Golden Son (Red Rising Saga #2)

The first entry of Red Rising had one glaring issue in my eyes: at its core it felt like a reskinned Hunger Games. Fundamentally there was nothing wrong with that, the first Hunger Games is a lot of fun and there’s a reason games based around the Battle Royale theme took off, it’s a very straightforward fun concept which mixes strategy, action and the importance of interpersonal relationships. The problem is that at least as far as the movies were concerned I didn’t like the remaining Hunger Games movies with the second one feeling like a 2 hour long set up that could have been shortened to a generous half hour and the other two just feeling a bit generic and lackluster in their world building. Approaching Golden Son I was very worried about it simply going down the same path and the first few chapters did not help in the slightest.

The book opens up with Darrow being back in a military academy playing another large scale wargame, this is however only the subject of the first couple chapters and is then immediately completely forgotten about with Darrow having to choose a different way of climbing through Gold ranks…which lasts about another chapter before another path is offered to him which is the very generic “join the resistance” that Hunger Games embraced. Wait another chapter and Darrow finally settles on his own way of achieving his goal of bringing Gold society down. Thankfully Darrow’s plan is a lot more interesting to follow but the way it is introduced is pretty poor. Within the first hour of reading, 4 possible overarching plot lines are introduced and kept around for just long enough for the reader to think that this is the one that will carry the book before being discarded and another plot line is presented. It feels very flip floppy and almost as if the author was trying out a collection of ideas and see how they feel for a chapter before choosing something else.

On the plus side, the reintroduction of the reader into the Red Rising world is done well enough, the book has a list of character names and their roles at the start to trigger some memories and to refer back to although the occasional name or character is missing from this list and so if the reading of Red Rising’s first entry is a few months back there’s a few minor references that might go over the reader’s head. Nevertheless the main concepts, past story lines and stakes are explained smoothly without feeling overbearing nor stingy in detail.

Moving past the introduction and plot set up chapters however there is little to be added without going into spoilers. The story scale is ramped up with both the leader of Gold society and the Sons of Ares’ rebellion taking up more significant roles and the highs and lows of the story consequently also become much more dramatic. When things go well, they go really well but they are almost inevitably followed by a gut wrenching downfall which will then again be followed by another meteoric rise. It’s an emotional roller coaster which is as brutal as it is thrilling. The ending this time around isn’t rushed and follows this roller coaster pattern in a way that sets up the sequel very nicely that I look forward to discover.

This isn’t to say that the rest of the story is without faults, whilst I cannot find issues with characterisation or even the general story progression, there are the occasional Deus Ex Machina moments which feel more like the author pushing for the story to move in the direction they need it to rather than organic progression. It is unfortunate that the two most outrageous such moments are key to the establishment of the overall plot but they are thankfully incorporated more naturally into the story as it progresses.

All in all, it is difficult to rank Golden Son against its predecessor. The subjective fun factor rating side of me would have it as slightly below as the mythological Hunger Games of the first book is a plain good time, however taking into account the other factors I take into account when attributing a score, I do believe that Golden Son tells a much more interesting and original story which pushes it just above Red Rising at an 8.5/10.