Onto Iron Gold, I’ve heard this one is a bit of a slog.

Hi all! Just finished LB and I've been going back through the older books to revisit some of my favorite parts :)

I had a question about Lorn taking Darrow on as a student. I remember reading the gala scene, and when Darrow reveals that he has trained under Lorn, it was so mind blowing, as everyone, even the reader, is convinced Darrow didn't just step into the ring to die; he fully intended on not just beating Cassius but humiliating him as well.

It was definitely convenient in that scene, but did the books ever shed light on why Lorn took Darrow on as a student? Lorn hadn't taken on a student in 30 years per Cassius during the duel, and at the time Darrow, although definitely having showed potential, didn't seem that special in the eyes of all these golds (yet). Was there something I was missing about this part? What made Darrow so special that he became the first student in such a long time to train under him?

just ugghhh…… wtf. I hate these books.😭💔😭
I’m never going to finish DA. I can’t with this.
I feel so bad for Volga . Ugghh

Lo’ Howlers! I’m back with another one!

This is my vision for Ares (aka Sevro) from Morning Star with inspiration from Sons of Ares.

Hope y’all like it! BTS on the gram.

Thraxa’s “prodigious thighs”

This had me on the edge of my seat more than a thriller, had me crying harder than emotional fiction, and gave me a favorite couple that I love more than most romances ever have.

And the secret child reveal? Was it cheesy?Absolutely.

Did I care?

Not one bit. After everything Darrow and Mustang went through, give me the cheese. I earned it too.

And Ragnar… I’m still not over him.

I am SO, SO, SO glad I didn’t DNF Red Rising. I almost did, but sticking with it gave me the privilege of experiencing this saga, and I’m so glad I did. What started as a book I wasn’t sure I’d finish turned into one of the most exhilarating reading experiences I’ve had. What a ride. I’m not ready to move on.

Can some tell me if Darrow and Mustang and Sevro and Cassius will be in the second part of the series? I think I need a break but I also don’t want a break.

My wife and I travel a lot and love to listen to audio books while driving. We recently finished Red Rising, and started Golden Son. Something I don't understand is the blood feud that the au Bellona family feels toward Darrow. They knew sending their children to the institute that there was a 50/50 chance of them being killed. It's just part of the game. Also, the Golds value strength, and abhor weakness. If !>Julian<! was too weak to survive the Passage, wouldn't they see that as justification for his death (sad, but that's part of the institute)? There's no other mentions of blood feuds, and Cassius au Bellona killed some other family's child and they aren't coming for him. I get that it's a plot device, but it doesn't make sense to me given the context of the society, as well as the nature of the institute. Unless I missed something. If kids killing each other in the institute was enough for a blood feud, then that's all the families would be doing is getting revenge.

I am sure this post has been made a thousand times here but I just finished Golden Son a few minutes ago and that ending left me absolutely stunned. I haven’t felt this hopeless in any form of media since experiencing the Red Wedding for the first time.

I need someone to tell me it gets better but I have a feeling this is only the beginning.

Can someone give me a rundown on important family trees to be familiar with for dark age? I am an audible listener and I listened while working on trucks. I can’t always give it as much attention as I would like. Regrettably I do miss out on some details.

I find myself a bit confused on lineage particularly the families mentioned in Lysander’s POV from iron gold and so far in dark age. Love and death knights, Romulus’s family, etc.

So question: that awesome opening monologue: “I would have lived in peace but my enemies brought me war”, is that always assumed to be Darrow or is it revealed at some point? I was speaking to a first time reader and they were wondering who it was and I thought we were supposed to assume it was Darrow off the bat, but don’t want to say anything to them unless it’s for sure not a spoiler?

I just got to the part in LB where Darrow et al. are greeted by Matteo on the Tabula Rasa. Matteo is briefly under the impression that Sevro is dead and that got me thinking - what if Sevro never made it off Luna?

To back up this theory, we know the Abomination has access to the neural spike technology that lets him record and save memories. He directly threatened Sevro that he would wipe his memories so that he wouldn't remember his wife and kids. Doesn't make sense to me why the Abomination would sell Sevro to Apple given those plans. It's possible that Sevro is already dead or still on Luna and his memories have been shared with a carved bone rider.

To back it up, "Sevro" spends the majority of the ride from Venus to Mars with really low communication and contact with the rest of the crew. This would make sense if a Bone Rider minimized contact to reduce the chance of being discovered. This rescued "Sevro" also never had a chance to speak with Victra on their initial approach to Mars so his identity has never been verified with any sort of password check.

We have evidence that carving can be convincing enough to physically fool Darrow. Apple physically carved a grey with convincing tattoos and scars once "Sevro" escaped in the Venusian shipyards. Carving that also takes eyes is inline with the bone rider style given that Lilith has been a pink and red on past occasions.

What if Sevro is still on Luna with Clown and Pebble?

Doing another re read and just realised that cassius fathers name changes from dometrius to Tiberius

Does anyone know why?

I finished Light Bringer over two weeks ago. Cassius' death felt like watching a knife slowly plunging deeper into my chest. I knew it was happening, I had to keep reading, each line hurt more than the last. I've thought about it so much and haven't picked up another book since. I keep going to talk to my partner about this hurt I have over it, but I don't know anyone who has finished the series so I came here to vent.

A lot changes between Iron Gold and Light Bringer in terms of growth, but I can't believe I barely felt anything for him in Iron Gold during the Gauntlet compared to Light Bringer.

I think what really hurt me is in those final moments, he says "I am Cassius Bellona" and I know that we all understood because it was clear and intentional, but that change made everything hit me. A climax of character development and redemption, I had so many emotions; pride, love, fear, anger, I started crying when I read "What if it is empty?"

I think about it more and more I realise that what still gets to me is that Cassius never had a different way out, his honour would never allow it.

His honour remains.

Someone asked which characters were the thickest and it lowkey got me wondering about who the most beautiful Golds were. Don't ask how those correlate.

Basically, I'm just wondering this based on a canonic sense of things. Sevro is described as ugly so its not him. "But the fanart-" NO. Who is the most beautiful based on actual statements.

I know there are gonna be a few contenders so I just wanna split things into a male category and female category. Essentially, I just wanna know who you think are the most beautiful male and female characters based on your specific read and mental images of the characters. Off of just the words in the book, who really stood out as beautiful?

So just
Male:
Female: