterall, it’s still setting up the rising action of the whole overarching story between the trilogy.
But this book from cover to cover is addictive to say the least.
And the ending… chills…
Absolute gobstopper of an ending. It left my mouth wide open in shock.
The choice to kill off a large portion of the main cast, just to drive the betrayal to the cores of the main cast. Diabolical work.
From the mentor “Lorn au Arcos”, to the head of the resistance “Ares” (aka Fitchner au Barca), two beloved characters’ deaths back-to-back is a statement.
One practically shouting “I am willing to subvert your expectations so much, I’ll change the whole course of the story”
I’d say overall, this book will hold a place in my heart, this few books will be able to connect with again.
