A fitting end to a surprisingly solid (to me at least) end to a surprisingly good series.
Morning Star basically finishes everything that Golden Son set out to do. It starts out crazy and takes you on a wild roller coaster ride. Things blow up, people die (some more permanently than others), and … revolution!
Golden Son takes up where Red Rising left off, following the continuing adventures of Darrow, the Red turned Gold as he tries to tear apart society… and hopefully rebuild it for the better?
Overall, the world building is about the same as the first book in that it’s better/more believable than the conceits of most YA novels and I like the sci fi tropes. We’re also starting to see some of the exceptions to the rules that everyone (in universe) thinks were so unassailable the first time around, which is interesting. We do get a more expanded scope though, seeing much of the rest of the Solar System, which is neat. And there are interesting hints at some of the history of this world; like how the Obsidians got to where they are and why there are no robots or anything quite like that.
Take one part Hunger Games, one part Ender’s Game, and mix in some Harry Potter to taste. Take the whole thing and put it on Mars. Voila Red Rising.
Despite the description–or perhaps because of it–I did actually enjoy Red Rising quite a bit. Essentially Red Rising follows the story of Darrow, a Red (slave caste) of Mars who, with the help of the local freedom fighters / terrorist cell is biomodded to be a Gold (ruling caste) instead. That’s the first third or so of the book. After that, we switch to full Hunger Games meets Ender’s Game mode with a game of capture the flag cranked up to 11 taking up the rest of the book.