Golden Son

Author: Pierce Brown
Genre: Dystopian
Type: e-book ARC
Series: #2 in the Red Rising trilogy
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Random House Publishing - Del Rey Spectra
First Published: January 6, 2015
First Line: "Once upon a time, a man came from the sky and killed my wife."

Book Description from GoodReads:  With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation.

Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within.

A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart,Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.

Disclaimer:  My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Del Rey Spectra for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Review:  After reading and enjoying Red Rising (the first book in this series) I was eager to review Golden Son to see how Darrow's story continues.  It had been a year and a half since I'd read Red Rising and while I kind of remembered the plot I tried to read as many reviews/spoilers as I could to remind me of what was going on and who was who before I picked up this book.

Unfortunately that preparation wasn't enough to remind me of the plot and the numerous secondary characters for me to jump back into it easily.  Brown doesn't waste any time (and I mean ANY time) getting the story rolling.  No recap is given so I floundered for a long time trying to remind myself of what was going on. I kept hoping that all I'd need is one piece of the puzzle and suddenly the story line and characters would click in my head and I'd remember what happened.  

One of the things that I felt was missing was the lack of emotion that was in the first installment.  It definitely had loads of action scenes but it was missing that emotional side to Darrow that I loved in the first book.  

Sadly, after reading more than thirty percent of the book my frustration with trying to remember who was who and what was going on got to be too much and I finally gave up.  I don't give up on books easily but it felt like I still wasn't grasping the plot and I didn't remember how the characters were related and my frustration won out.  Some would say that I could look on the internet and look up some of the characters I was unsure of but I, as a reader, shouldn't have to do that.  Plus, there's not a lot on the net about this book yet. I checked.

While I'm not alone in my feelings towards this book I am still very much in the minority.  If you love Dystopian reads similar to the Hunger Games I recommend you pick up Red Rising and read it ... and then pick up Golden Son immediately so you still have all of the characters at the front of you mind so you can keep up with this non-stop action.

My Rating: DNF - did not finish

Favourite Quote: "Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark."