Golden Sun picks up a few years after Red Rising, with Darrow having lost touch with the revolutionary group the Sons of Ares. He's been busy in the intervening time, learning fencing from a legendary blademaster and starship command at the Academy. But this book is not a retread. The opening chapters see Darrow flunk the final exam when an almost defeated enemy rams his command ship. He's cast out of his cushy apprenticeship, sent to dangerous political exile in the capitol on Luna, and forced into an uneasy alliance with the Jackal, his nemesis from the first book, and disgraced son of Nero, who killed his beloved first wife at the start of Red Rising, and who is no longer Darrow's patron.

School is over, this time the game is very much for real, as Darrow kicks off a feud between two houses that escalates into civil war against the Sovereign of the Golden Society, a cruel near immortal. The plot moves briskly through conspiracy, battle, and tests of loyalty, as Darrow tries to soften the cruel hearts of the Goldens, and figures out how much trust to extend to his companions. The characterization of the secondary cast suffers a little, as they spin in and out of the story, but there is definitely no sophomore slump. Golden Son rocks and rolls to a climatic orbital assault that the best of its kind since Starship Troopers.