Golden Son

by Pierce Brown

Info

Date Finished: 8/13/2026

First Sentence: Once upon a time, a man came from the sky and killed my wife.

Last Sentence: And I know we are undone.

Companion Album:

New Cover

A book cover for "Red Rising" by Pierce Brown in a striking red and yellow-orange color palette. The top of the cover features the title in a stylized gold outline font, alongside the author's name and a promotional quote. The bottom portion is dominated by a high-contrast, grainy, orange close-up illustration of a classical statue's intense eyes and furrowed brow against a solid red background.

A Few Thoughts

Golden Son got me hooked on the Red Rising series. The final chapter is why. Up to that point, I thought it was pretty good. It's an improvement, at least, on Red Rising.

But Golden Son's ending shows that Pierce Brown can both improve his writing and avoid being too predictable -- two of the biggest concerns I had going into the book.

It's still tropey, but at this point, that's part of the charm of this series. It knows what it is. One comment on Reddit compared the series to John Wick. The story itself is not doing anything super new and original, it's just doing it in a very fun way.

In my Red Rising notes, I did some hand-wringing about larger messages on race and class politics. My advice, if you're looking to get into this series, is to ignore that.

Just strap in and enjoy the ride. I guess it's a little like a roller coaster, and Golden Son ends just as you start to take a big drop. Put your hands in the air and scream.

I had a really hard time finding good roman statues to continue the Red Rising cover theme. So instead, I tried to come up with a way to replicate the illustration style of this image from fordisplayonly.works. I think I got kinda close? I'll try again with Morning Star. The statue image is one I found from Heidelberg University https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/maffei1704.