Iron Gold

By: Pierce Brown

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds, John Curless, Julian Elfer, Aedin Moloney

Length: 23 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Honor and betrayal fuel a caste-shattering revolution in the action-packed new novel from the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Red Rising Trilogy.

Ten years after the events of Morning Star, Darrow and the Rising are battling the remaining Gold loyalist forces and are closer than ever to abolishing the color-coded caste system of Society for good. But new foes will emerge from the shadows to threaten the imperfect victory Darrow and his friends have earned. Pierce Brown expands the size and scope of his impressive Red Rising universe with new characters, enemies, and conflicts among the stars.

©2017 Pierce Brown (P)2017 Recorded Books

War Eats the Victors Last

Pierce laid the foundations for an epic in "Red Rising." He built the conflict to a crescendo in "Morning Star." In "Iron Gold," he surrenders everything to the chaos of a post-governmental collapse and the reader must watch as old characters and new try to survive the unforgiving conditions of all-out war.

Pierce continues to hone his craft and it shines in his prose. He is proficient at both maintaining momentum during action sequences and slowing things down for somber reflection. Scenes are charged with emotional energy and the 4 different character perspectives maintain their own unique tones and themes. The narrators are perfectly suited for each perspective. The female narrator, Moloney, especially did a phenomenal job bringing the new red character to life. Her narration was raw and agonized and unrestrained.

This is no story where an uprising is followed by peace. This is a story about how people scoured for faults in the aftermath of Darrow's government upheaval, and how those people exploited the population to stoke longstanding conflicts of color and class. This is a story about how the protagonist may actually be the villain despite the purest of intentions. This is a story about how--in the absence of a lifetime of oppressive authority--classes face civil war as several factions struggle for a position of power in their newfound freedom. This is a story about how war is a bloated, gluttonous monster that does not discriminate between the good guys and the bad.

One of my absolute favorite things to do as a reader is to join an author in the navigation of a highly controversial and deeply human topic. This experience becomes exponentially richer when an author does this with a cast of characters that the reader is already attached to. "Iron Gold" is unforgiving in its honest exploration of humanity's darkest tendencies. The trajectory of the series after the final pages of this book is unclear and Pierce has crafted a reality of limitless potential. I cannot wait to discover what lies in the pages of "Dark Age."

10 years later and nerves are wearing thin

Iron Gold is Pierce Brown's latest installment in the Red Rising universe. The story takes place ten years after the conclusion of the original trilogy. In that time, the rim has been quiet, while Darrow and company have been battling with the gold holdouts on the inner worlds. Darrow is looking for more war resources, while Dancer is leading an effort to broker a peace. Threatened with arrest, Darrow goes rogue in a last ditch effort to destroy the Ashlord. At the same time, Cassius and Lysander get caught up out in the rim which hasn't lost its appetite for vengeance. Finally, a grey turned professional thief and a red girl formerly from the mines of Mars get caught up in a plot to bring down the Republic. Multiple cliffhangers are left unresolved.

The sci-fi elements are consistent with earlier installments with a bit of novelty thrown in such as a supermax prison at the bottom of Earth's oceans and a description o teh Venusian terraforming. Several new characters are introduced, including children of the next generation. Darrow is extremely introspective, constantly questioning his actions, while torn between acting the god-figure and simply being a father and husband. A major theme is the gradual realization by many characters that their daily rationalizations don't work anymore and need readjusting. Brown is meticulous in bringing each character to their own epiphany.

The decision of using four different narrators for the four main characters from whom perspective is offered was brilliant. Each narrator brings a sense of the unique point of view for each. The various accents are handled deftly, while pacing and mood are well aligned with the flow of the story. There's a definite maturation in sophistication and nuance, while increasing the complexity of the psychological aspects of the society as a whole.

Good continuation of the story line

I must join so many other reviewers and lament the use of multiple narrators. Iron Gold should have been read only by Tim Gerard Reynolds, who did such a splendid job narrating the first 3 books in the series. The other narrators are mostly ok, but they certainly didn't add anything to the overall performance, that Reynolds couldn't have delivered better.

As for the story, I enjoyed it! A nice continuation of the first 3 books in the series. The book leaves us with cliffhangers on almost every level. Clearly Pierce Brown has more books in the series in the works...

If you liked the first 3 books in the Red Rising series, definitely listen to this one too.

narrator

if this lady is used in the next book I will not be buying it

The saga continues

Similar to the first book Red Rising, starts slow but ends strong, dedinitely looking forward to the next 2 books. Voice acting could have been better though. Personally not a fan of all the different narrators especially Lyrias...actually made me stop listening to the audio version occasionally and turn to reading the story instead.

Old Information Gone Missing

Any additional comments?

Fine but really important Information is gone. That is my peeve of this book. I could criticize here or talk about what I prefer there but its actually a really good book, fine points aside.. except THIS. I sense a warping of the previous world and one of the thing I loved about the other books was consistent and traceable world building. If your one of those people that don't care about inconsistencies then you wont even notice, if you are then I am sorry. Its still good enough to deserve your listen its just frustrating. For example: On mars book three it was implied the reds would be given freedom from the mines, but would not be forced to the surface with the mining jobs eliminated. This is addressed when Darrow is in the mines and acknowledges that some might not want to be displaced and he would just give them the option to leave.Yet one of the characters sais things like "He gave us a hug and then brought out of the mine to here" and "There are no hell-divers anymore". Inconsistencies with last book aside, because maybe some people chose to be displayed from their homes, did the need for rocket fuel suddenly evaporate? Because that played a HUGE part in the last story and if people want spaceships then your jobs are the most important their are. The free market should have benefited you the most, considering you make the most important thing THERE IS. Your jobs should all still exist. At the very least, an open black market should have made the mines slightly nicer than they were for you considering what you have to sell and how you could have been happy without almost literally nothing more than no famine. The only thing I can believe is that your mine was taken over and you were tricked into leaving. I get the feeling you were teleported out of the mines and Darrow's memory of his feelings towards freedom policies were erased all to create a "woe-is-me" story-line. Which I still want to say is well written, but its origins just make me not care.There are a few other things like that. Small, but changed to make the story move. I cant discuss them because they would be spoilers. This first one is not because its the first chapter she owns. That, in my opinion, is bad story writing and something I really liked these books for not doing. But... honestly, besides that its really good story writing, and well worth your time. Assuming you can stand very slight warping of the world, its great.I guess also for some of the narration there's no way people have accents that thick they would never be able to communicate fast enough. There's a difference between a deliberately slowed statement or thought, and an accent so thick it eats precious half hours of your time as you are trying to communicate that gunmen are running at you. No way your talking like that.

Abrupt narrator change, but worth it

Like many reviewers, I was very thrown off by the narrator change after 3 books of Tim Gerard Reynolds. Iron Gold adds a few new characters who have chapters told from their own perspectives, and they have their own narrators. Like many reviewers, I could not stand the change from Darrow to Lyria's narrator the first time it happened, and stopped listening to the book for months. I actually relistened to the whole series before giving it another shot, and I'm glad I did. You get used to the other narrators as the book goes on, and they are replaced by even better narrators in Dark Age. Stick it out, it's worth it.

Iron Gold sets up a trilogy in the post-Morningstar world with the powerful characters still left on the board after the original trilogy. If you thought Morningstar wrapped up too neatly, you will like this book. The new society is not some magically fixed happy ending of a world. You also see some different perspectives of Darrow and the Rising which makes the world feel more real.

If you enjoyed the original trilogy, stick with it through the narrator change. Its a good book and Dark Age gets wild.

I love the original books. I was pleased

Tim Gerard does a great job reading. However, the others lacked execution. The reader for lysanda never paused between people. Seemed like he was just rambling

Excellent sequel, mixed performance.

I have really enjoyed the continuation of this amazing saga, however, unlike original trilogy, now we see things from the perspective of 4 different characters and 4 different narrators were used. This is where the problem lies for me.

Narration of Lyria is by far some of the worst I have heard. Overdramatic with emotional focus only of what is going on in the current sentence, performance really diminishes from the characters depth that was originally written, which is a shame.

Lysander narration is the second weak point, not as bad as Lyria, however narrator is simply reading the text with complete disconnect from what the character is going through. Sure, Lysander is emotionally disconnected to a point, but here we have the opportunity to see into the mind of this crucial character, and yet, diction is such that it constantly makes me feel like the narrator has something much more urgent and important to attend to after the recording and he is trying to go through it as quickly as he possibly can. No room is left to live through what is going on, no pauses, no difference in intonation, just a line that is way too flat and way too straight.

Edition is saved by the performances of the remaining two narrators, who are a joy to listen to.

One other problem is the mastering done. Dynamic sensitivity is way too high, so much so that at times it's barely listenable in the car.

However, despite these issues I have enjoyed this story as well, but not nearly as much as the original trilogy, mainly because of problematic performances of those two narrators.

I recommend the listen though, it's worth it :)

Great book and narration

I loved this book, especially narration of Aedin Maloney. Anxious for the series to continue.