Worthy sequel to a great sci-fi series!

I'll not say too much about the plot or story of Iron Gold but will say that I felt like it was a worthy sequel to the original Red Rising trilogy and that I felt the 10 year time jump and expanded POV cast did more to enhance the story than damage it. I love Darrow but I warmed to a few of the new characters and felt like they offered a different perspective on things which in turn gave the world a bit more depth to it.

Pierce Brown really is my sort of author. His writing is highly engaging and has a beautifully melancholic and poetic feel to it. His books are always intense and exciting and really drag me through the emotional ringer from start to finish. It is great when you find a book where you find the story super exciting and can emotionally engage with the characters and happenings.

On to the important stuff: Recorded Books decision to bring in three additional narrators!

I had some serious concerns going into Iron Gold when I heard that Recorded Books had decided to limit Tim Gerard Reynolds role in the book by brining in three new narrators to voice the three new POV's. The only positive was that they had retained TGR for the Darrow POV segments. I'm still puzzled by why they thought this was a good idea as TGR is one of the best narrators out there and his performance of the original Red Rising was fantastic. One of the best performances of any audio I've ever heard (and I've listened to hundreds of audios over the years!). The guy was so good he enhanced the quality of an already great story with his ability to convey emotion with his voice and his excellent voice acting.

It goes without saying that TGR's Darrow POV section of Iron Gold were as fantastic as one would expect. His take on Apollonius was stand out good and worthy of praise!

So how did the new narrators get on? They were a bit of a mixed bag.

John Curless - He did the Ephraim POV segments and I thought he was fantastic. Almost as good as TGR with his ability to convey emotions and he really got the tone and humour of the story. If he had a flaw it was that his character voices, while pretty good, were just not quite as good as TGR's. Still, he gets the thumbs up from me and I'll be happy to listen to more books he narrates in the future.

Aedin Moloney - She voiced the Lyria POV segments. I felt like she did an decent job. I took a bit of time to get used to her strong Irish accent and her dramatic style but once I did I warmed to her quickly. She struggled a little with the set voices and accents of the established characters but seemed to get the tone of the story and was also quite good at conveying emotion with her voice.

Julian Elfer - The guy voiced the Lysander bits of the story. I felt like he was the real weak link and the only narrator not up to the job. He was pretty awful. The only good thing he had going for him was that he was well-spoken and his voice was a great fit for an upper class Gold. The problem is that he was a poor voice actor and just read everything in a monotone. He even failed to get the humour which sounded decidedly off and stilted via his poorly timed delivery. He was also not great with the dialogue in general. It was often tough to figure out which characters were speaking!

At least the production by Recorded Books was not awful. To their credit they had the new narrators retain the accents used by TGR in the original RR trilogy. It is a minor thing but really makes a difference as it helps with consistency.

I feel like this would have been better if they had just stuck with TGR as the narrator for the whole book but that the additional narrators did not overly hurt my enjoyment of the audio as two of them were good and only Elfer was not up to the job.

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39 people found this helpful

haven't finished but...

the narrator for lyria is totally rubbish. the accent is so fake and the high pitch of her child's voice is like nails on a black board. I haven't finished reading but I can already tell this is going to be a slog.

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1 person found this helpful

Another fabulous chapter in the series

Another wonderful tale of inter-planetary skullduggery. Not a fan of two of the narrators (Lysander - too flat, Lyria - too highly strung), doesn’t spoil the overall delivery too much though so no harm done. If you love these books, this is an essential addition.

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Fantastic. absolutely amazing

If I didn't already love this series enough, this audiobook cements it. fantastic cast and fantastic story.

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almost perfect

a phenomenal carry in the series.. the narrator for lysander was quite dull and monotone and overall quite boring to listen to, the same goes for the female narrator. however the narrators for Efram and Darrow took me away into the world of pierce brown. beautifully done!

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Breathing taking!

The Red rising series reminds me of fine wine. It just gets better and better with time. Iron Gold was quite intense and action packed, loved every minute. Cant wait to listen to book 5... Dark age.

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I need more!

another fantastic experience, cannot wait for the next instalment. having 4 narrators was interesting at first but not a problem.

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Just incredible

The narration is so spot on for each character’s perspective and the writing is incredible. It’s a masterpiece.

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Its not like the first trilogy, but its still great

What to say about this one… well it's different. It's not as good as the first series. The series may well get better with the next few books which is what I have been told, but it's not Red Rising.

So what is the good? Well, the additional characters are really good fun. I enjoy Lysander though every time he talks about Ajas ‘love’ I throw up a little in my mouth. He's a fun addition and was always a great character in the first trilogy. Initially, Lyria is fucking annoying but her arch is genuinely wonderful. Who she is at the end is brilliant. I am looking forward to seeing what happens. Ephraim is the most annoying in many ways but I do start to like him towards the end.

I think all three of the new characters are coloured by the fact that I, and I'm sure, we all, just want more Darrow.

I do think that if this book is anything, it's a massive amount of set-up and world-building. It benefits from the earlier trilogy throwing us into a world we already know, and then adding a dimension we didn't, bringing in depth and colour even more. What I'm very glad about is that it doesn't retcon anything like other series that I have read where you join the next generation.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

And if you want the TLDR - I enjoyed it, it's not ‘Red Rising’ its pace is much slower initially but picks up at the last 35% or so. The new characters are fun but it takes the whole book for them to be established and for me to like them. So let's see what happens next with them all!

Hail, Reeper!

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An excellent continuation

I was dubious about the multiple narrators and where the story would lead, but curiosity got the better of me, and I wasn't disappointed. the narrators give each character their own personality. The story is great and develops at the same pace and detail of the previous trilogy. Excellent overall, I highly recommend it.

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