Golden Son by Pierce Brown is the second book in the Red Rising Trilogy. In the first book, Red Rising, we are introduced to Darrow. In the society Darrow lives in their social scale is in colors. Reds sit at the bottom as lied to slaves that mine mars and Golds sit on top ruling and having completely luxurious lives, but with much competition. The golds are designed to be the ideal human, with extreme strength, intelligence, and beauty. Darrow, former red, is turned gold in order to help Ares being down the gold and the weighted power system. Darrow fights in games and an institute to honor his wife’s memory and dream. Darrow is now awarded a fleet, but has made a large rivalry with one of the most powerful families on Mars. At the beginning of Golden Son Darrow is trying to bring down the ships of Bellona, a member of the family who wants his heart on a plate. Darrow played Bellon’s own trick back in his face and now he will suffer the price. Everywhere he turns someone wants to kill him.  When Darrow is not successful and his position is to be taken from him he has to find a way to make his way back to the top. He has lost his only true protection and he is taken to Luna, away from his home on the red planet. With no real friends left surrounding him and the loss of his position floating above him and the lack of communication of any guidance from Ares he is lost to find a way to regain station so he can bring down the Golds.

Pierce Brown has an amazing way of making this fiction story in a fictional place seem so real. The fact that this book starts off with Darrow coming off of a victory and then failing really gives a realistic feature that differs from the normal book that portrays the main character that just accomplishes what they need to do with complete success. I think that this book is refreshing in that aspect. The author also does a great job of how things are described in the book. I can also appreciate the big strong male character talking about his loneliness and heartbreak. I think this book is very different from a lot of books that have come out recently. This book also reveals a lot about the true motivations of characters around Darrow, particularly Mustang, Sevro, Roque, and Tactus. I was very disappointed about Tactus and his lack of loyalty to Darrow now. He is more selfish than I had thought in the first book. I also continue to not quite Mustang, she is so complex, but perhaps in the third book I can figure her out. I give the author major credit for the ending. I’m pretty sure that ending is in the dictionary under cliffhanger, because wow. I do think that some length could be shaved off of the book, there is some fluff to me that adds length and it slowed down the story for me. There is some redundant information that gets restated and some descriptions that seem unnecessary. However, there is still a lot of action to enjoy. I would suggest to almost any high school student, it has good depth in its characters, but it also has great action and covers a lot of ground and I think a lot of different people could enjoy it. Just be mentally prepared for the end, you’ll want Morning Star nearby. I give Golden Son 4 and a half stars out of 5, just because at some points I was bored with the book.