Hello guys!
Friday Reads is back a lil later in the day than usual, but this week has been a bit strange and yesterday though full of good news and potential good news left me completely drained, so I've slept in today like there's no tomorrow.
Today's book is a sequel without middle book syndrome and one that absolutely made my day when I was approved by Random House via NetGalley to read it (THANK YOU!!)! The only bad thing about reading it as an ARC? The even longer wait for Book 3!!
As an ARC it will be counted towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and as a science fiction dystopian it will be counted towards my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!
Golden Son by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When the first book in a series sets itself up as a 5 stars, there's always the question of how will the second one fare compared to it but in this case have no fear. Golden Son doesn't suffer from second book/sequel syndrome AT ALL, if anything I'd say it's even better than Red Rising, and that's quite a feat in itself!
Darrow has found himself a successful place in the Gold elite, apprenticing under Nero au Augustus, the ArchGovernor of Mars and a man that believes he has the best interests of the human race and that his way is the only way to proceed.
Darrow's plight is as dire as ever, he needs to get a position of power so he can follow the plans of the Sons of Ares to destroy the Society from within, and that is not getting any easier the higher he climbs. The amount of political intrigues, tactical changes and who to trust, who not to trust in this book is estupendous!
Darrow has gained himself some enemies within the Augustus family and due to their conspiring, he loses his place there. But it doesn't stop there, because the Sovereign is involved and soon everything progresses into a bigger scale for Darrow, for the Augustuses/Augustii and maybe even for the Society as a whole.
I am simply in love with the complexities of the world the author has crafted in these books, with how the Society elite being so rooted in Roman tradition, and not only by family names or Gods, but also because if there was something the Romans knew about was politics and intrigue!
One word of warning, this is a LONG book and although it is quite full of action everywhere and politics and intrigue and tactics and counterattacks and it never seemed slow for me and I couldn't turn pages fast enough and I finished the second half of the book before sleep, it reads a lil different, the pace is not as fast but every page is full of fascinating and intricate relationships, changes of alliances and quite shocking reveals!
Yes, there are twists and reveals, and like Darrow I felt like I should have realized that before, but I was completely blindsided, and no don't worry I'm not gonna give more hints as to what reveal I'm talking about.
After more epic scheming, and seeing what a great team in political matter Mustang and Darrow make, an epic battle and when you think that things are finally looking up... the othe shoe drops, and holy shitzu does it drop the big way. The ending of the book is painful and a full on cruel cliffhanger that will give you a very serious book hangover!!
Golden Son earns its gold fair and square and it's a sequel that does what every sequel ought to do, bring up the stakes even higher, make the world more complex and leave you pining and crying for the next book! Very much well deserved 5 stars!!
View all my reviews
Friday Reads is back a lil later in the day than usual, but this week has been a bit strange and yesterday though full of good news and potential good news left me completely drained, so I've slept in today like there's no tomorrow.
Today's book is a sequel without middle book syndrome and one that absolutely made my day when I was approved by Random House via NetGalley to read it (THANK YOU!!)! The only bad thing about reading it as an ARC? The even longer wait for Book 3!!
As an ARC it will be counted towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and as a science fiction dystopian it will be counted towards my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!
Golden Son by Pierce BrownMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
When the first book in a series sets itself up as a 5 stars, there's always the question of how will the second one fare compared to it but in this case have no fear. Golden Son doesn't suffer from second book/sequel syndrome AT ALL, if anything I'd say it's even better than Red Rising, and that's quite a feat in itself!
Darrow has found himself a successful place in the Gold elite, apprenticing under Nero au Augustus, the ArchGovernor of Mars and a man that believes he has the best interests of the human race and that his way is the only way to proceed.
Darrow's plight is as dire as ever, he needs to get a position of power so he can follow the plans of the Sons of Ares to destroy the Society from within, and that is not getting any easier the higher he climbs. The amount of political intrigues, tactical changes and who to trust, who not to trust in this book is estupendous!
Darrow has gained himself some enemies within the Augustus family and due to their conspiring, he loses his place there. But it doesn't stop there, because the Sovereign is involved and soon everything progresses into a bigger scale for Darrow, for the Augustuses/Augustii and maybe even for the Society as a whole.
I am simply in love with the complexities of the world the author has crafted in these books, with how the Society elite being so rooted in Roman tradition, and not only by family names or Gods, but also because if there was something the Romans knew about was politics and intrigue!
One word of warning, this is a LONG book and although it is quite full of action everywhere and politics and intrigue and tactics and counterattacks and it never seemed slow for me and I couldn't turn pages fast enough and I finished the second half of the book before sleep, it reads a lil different, the pace is not as fast but every page is full of fascinating and intricate relationships, changes of alliances and quite shocking reveals!
Yes, there are twists and reveals, and like Darrow I felt like I should have realized that before, but I was completely blindsided, and no don't worry I'm not gonna give more hints as to what reveal I'm talking about.
After more epic scheming, and seeing what a great team in political matter Mustang and Darrow make, an epic battle and when you think that things are finally looking up... the othe shoe drops, and holy shitzu does it drop the big way. The ending of the book is painful and a full on cruel cliffhanger that will give you a very serious book hangover!!
Golden Son earns its gold fair and square and it's a sequel that does what every sequel ought to do, bring up the stakes even higher, make the world more complex and leave you pining and crying for the next book! Very much well deserved 5 stars!!
View all my reviews
