Iron Gold (Red Rising Series)

Iron gold The horrors of war This first book of the series after the Red Rising trilogy has a different tone than those of Red Rising. This is the beginning of the after. It is filled with war, deception, love and loss, death, and so much more. It. Is. Intense. The characters and plots continue to develop. This whole series is one wild ride. This book full after the effects of war, the aftermath, the continued battles while a society tries to rebuild into something better. The hero becomes the villain. Hard decisions to make. And above all…No. one. Wins. War is so complicated. And this book shows us that. Also this book has multiple POVs and different narrators for each. And they are all awesome! I’d advise anyone wanting to read this series to do so with a group so you have someone to discuss things with!

Edit 2025: After many years and multiple re reads I've come to understand that my previous review, while still valid, is fundamentally flawed. This book is actually quite good if you give it the time to digest and not try and finish it in one sitting. Reading each POV on separate days and taking time between chapters adds a nice flavor to the story. I still consider it the weakest book in the series, but it does not deserve a 2 start rating. I'm adjusting it to 3.5. I highly recommend you read this book worth an open mind and make sure to take a couple of breaks as you read. Original review: In all honesty this book was not what I expected and even taken as a brand new series it just comes off as boring and a drag to read. The book is split between three main characters with every two or three chapters alternating their point of view, this causes the story to slow down considerably it takes a very long time to cycle between them and by the time you get back to one of them you barely remember what they were doing, Darrow really takes a back seat on this one and while the politics are interesting and engaged me during the beginning of the book they were just not interesting enough. The passing is way off other red rising books with the events on the book taking place over several weeks instead of the previous books spanning years and actually feeling meaningful instead of being a long intergalactic war you feel more on a spy detective novel of sorts that sorta itself out in a few weeks. To make matters worse it ends on a weak cliffhanger, Sure I'm sure I will keep reading the series since I love to read however this book is the weakest of the series and I consider it is not up to the expected quality level, Switching character point of views is a weak concept and doesn't allow the engagement that let's Darrow or any other character stand out, Hopefully other readers will like this book it just wasn't for me, Andrew R.

*Original review on Goodreads and My Blog* EXCERPT* Silent, she waits for the sky to fall, standing upon an island of volcanic rock amidst a black sea. The long moonless night yawns before her. The only sounds, a flapping banner of war held in her lover's hand and the warm waves that kiss her steel boots. Her heart is heavy. Her spirit is wild. Peerless knights tower behind her. Salt spray beads on their family crests--emerald centaurs, screaming eagles, gold sphinxes, and the crowned skull of her father's grim house. Her Golden eyes look to the heavens. Waiting. The water heaves in. Out. The heartbeat of her silence END EXCERPT* So much of this book was me talking out loud to Darrow. Mainly, "What are you doing?" Obviously, I'm not going to spoil anything with all of that stuff. All of my babies are having babies =) Well, two of them more so than others. I wouldn't expect less of those two =) Some of the main characters that came back took a little bit of a backseat to some new characters. And when I think I might find one I'm going to love, they get killed so what's the point. Although, I really want to see what's going to be up with Tongueless. I'm very intrigued by him. I did fall in love with Lyria. Her story starts out horrible right from the start. I felt really bad for her. And even though she does some dumb things, I think she's learning and going to be a great character. At least she better be! I know some people might be upset over someone's death in the book but for some reason I don't think it really happened. Pierce Brown doesn't usually do it so calmly and by that I mean, sort of push it off to the side and moving on. Nope. It didn't happen. We shall see in Sept!!!! Yes! PB is the man! Who puts out the second book of the trilogy in the same year! THE MAN that's who. Now watch, I just jinxed it! Anyway, we have some other characters come back from the original trilogy and take a front seat. They were good but all I wanted to focus on was Sevro and Darrow. I love Sevro so much and I'm so afraid something is going to happen in the next two books or at the end of the third one. Pierce Brown you better not! I have so many scenario's in my head that I can even think straight. But, it will be what it will be. This book is more of a picking up after the wars sort of book. You have some people that were lied to, you have some people that turned traitor, you have people that keep doing stupid things, you have other people that do more stupid things. You have people being set on fire. That was fun. Evil person gets set on fire. We have underwater stuff that I thought was cool. We have some blood and gore as usual. Not tons but still. I'm not sure Darrow taking on an evil person to help him take another person out was such a good idea, but it worked. Now lets just see what havoc they are going to start in the next book. Or they could just sit on one of the planets and be all nice. Right!! Either way, I loved the book. I loved being with my peeps again. I actually want Sevro and Victra to have their own book with some of the howlers in it with them. They need to have their own planet and just do the crazy things they do =) I really, really, really hope Darrow comes to his senses. What is wrong with you Darrow? I just don't know what to do with that ending. I hope it's going to end well and maybe Darrow knows something we don't know. I feel like I don't know who he is and I felt that way in the very beginning. We shall see... Happy Reading! Mel ♥

I had my doubts about what looked like an easy cash in on a popular but finished series. But Brown delivers at a level that surpasses the original. Characters are more nuanced, writing more gripping, the action more epic and the universe (with the addition of new planets) more exotic and imaginative.

I'm only halfway through but this is probably my favorite book in the series yet, together with the first book (which starts really slow but I love the whole story at the insitute).

The story seemed to drag on a little bit.... then I realized it's because there will be another book! Also since there was a bit of time between the 3rd and the 4th book, I had forgotten a lot of the names and events that happened so I was occasionally confused while reading it. Not a bad book of course, kept me interested. Excited to see how it ends!

Good story and well written, entertaining and gripping read. Would recommend to buy. Good series overall, even if a non fiction fan

good quality paper, decent book