Mon. Nov 4th, 2024
Review: Iron Gold by Pierce BrownIron Gold by Pierce Brown
Series: Red Rising #4
Also by this author: Red Rising, Golden Son
Published by Del Rey Books on January 16th 2018
Pages: 624
Also in this series: Red Rising, Golden Son

Thanks to Del Rey Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


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They call him father, liberator, warlord, Reaper. But he feels a boy as he falls toward the pale blue planet, his armor red, his army vast, his heart heavy. It is the tenth year of war and the thirty-second of his life.

A decade ago, Darrow was the hero of the revolution he believed would break the chains of the Society. But the Rising has shattered everything: Instead of peace and freedom, it has brought endless war. Now he must risk everything he has fought for on one last desperate mission. Darrow still believes he can save everyone, but can he save himself?

And throughout the worlds, other destinies entwine with Darrow’s to change his fate forever:

A young Red girl flees tragedy in her refugee camp and achieves for herself a new life she could never have imagined.

An ex-soldier broken by grief is forced to steal the most valuable thing in the galaxy—or pay with his life.

And Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile to the sovereign, wanders the stars with his mentor, Cassius, haunted by the loss of the world that Darrow transformed, and dreaming of what will rise from its ashes.

Red Rising was the story of the end of one universe, and Iron Gold is the story of the creation of a new one. Witness the beginning of a stunning new saga of tragedy and triumph from masterly New York Times bestselling author Pierce Brown.

Anytime I read the first book in a new series that follows one I love as much as Red Rising, I approach with both a huge dose of excitement but also a touch of apprehension that it won’t live up to the previous series. I am so excited that Iron Gold lived up to every expectation I had and maybe even set some new ones for the rest of the series. It has all the traits that Ioved in the Red Rising series, but the current story stays fresh and exciting.

Iron Gold is set about 10 years after the last one left off and the peace that Darrow and Mustang worked to achieve is beginning to show signs of serious strain. There is the threat from the Ash Lord, but internally there is also politcal strife as groups try to jockey for power. Darrow is faced with some incredibly hard choices and some of his decisions, quite frankly, just don’t go over well. It is interesting seeing him go from being the favored son of the land, a living superhero of his time, to, well … you’ll have to read to find out, I don’t want to go into too much detail. We also get to see how his decisions impact his son who feels Darrow always puts the war first. Because really, Darrow continues to see himself as critical to everything, and just doesn’t feel like anyone else could get the job done like he can. And honestly, sometimes you have to wonder if that is true or not.

For perspectives, Iron Gold features about 4 POVs, one of which is a brand new character that I absolutely love. She is a red girl who has suffered great loss but also has a keen sense of determination as well as a pretty strong moral code. She manages to set her life on a path she could never have expected, or even imagined, and it puts her in a prime position to be critical in this story. Honestly, she has a lot of the traits that I loved about Darrow. She is determined and can be quite fearless, doing unexpected things that she thinks anyone would do, when really, the rest of us know that’s not the case. I kind of feel like all the other POVs in this are on par with the Red Rising trilogy, but something about this girl, I just enjoy even more. That’s really saying something.

So if you were a fan of the Red Rising be assured there is more excitement to come, and this book lives up to every expectation I have for Pierce Brown (warning, that includes ending with serious cliffhangers), you MUST read this, it will not disappoint!

 

18 thoughts on “Review: Iron Gold by Pierce Brown”
    1. hmmm… I will say there is some recap that helps remind you of what happened, but I also at times wished I had read Morning Star more recently. I guess I would say if you plan to ever read Morning Star, definitely read that first., there are major spoilers for it in Iron Gold. If you don’t then I wouldnt want you to miss out on this one, so I’d still give it a try. I think the really important details will be recapped for you.

  1. What wonderful news, thank you so much for sharing!
    Like you, I was somewhat wary about this new series, because of the danger that it might now live up to my expectations: learning that Pierce Brown managed to keep up the same level of reader involvement and story depth as the original books is a huge relief. 🙂
    And I can’t wait to get the book!!!!

  2. Ah, so glad this lives up to the hype! Very excited for this one. We’re actually reading Red Rising for my fancy tea book club right now because I may have been overly excited when talking about how good the series was at our last group meeting, haha. Looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of this soon!

      1. I think I’ll probably like it too, loved the original trilogy, looking forward to seeing how things have developed. I think it’s great that he’s carrying on and showing the difficulties of ‘what happens after you overthrow the government?’ because most stories end there and never address the elephant in the room. 🙂

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