Golden Son

3.5/5.

I'm conflicted on this series. On the one hand, the worldbuilding and a reliance on the science opera genre are this book's strengths, and some secondary characters stand out in the bloated cast listed at the start of the story. I'll say it's an improvement over its predecessor, as it feels like its own story instead of pulling heavily from what we've seen before.

On the other hand, the book still suffers from a few pitfalls that the first book had. The writing has gotten better, but it has its weak moments still. Darrow, while having an interesting backstory, does not offer the story much in terms of characterization. His motivations are clear but rigid, and the challenges he faces are nonexistent. Most of the obstacles in the book are resolved within a chapter or the next few pages, and then we're on to the next one. With this structure, the story feels disjointed as it's ushering us to the climax, which fizzes out as soon as we reach it.

I really do like the overall concept of the series, but it's taken me so long to get through this one. It had a good start, but sort of lost steam toward part two. Part of me wants to read Morning Star just to see how the story wraps up, and even if I do, I doubt I'd pick up the second ongoing trilogy. Then again, there's a part of me that wants to end my journey here. I hate leaving things unresolved. Here's hoping that it actually does get resolved in the last book?