Is there an audiobook of Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2)?

Yes. Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds.

How long is the Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) audiobook?

The Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) audiobook runs 19 hr 3 min.

Is Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) on Kindle Unlimited?

No. Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 16, 2026.

Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) by Pierce Brown book cover for the Book of the Day science fiction book review

Our score

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

EDITION PUBLISHEDJanuary 2015

Genres

Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera

Themes

Identity under a false faceLoyalty and betrayal among the powerfulGrief as private fuel for public rebellionThe cost of infiltrating what you hate

Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2)

Name: Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2)
Price: 9.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Pierce Brown

Pierce Brown

Golden Son sends Darrow undercover among the Golds he swore to destroy, and the second Red Rising book turns political chess into something closer to a knife fight, for readers who want their space opera to actually cost something.

The Review

Our take

Here's what nobody tells you about Golden Son going in: it moves faster than the first book while somehow carrying twice the weight. Darrow is deeper inside enemy territory now, wearing a Gold's face at war academies and command tables, and every scene runs on the same low hum of dread. One wrong word, one flicker of the wrong loyalty, and the mask comes off. Brown doesn't spend pages explaining the caste system this time. He just drops you into a war council and lets you feel how a Gold thinks, how contempt for the lower colors gets baked into casual conversation, and you understand the society through what these people don't bother to say out loud.

The worldbuilding pays off here in a way sequels rarely manage. Red Rising built Mars and its color-coded castes; Golden Son spends that investment on space combat, court intrigue, and a scramble for real political power among competing Houses. A zero-gravity battle sequence around a moon works because you already know the stakes of losing a ship, a House, a claim. There's a moon-forge under siege at one point that had me actually pacing my living room, and I don't say that about many books. The rules of this world, who can command what fleet, who owes what debt, what a Sword Oath actually binds someone to, all of it clicks into place with a satisfying weight instead of dry exposition.

Darrow himself carries the book. He's still a Red underneath the Gold, and Brown lets that friction show in small moments: a flinch at cruelty the other Golds don't register as cruelty, a private grief for Eo that he can't let anyone see. The supporting cast sharpens too. Mustang is smarter than Darrow in half the rooms they share, Sevro is funnier and more dangerous than his size suggests, and the rivals circling Darrow, particularly the ones who start to suspect what he's hiding, generate real tension because Brown gives them their own competence and their own reasons. Nobody here is a chess piece waiting to be outsmarted. They're all playing their own game, and Darrow just happens to be playing the deepest one.

There's a real cost to that structure, and Brown doesn't flinch from it. Trust gets spent and doesn't come back cheap. Alliances that felt solid a hundred pages earlier curdle into betrayal, and the book earns those turns by making you watch Darrow miscalculate people he thought he understood. If there's a rough patch, it's the sheer density of names and Houses in the middle stretch, where keeping track of who serves which Archgovernor takes real attention. But that density is also the price of a world this layered, and I'd rather work a little to keep up than have it all spoon-fed.

Why you should read

Readers who loved Red Rising and want higher stakes
Fans of political maneuvering inside big speculative worlds
Anyone who wants space battles with real strategic weight
Readers who like a hero forced deeper into enemy territory

What to expect

Faster pace than the first book
Dense cast of Houses and rival factions
Space combat and court intrigue in equal measure
An ending that changes the trilogy's stakes

By the final third, the political maneuvering detonates into consequences that reshape the entire trilogy's stakes, and Brown pulls off an ending that reads less like a cliffhanger and more like a controlled demolition. You feel every piece of the board shift. This is what a middle book in a series is supposed to do: raise the cost of everything that comes after.

Reviewed by Rowan · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2)?: Yes. Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds.
Listen to Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) audiobook?: The Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) audiobook runs 19 hr 3 min.
Is Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) on Kindle Unlimited?: No. Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 16, 2026.
How much does Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $9.99, Paperback $13.03, Hardcover $21.28. Prices as of August 21, 2026 at 3:47 AM EDT and may change.

Filed underScience Fiction Space Opera Browse the archive →

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Common questions

What is Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) about?: Here's what nobody tells you about Golden Son going in: it moves faster than the first book while somehow carrying twice the weight. Darrow is deeper inside enemy territory now, wearing a Gold's face at war academies and command tables, and every scene runs on the same low hum of dread. One wrong…
Is Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) worth reading?: We scored Golden Son (Red Rising Book 2) 4.6 out of 5. Golden Son sends Darrow undercover among the Golds he swore to destroy, and the second Red Rising book turns political chess into something closer to a knife fight, for readers who want their space opera to actually cost something.