Author: Pierce Brown
Publisher: Del Ray
Publication Date: January 28, 2014
Pages: 382
Format: Paperback/Own
"I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."
"I live for you," I say sadly.
Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.
Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.
But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.
Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
Review: Why did I wait so long to finally read this?? I LOVED IT! It's pretty much a book with a mashup of my three fave genres, dystopian, fantasy and sci-fi. This is absolutely a new fave right here. The story intrigued me right away. I only meant to start it before bed but ended up reading an entire third of the book in one sitting and going to bed at 2 in the morning. I just couldn't put it down once I started reading.
So first thing I loved about this book. It takes place on Mars. The planet has been terraformed to support life. And not only that, but we find out other planets and livable moons in our solar system have been as well! I love space. I love the idea of living on moons or other planets in our solar system. I loved seeing this brought to life. I also loved that a lot of names in the book were based off of Greek and Roman mythology. For Greek, we see Darrow's wife referred to as Persephone after what she did. We have the Sons of Ares (aka Mars). But then with the houses in the institute, we have mostly roman house names (outside of ones that were also planet names) like Ceres, Diana, Bacchus, Minerva, Juno. I'm such a huge mythology person so this also really made me happy.
I also thought this color class system was interesting. Golds being the rulers, Reds essentially slave labor, pinks for pleasure, grays as soldiers, yellows as doctors, etc. It was fascinating learning just how many color classes there are and what each of them do. And then at that, we have classes within classes. Low reds like Darrow that work underground and never see the surface, having shorter life spans. Then high reds that do get to live on the surface and do jobs like maintenance or sanitation. Even the golds. Iron Golds that really rule everything. Golds that can only get as far as commanding fleets. Then golds that can only get up to being house proctors. Where you fell in the gold caste depended upon your parents status. It's like you need to create a flow chart to fully understand the color system. But it was incredibly interesting to learn.
I really enjoyed the story. Darrow is best choice for the main character because of the tremendous growth you see through the whole book. We see him start off being content being a Red, slaving away in the mines. All he wants is to be happy with his wife Eo, and to win the Laurel for his tribe of Reds. Until his wife pretty much throws him into starting a revolution. Darrow ends up becoming what he hates. A gold. He is carved into a gold so he can infiltrate the institute and get himself a prime place in gold society. What better way to bring down your enemies than to do it from within their own society? He is definitely led a bit by wanting vengence for Eo. We see this a lot as he talks about wanting to take down the man who ordered her execution and how he's doing all this for her. But we also see him do it more and more to give his class a better standing in life. They worked hard to provide the materials to make Mars habitable, yet they don't get to reap those rewards. They were lied to saying they will help the future when the future came hundreds of years ago. He wants the Reds to not be slaves anymore. But throughout everything, he also softens towards some golds. He learns that so many can't really go anywhere in life because of their birth. He befriends one from his house that will suffer that fate. And he even uncovers the Golds trying to cheat a favored son to victory. They already have the best of everything, but yet still need to cheat to make sure someone they want wins. So much in all the different castes were rigged to never let anyone but the favorites win. It's not even all about just freeing the Reds, but destroying the whole hierarchy in general with the amount of oppression and corruption going on.
I genuinely loved the friendships Darrow made within the golds, because not all of them were the kids of the leaders. Like Sevro for instance, he is one of the lower born golds that cannot get farther than maybe being a house proctor (like his dad). He doesn't have much to lose which is why he has no problem following Darrow when it came to taking down the golds trying to cheat one student to victory. Or Mustang, AKA Virginia. She is one of the kids of a high up gold. From one of the three big families on Mars. But she doesn't act like it. She doesn't betray Darrow for her brother when she easily could have. She fights with Darrow to take down the cheaters. She even teaches him lessons about leading people and how to do it the correct way, not like how he was initially doing it with his House. He befriends the people that even being gold, are good people. People that teach him things. People that are loyal to more than just their family. Even though Darrows heart is hardened towards the Golds, he can still see the good in some and doesn't just group every single one into the whole as being bad. I definitely feel like these relationships and friendships he formed among the golds will play bigger roles to come as he prepares to wage war.
I wasn't really bothered by the violence in this book. At least, not in the way of it affecting my enjoyment of the story. It actually felt like it belonged because it showed just how brutal life is in each color. How hard people have to work and fight just to get closer to their goals. It really showed just how inhuman many people came to be in The Society and how these incredibly ruthless leaders came to get their power. Honestly, the violence was really telling of so much. Especially in the case of Eo. She just sang a specific song and the Golds put her to death because of the song it was. What it symbolized. And how the Red couldn't even remove the dead body unless they wanted to die for that. Or the passage after coming to the institute. Golds killing other golds to weed out the weaker ones so only the strong and worthy survive. Like wtf. All of this was just so telling of how inhuman the humans in power become.
I'm so excited to get into Golden Son! After everything that happened in this book, and the ending! I really need to see where this story goes next!
So first thing I loved about this book. It takes place on Mars. The planet has been terraformed to support life. And not only that, but we find out other planets and livable moons in our solar system have been as well! I love space. I love the idea of living on moons or other planets in our solar system. I loved seeing this brought to life. I also loved that a lot of names in the book were based off of Greek and Roman mythology. For Greek, we see Darrow's wife referred to as Persephone after what she did. We have the Sons of Ares (aka Mars). But then with the houses in the institute, we have mostly roman house names (outside of ones that were also planet names) like Ceres, Diana, Bacchus, Minerva, Juno. I'm such a huge mythology person so this also really made me happy.
I also thought this color class system was interesting. Golds being the rulers, Reds essentially slave labor, pinks for pleasure, grays as soldiers, yellows as doctors, etc. It was fascinating learning just how many color classes there are and what each of them do. And then at that, we have classes within classes. Low reds like Darrow that work underground and never see the surface, having shorter life spans. Then high reds that do get to live on the surface and do jobs like maintenance or sanitation. Even the golds. Iron Golds that really rule everything. Golds that can only get as far as commanding fleets. Then golds that can only get up to being house proctors. Where you fell in the gold caste depended upon your parents status. It's like you need to create a flow chart to fully understand the color system. But it was incredibly interesting to learn.
I really enjoyed the story. Darrow is best choice for the main character because of the tremendous growth you see through the whole book. We see him start off being content being a Red, slaving away in the mines. All he wants is to be happy with his wife Eo, and to win the Laurel for his tribe of Reds. Until his wife pretty much throws him into starting a revolution. Darrow ends up becoming what he hates. A gold. He is carved into a gold so he can infiltrate the institute and get himself a prime place in gold society. What better way to bring down your enemies than to do it from within their own society? He is definitely led a bit by wanting vengence for Eo. We see this a lot as he talks about wanting to take down the man who ordered her execution and how he's doing all this for her. But we also see him do it more and more to give his class a better standing in life. They worked hard to provide the materials to make Mars habitable, yet they don't get to reap those rewards. They were lied to saying they will help the future when the future came hundreds of years ago. He wants the Reds to not be slaves anymore. But throughout everything, he also softens towards some golds. He learns that so many can't really go anywhere in life because of their birth. He befriends one from his house that will suffer that fate. And he even uncovers the Golds trying to cheat a favored son to victory. They already have the best of everything, but yet still need to cheat to make sure someone they want wins. So much in all the different castes were rigged to never let anyone but the favorites win. It's not even all about just freeing the Reds, but destroying the whole hierarchy in general with the amount of oppression and corruption going on.
I genuinely loved the friendships Darrow made within the golds, because not all of them were the kids of the leaders. Like Sevro for instance, he is one of the lower born golds that cannot get farther than maybe being a house proctor (like his dad). He doesn't have much to lose which is why he has no problem following Darrow when it came to taking down the golds trying to cheat one student to victory. Or Mustang, AKA Virginia. She is one of the kids of a high up gold. From one of the three big families on Mars. But she doesn't act like it. She doesn't betray Darrow for her brother when she easily could have. She fights with Darrow to take down the cheaters. She even teaches him lessons about leading people and how to do it the correct way, not like how he was initially doing it with his House. He befriends the people that even being gold, are good people. People that teach him things. People that are loyal to more than just their family. Even though Darrows heart is hardened towards the Golds, he can still see the good in some and doesn't just group every single one into the whole as being bad. I definitely feel like these relationships and friendships he formed among the golds will play bigger roles to come as he prepares to wage war.
I wasn't really bothered by the violence in this book. At least, not in the way of it affecting my enjoyment of the story. It actually felt like it belonged because it showed just how brutal life is in each color. How hard people have to work and fight just to get closer to their goals. It really showed just how inhuman many people came to be in The Society and how these incredibly ruthless leaders came to get their power. Honestly, the violence was really telling of so much. Especially in the case of Eo. She just sang a specific song and the Golds put her to death because of the song it was. What it symbolized. And how the Red couldn't even remove the dead body unless they wanted to die for that. Or the passage after coming to the institute. Golds killing other golds to weed out the weaker ones so only the strong and worthy survive. Like wtf. All of this was just so telling of how inhuman the humans in power become.
I'm so excited to get into Golden Son! After everything that happened in this book, and the ending! I really need to see where this story goes next!
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