Iron Gold

I enjoyed what Pierce Brown did with this book. There is a huge step up in his writing and this really helped with the emotional impact of some scenes. His exploration of multiple POV's also deepens the worldbuilding and story.

However, not all the POV's were as good. Some storylines took a lot of time to get going.

I love this series. In Red Rising, Brown has made colorful (ahem) characters in an interesting and diverse world. Iron Gold continues the story that I (and you) thought ended with book #3. We are so lucky that it continued. The story keeps getting deeper and more complex and so very real. As you jump from character perspective to character perspective, you are easily attached to the new person and their struggles - a feat that some writers never quite get right.

I highly recommend that you read or reread all of the books in order before reading this one. The story is heavily dependent on knowing the events of the past by many actors in many places, and it is way to easy to forget or get confused.

The only downside to this particular novel for me is that I struggled making mental images of the characters. Originally, I had been able to easily make all characters of a color have a certain appearance. In this story, some people did not seem to fit the mold that I thought was valid for the world, and I was suddenly lost. I had a bit of a “core understanding” breakdown where I had to go back, again, and reread the other books because I forgot the main determinants of color. I almost wished there were a simple guide in the book for reference - like, a family “color” tree. There is a character guide, and it was too overwhelming for me.

How did it take me this long to write a review for this? Maybe I couldn't find the right words to describe the feeling that this series gives me. I had my ups and downs with this particular book but overall this series remains at the top of my list. The mix of new characters in with my old loves was refreshing. Just a bloodydamm good book, brutal and exhilarating to the end.

I don't know what it is about the world Pierce Brown has created here but it is very compelling. I don't have much of a background in the original greek/roman-esque culture The Society apes off of but it is written in such a character driven and impactful way that I look past my own ignorance at the “et”, “au”, “el”, “dominus's”.

It's such a fun, fleshed out universe. I'm sure the subtly is there for the people who understand that original culture its taking inspiration from. I can't recommend these books enough if you have a love of sci-fi or space drama.

4.25 out of 5 stars

I have fond memories of the first Red Rising novel, but was less enamored with the subsequent two volumes. Because of this, I was hesitant to embrace Iron Gold, the first book in a new, tacked-on trilogy. Once I began, however, I found this to be a wholly worthwhile addition to Darrow's story that breathes fresh life into the overall saga. This is popcorn sci-fi of the highest order.

Now utilizing multiple POVs to expand the scope of the story, author Pierce Brown tells four unique narratives, each engrossing in their own way. Brown does a good job balancing the POVs, but sometimes the story feels too expansive, with more characters and backstories than I could keep straight, even with a handy, inset character list. There's certainly a heavier focus on house politics and family dynamics than I remember in previous Red Rising novels and I enjoyed that more than the bombastic, interplanetary space battles that featured so heavily in the previous two books.

Overall, Iron Gold is sprawling, electrifying, bloody, and represents a welcome return to form for the series. There is plenty of set-up for future novels, while featuring enough satisfying closure to contained storylines to be effective. I'm excited for what comes next!

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

Five stars because I enjoyed reading it. It's not without flaws. It's definitely a bit slow, and the threads take a bit too long to connect.

It definitely does that annoying thing where you'll get a lot of names thrown at you, but like 90% of them will die so is it even worth learning those names? Definitely plot armour is not very strong, so that's an asset.

Book ends very much setting up the next, so if the rest of the trilogy doesn't deliver, that'll suck.

The beginning of this series definitely has a different feel and focus than the other books. It still follows Darrow, but his pov moves along with 3 other storyline and perspectives. I'm listening to the series, and it took me a few chapters to grasp what was happening with the changes between narrators. Once I got the flow of the narratives, I really enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed getting a break from Darrow and seeing the after effects of his choices from the first series. 

4.00/5.00

All right, I have an unpopular opinion here. This is the best I've read so far in the red rising saga. Morning star is great, but Iron Gold feels like a different level of greatness. The story matures the characters darker, the plot slowed down and deeper. I love the multiple viewpoints, the senate debates, the high drama of Io, the honorable slavers of outer rim, the complexity of real people vs the good vs evil of the trilogy.

And man, it was exhilarating! When Darrow cries Hail libertas and the gold veterans flip with a Hail Reaper! I was screaming. I haven't felt this rush even while watching action movies.

Executive Summary: This book pissed me off. A lot. I'm not sure if it deserves the 4 stars I gave it or 2 stars. I suspect the author's intention was to piss me off though so my 4 star rating stands. For now.Audiobook: I love Tim Gerard Reynolds. I'm not really sure why they felt it necessary to hire 3 other narrators for the other POVs in this book. His chapters were the best. I don't know which reader did the others, but the guy who read for Lysander was far too quiet, especially in the early chapters. His volume got better as the book went on, but it was still a struggle.The reader for Lyria was the best after Mr. Reynolds. Having a female reader for a female POV at least makes sense to me and she did a good job. I'm not sure if she was doing an Irish accent or if that's just her normal reading voice, but she had good inflections and did a few other voices as well.I thought the narrator for Effron was also good/fine, but didn't feel like he added so much that it couldn't have just been narrated by Mr. Reynolds.Full ReviewMy understanding is/was that the first trilogy was considered YA. I sure hope this one isn't. It's incredibly dark. That isn't to say the last trilogy wasn't dark, but even for me I struggled at times with the book.I didn't come into this with the expectation of sunshine and puppies, but just when things seemed to be going bad, they got worse. Then worse still. I also struggled a lot with the new characters. I don't much care for Lysander and I came to pretty much despise Ephron by the middle of the book. I think I felt more sorry for Lyria than I did like her as a character.Then there is Darrow. He spent the entirety of this book pissing me me in a way he hasn't since [b:Red Rising 15839976 Red Rising (Red Rising, #1) Pierce Brown https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461354651s/15839976.jpg 21580644].There wasn't much in the way of new world building from what we already got in the previous trilogy. This was very much a character-driven book. Normally this is something I like a lot, but in this case all the characters made me angry.I'm sure this review makes it sound like I hated this book, but the reality is I found it hard to put down. Maybe I'm as much of a sadist as Mr. Brown seems to be. It could just be that he did such a good job evoking such strong reactions from me about fictional characters. I'd like to hope it's the latter.With the last trilogy I recall having similar issues with the first book and liking books 2 and 3 far more. I'm hoping that happens with this trilogy as well.

Anders als die Vorgänger, kein Problem. Klar als erster Teil einer neuen Trilogie konzipiert, ist die Geschichte leider nicht abgeschlossen und hinterlässt sehr viele lose Enden.
Die Aufteilung der Geschichte in mehrere Perspektiven hat mir überhaupt nicht gefallen, das haben andere Romane besser gemacht, wie z.b the expanse. Lag vielleicht daran dass ich die Hälfte der Protagonisten eher anstrengend, Teils sogar langweilig fand. Wenn es dann Mal spannend würde dann müsste ich 5 teils anstrengende Kapitel warten bis es weitergeht.
Die ersten drei Bücher habe ich alle in knapp 2 Wochen gelesen. Für diesen Band brauchte ich 5 Wochen.

The multiple perspectives make this less of a page-turner than Brown's earlier novels in the series but do make for a thrilling third act that has me excited to jump into the sequel. I particularly appreciated Darrow's introspection and reflections on a decade of war, what that has cost, and whether it has been and will be worth it. Another strong entry in a series that continues to impress!