Iron Gold: Spoiler-free & Spoiler Review | 2 To Ramble #78 

I remember Richard not liking book one because there was no consequences for Darrows rage… iron gold is showing all the consequences now

I loved this book. Probably my favorite of the series. It's the first time we see the consequences of Darrow's choices and are forced to ask ourselves if we think Darrow might actually be a bad person. It's a huge step forward from the original trilogy.

The challenge of iron gold is that the villain is Darrow from every other perspective. Its an indictment on all the death that Darrow has caused and asks “is it worth it”. And just because a lot of questions are raised in this book doesn’t mean they won’t be answered later

Im going go start keeping a tally of everytime Austin mispronounces a characters name 😂

You may have forgotten that Ephraim is not the way he is because of trig. In fact he joins the rising due to trigs death and helps the cause as a trainer and scar hunter. He becomes hateful after he and his team are caught by a gold they were hunting, his team was tortured in front of him. Despite the gold being caught in the act, the gold was let off due to them holding information Virginia needed. He’s hateful as he realised even with the rising, the worst people will still get away with anything as long as they’re powerful enough which means nothing has changed which means his teams torture and trigs death was meaningless

I agree with your takes on a lot of books, but man hard disagree on this one. It definitely doesn't have the break neck action and pacing of the first 3 but I really appreciated the more mature and complex nature of the book. Getting to spend some more time in the world as the other POV characters and really seeing the aftermath of the 'Rising' was so fascinating to me. I think a lot of people's disappointment in Iron Gold is because it wasn't what they wanted/expected after Morning Star (which I do kind of get). There's a very big shift in tone where it goes from the Star Wars-esque action adventure thrill ride to a darker, more complex political thriller. I love both but I can understand why some people may not. P.S That being said Golden Sun is still my favourite book of the series

“Sometimes the juice is worth the squeeze and this was a hard lemon to squeeze” HAHA that’s the perfect representation of Iron Gold. I’ve heard a re read after DA/LB makes Iron Gold a lot better

I read the saga when the first five books were already released and I would not like it to end at Morning Star. The story was just not complete, it would have been a dissapointing ending. Iron Gold was fantastic, and Dark Age is one of my favourite books ever

Iron Gold brings much of the complexity that the original trilogy lacked

“War crimes can be cool, too.” Great quote!

I just finished Iron Gold, so I have not read Dark Age or Lightbringer but I loved this book. probably my second favorite of the series so far. Getting to see how the other POV's think of Darrow as the villain was incredible. Lysander was easily my favorite POV of the book, and Lyria and Ephraim's chapters got better with each chapter. I also don't believe Cassius is dead since we do not see him die on page. All in all I loved this book and am super excited to start Dark Age!

Wow can't wait to hear your take on this since I really enjoyed reading IG and it gets better every single time I listen to it.

I re-read every Red Rising book before Light Bringer and Iron Gold was the biggest surprise and difference I enjoyed it a lot more. Darrow's chapter's are way less frustrating and make more sense in retrospect after reading Dark Age. The foreshadowing and set up is excellent and many of your complaints are paid off in Dark Age. I loved Lyria's POV from her very first chapter and was surprised to realise most of the fandom didn't like her. Her chapters in Dark Age are incredible! I have to agree about Ephraim, he was someone who took a long time to grow on me but won me over in the end and Lysanders chapters in all three sequel books are just consistently compelling!

I haven't had a chance to watch your original trilogy reviews yet (will be watching them soon) but as someone who loves the series as a whole and who ranks IG as my second favourite book (DA>IG>GS>LB=MS>RR) I understand the criticisms of Iron Gold. Like most people I found my first read of Iron Gold a bit slow, the switch to 4 PoVs and the darkening of tone combined with the slower pace makes it a very different book to get into. The sequel series as a whole is a much slower political drama and even then Iron Gold is essentially an extended prologue for Dark Age. One of the reason people generally appreciate IG more on a re-read is because the entire book is essentially setting up the character and plot conflicts that drive the new series, moreover the story becomes far more Grey - Darrow especially is no longer the unquestioned hero of the series (especially hammered home by the addition of extra PoVs) . It establishes the sides of the conflict and the stakes going forward and almost everything set up in Iron Gold pays off in Dark Age/Lightbringer. When it comes to character work I'm a constant defender of Darrow in this book - gone is the idealistic revolutionary of the first trilogy (something that is generally easy to identify with as in the first Trilogy Darrow is at heart a heroic character) in his place we have a tired, angry, jaded warlord who will do anything to win which is inherently a harder character for most people to connect with. When it comes to the other PoVs I agree that Lysander is by far the strongest (discounting Darrow) and continues to be a fascinating PoV throughout Dark Age and Lightbringer. Personally I found the additions of Ephraim and Lyria difficult to get into but once I got deeper into their story lines I have really come to enjoy them - they both provide things that neither Darrow (in both the first trilogy and the sequels) nor Lysander's PoVs do - Lyria provides a truly red view of the world and we get to see what life is like as a virtually powerless figure in the story (provides a "people's history" view of the story) and gives us great insight into the PoV of the masses that Darrow is trying to "save" (including giving a fascinating view on the consequences of Darrow's actions - something that is a key part of the sequels in general). Ephraim on the other hand is again an interesting character as we get to see the plot from the PoV of an extremely effective non-gold (or to a lesser degree Red) actor in the story (something missing in the first trilogy). We also get to see the grimy underside of life in the Red Rising universe, we see what people do when they truly don't care about the main plot of the story and are only involved in the plot to further their own personal gains. I generally understand people who struggle with Iron Gold but IMO its one of the strongest books in the series - especially when viewed retroactively once finishing Dark Age as almost everything set up is payed off to near perfection. In IG Darrow is a broken man struggling to do what he thinks is right and will do virtually anything to secure the outcome he wants (the main question of Darrow's story in IG/DA is do the ends justify the means?), Lysander provides a younger more idealistic (closer to the Darrow of the first trilogy - especially book 1) PoV but from someone naturally positioned to ideologically oppose Darrow. Lyria provides a glimpse into the life of the average people just trying to live their lives amongst the cataclysmic events of the series and being virtually helpless to affect their own fate. Ephraim is almost the opposite of Lyria - he has little power on a grand scale but through will and skill is able to play a massive role in the story and provides a fascinating glimpse into the more subtle conflicts of the series (and of humanity, he will do essentially anything to further his own agenda - specifically to get rich and not give a damn). Sorry for the wall of text and thanks for reading my rant lmao

I think due to the four POVs there just wasnt the same speed and action of the first three because we just got the start (part 1) of the story (like austin said). Hoping that dark age will provide the part two and three pacing that we all fell in love with.

In order from best to worst, it's basically LB>DA>GS>MS>IG>RR. I think Lightbringer and Dark Age are interchangeable based on your tastes. The point is that Iron Gold is an intro in the same sense that Red Rising is.

Nooooooooooooooo. I waffle between Iron Gold and Golden Son as my favorites of the series... until Light Bringer, it's up there. I loved getting the new POV's. All of them are great as perspectives and Eph and Lyria are actually great characters. Lysander can fly into the sun as far as I'm concerned. I wasn't a really a Lysander hater until later, but WHAT THE ACTUAL F???! LYSANDER IS CARRYING THIS WHOLE BOOK??? I don't understand you at all, Rich. haha

Perfect timing!! I just finished Iron Gold on Thursday!

I just finished this and wow . It’s honestly probably my favorite so far . I understand the complaints on Ephriam but I didn’t hate him. I found it interesting how you didn’t like lyria at all and said you felt more from eo because I actually thought lyrias story gripped me to her way quicker then anyone else did. I loved her . As for victra I didn’t love what she was doing in the end it was pretty weird . Overall I think it’s browns best book so far next to golden sun

Iron Gold walks so Dark Age and Lightbringer can sprint. My least favorite of the new books but still great

I loved this book, and it's funny because what you didn't like about the lack of choice Darrow has is exactly something that I love here and that I found really interesting. Because all of the main characters are cornered, and you know it's not the perfect choice but there is no good choice, just hard ones (which is the theme of IG and DA really) so you're just frustrated like the characters ! I was worried with the begining of your video that you would say Darrow made the wrong choice (like must people do for some reason !) and I'm so glad you didn't ! As for the passiveness : again it was an interesting change for me, he's tired, he's been at it for ten years and everyone who has had his back until then is turning on him now so it made sense for me that he would be hesitating and not his confident self.

Just found your guys discussion videos on the series - it's my absolute favourite book series so it's been fun bingeing your stuff today! Great discussions, great viewpoints - I'll stay tuned for Dark Age and Light Bringer soon for sure! A few thoughts about Iron Gold - I absolutely felt the same way the first time I read the book. This one was a let down for sure and I was really wondering why it wasn't a whole book (and trilogy) of Lysander, who was by far the most compelling the first time I read it. I've now read Iron Gold four times (as a part of series re-reads...I like this series A LOT) and what changed my perspective was when I read the book after hearing the comment that each of the other three POV characters (aside from Darrow) are characters that Darrow has damaged (directly or indirectly) through his actions...and then it clicked. Iron Gold is an exploration by Pierce Brown of two things: his world and the consequences of Darrow's actions. When I read the book through that lens you start to see what Brown was trying to accomplish and my appreciation of the book rose a lot (even if it still is the weakest entry in my opinion). This especially applies to the question you guys had of "why is Lyria here?" She's absolutely Pierce's exploration of the world Darrow has created. I also certainly found it to be true that Dark Age (my favourite book in the series) couldn't be what it is without the setup in Iron Gold. It is a book that lays the foundation for later events rather than containing much of those events and it suffers for that, but the rest of the series is all the better for it.

I’ve been reading this book for 3-4 months and it isn’t very good. So seeing your spoiler free review makes me happy. I love the OG trilogy and I’m excited for Dark Ages and LightBringer.

Can’t wait to see how your perceptions of Lysander evolve throughout the trilogy

Damn, Richard and Austin double L this video.

I have to say I’m actually surprised by Richard’s rating. Remembering back to his complaints about the original trilogy the major themes were that we didn’t really see other color’s perspectives, didn’t get to see Darrow suffer the consequences of his choices, some of the dialogue was a bit cheesy. I was thinking that some of those issues he had were resolved in IG, so I’m surprised that none of that really landed!

One change I noticed about Darrow this go around was the effect not just his choices made on him but also what being held captive by the Jackal did to him. I was looking for that in Morning Star after being held in a stone box for 9mons but didn’t see it. While I was sad, he did seem subdued from his normal Darrow self, I saw that his actions were driven from his trauma. He couldn’t be held captive again. He couldn’t let his enemies put him in a position where he’d lose everything again. I can at least appreciate that addition to his character because that experience is not something you walk away from. I do agree with Austin too about this being Darrow at the beginning of a book. He felt in a similar spot at the beginning of Golden Son before he turned everything around. I don’t mind the other perspectives too much, but it left less time for Pierce Brown’s usual writing strategy.

I loved this book so much. So glad I decided to continue with the second trilogy

I loved this book each perspective made me cry and laugh and I a had a bloody good time

I disagree with you about the political situation at the beginning of the book. It’s not so simple. To say that Venus is the last planet they just have to finish off is not true. First both Mars and Mercury are incredibly unstable. On Mercury the populace was indoctrinated against the Republic which made it so easy for Atalantia to win Mercury back. You also have to consider how the planets move. Mercury is the (relatively) closest planet to Earth. This is something Pierce had to consider while writing these books and actually did. Venus is a far greater security risk especially due to threat the Rim might or might not be. This is an argument made by Dancer. And Darrow was proven wrong. He made the wrong decision. I really liked this installment. But I agree about the POVs. Both Lydia and Ephraim are characters I love but they had to grow on me and that took time. It is an 8 out of 10 for me but I think that it is the second “worst” book in the series (Red Rising is only average tbh). Anyway, love to you guys. Your discussions about books are a lot of fun. Terry Pratchett is great. Brandon Sanderson is ‘overrated’. The Wheel of Time is… let’s just say that I agree with Austin on that one.

I appreciate the spoiler-free section. I am a few pages in to Iron Gold and, coming off Morming Star feeling disappointed I wasn't as excited about it as I was for the first two (Golden Son is my fav so far), I was feeling wary of Book 4. I'm definitely the "Dave" you were speaking to! 😄 I am glad to know I should manage my expectations going in, bc the next one will be better. 😊 Also, you GOTTA keep the allteration of Richard's Rambler Rating! It's perfect! 😄

Iron Gold alone is better than the entirety of the original trilogy. Also I think this the first time I heard the sentence "Lysannder îs carrying this whole book"

I honestly love this book far more than the original trilogy. It focuses on the consequences of Darrow being a mass murderer as well as focusing more on slow burn world building which I'm always a sucker for in sci-fi. I also really enjoyed the new POV characters as they're all against Darrow. It was a very interesting perspective shift to see the main protagonist of the trilogy being viewed as the antagonist (which I've always kinda thought he was anyways)

Iron Gold has the aftermath and consequences Autsin was looking for in the review of Morning Star!

Im interested to hear the follow up after Dark Age. I feel like my appreciation for Iron Gold increased as the series continued as well.

Magnanimous..you were almost there 😂 *noticed a few people have already said this, but I’ll keep it here nonetheless

One of the few time I disagree with the guys here. Iron Gold is far from a perfect book but I think it really shows the growth of Pierce Brown as a writer. I went into this seeing it as it’s own separate entity from the first three. It shows how you can win all the battles and still have a long drawn out war. It’s setting up the rest of the sequel series and I can’t wait for Darrow to spank Lysander!

It maybe my hindsight overriding my memory because after getting caught up with i cant see this second series as anything but perfect. Though irongold and darkage kinda blend into one book in my memory. I believe those other perspectives you dont enjoy really pay off later.

I thought for sure Richard would like the second series more than the original trilogy

It will be interesting to see how yall view light bringer. It is a fun adventure and the counterbalance between the society and republic woth differe t POV is great. But be prepared for the plot armor to be a bit thicccc. Other than that you get to see decrnt character progression in light bringer from all sides. Even Darrow, who lacks that sometimes in the series

Yeah hard disagree on pretty much all of this. Iron Gold and Dark Age are better written than the first 3. Perhaps not all the way my favorites, but I feel like they do things some things a lot better.

Eo was the main character at the start of book 1, Lyria's family was a group of NPC'S. As the reader we lost someone with Darrow when Eo died, with Lyria's family we lost nothing.

Feel like there's been a lot of positive Richard lately. Welcome back King I missed you

I disagree with almost everything on this video but this was a great watch either way and you guys play off each other really well. Subbed!

I believe “magnanimous” was the word you were looking for, Superior Co-Host Richard.

First! Love you guys❤

I agree that the Lysander parts carried the book. It was the most interesting. I actually liked Ephraim chapters. He not a symptomatic caracter. Agree on that to much was made of his loss. Actually Holiday explains it better that he felt betrayed by Mustang. That is understandable. Lyria was hard work to read. It should have been cut down. Also Darrows character evolves away from the red. He sends millions to their deaths an acts like Appolonius and the other gold psychopaths. It will be interesting to ses how if Lysander and Darrow evolve in contrast to each other.

Me personally, I liked Ephraim's POV. His anger, his depression, his addiction, and his behavior was so similar to things I've witnessed in myself and others. I think the reason people might not like Ephraim is because his feelings and thoughts are so close to the ugliness in each of us, and until you look inside yourself and truly realize your nature isn't to be good, you won't understansd Ephraim. His behavior of lashing out at others when angry was very relatable because I've been there. Ephraim and Lyria's hatred of the Republic is also a perspective I enjoyed. I think the reason I liked the political intrigue in this book so much is because of how relatable it is. The bullshit in the Republic = the bullshit in our current political leadership. I think Iron Gold was an interesting commentary on how much shit really goes on in our political system (as is the way with politics). I loved the scene when Lyria was experiencing a flawed justice system with her near-arrest and then later interrogation with Theodora and Niobe. It's exactly like what we see today. I also liked Darrow's pov in this book. His reluctant actions in this book are completely understandable because he's a tired parent who misses his kid. He isn't the aggressive, youthful warmonger he was when he was younger, so it took him more time before he came to his breaking point in this book. Another character I really liked was Romulus and his ending was heartbreaking. He was honestly one of the only pure characters in the series and I had nothing but respect for him. His actions made sense and he loved his people.

Not being able to enjoy the vibe of the red rising series is crazy to me, I love the vibe so much, the Roman futurist, poetic nobility the golds use is great. Also ephraim is the goat

I Finally made it to iron gold 😅🎉

00:51 I think the word Richard was looking for is 'magnanimous'

Great podcast, I like hearing your opinions even if I agree with half of them haha. Lyria was an underwhelming character, as an audiobooker that was partly her narrator being weak, right accent but the inflections for scenes were kinda whiney. Maybe I'd be more positive on text, her story is just small and she doesn't have much power, I would have much preferred seeing her plot from Mustang, Victra or a Telemanus perspective. She is also a magnet for danger, to the point of being over the top, like she escapes the kidnapping only to immediately run into a bunch of Reds who want to do horrible things to her, really? then dealing with an interrogation where smart characters assume the worst in her. Felt like a waste of page time in parts. She is valuable in a boots on the ground sense where it's clear the republic aint all great, I just wanted more scenes like when she's talking with Pax about the realities of new Red life, or her flipping Ephraim's mentality. I think that's a stronger thread. Speaking of I liked Ephraim, he is awful don't get me wrong but I have faith Pierce is taking him in a good direction and we see embers of that at the end of this book. The narrator was much stronger for him giving this blue collar voice, he's basically Trig from Morning Star but made a full character with a bunch of fun dialogue. He's also a hyper competent badass. It's just a shame he spends so long locked in self destruction, there were a few moments that like you, enraged me, how he pushes away Holiday and Volga at every turn partly because he thinks they deserve better than him. He does horrible things though, like the literal kidnapping. His apathetic response of "Dead children are loose change in war" is a line that's still sitting in the back of my head, especially given recent conflicts in Israel, this apathy he and others have that allows such horrible atrocities to happen. But there is a turn with him, that moment when he's confronted by Lyria and Holiday and he decides to go back and rescue the kids. I loved that. Excited to see what's next for him. Lysander was a weak spot haha, unlike you guys I feel he was the weakest character in his own story, I would have preferred a POV from anyone else on the moons. Again this is partly the narrator who just delivers things so flatly. This is such a killer line: "The end of our love? No, I will love you until the sun dies. And when it does, I will love you in the darkness. Goodbye my wife" and what a way for Romulus to go out but the narrator doesn't inject personality in it, a shame when Reynolds gave Romulus real magnetism in Morning Star. Thankfully this is immediately remedied with the new guy in Dark Age who adds personality to some new characters. Sander is such a shit, I kept expecting him to do the right thing in a situation but he always chooses the worst one, guilty sure, but he still does bad things. Helping the Moon Lords get evidence for the war against the republic is unforgivable and the man is still playing catch-up with his own actions by the end of this book. He can talk about saving Cassius all he wants, but there was a man who was willing to die for higher principles like preserving peace. I don't get why Sander is so on team Moonies when they treated him and Cassius badly, ready to torture and execute them early on smh. At times he felt more like a set of eyes for us to witness other interesting characters, cause I really like the Moon Lords and I'm excited about their role to come. Darrow was another compelling character, to be expected. You guys talk so much about how Darrow is in the right this whole book, but that's major POV bias I feel. Remember this is the book where Sevro, big howling wolf dong Sevro turns on him and decides to quit, I'm not sure on the ramifications of this for Dark Age but it really hit me because they've been brothers for so long. And yeah, Darrow was wrong this book, he thought it would be simple to just rally an army to take the Ash Lord and win but it's much more complicated than that. Him going to all these lengths, making the Howlers traitors to the Republic, breaking his own family, freeing Apollonius is ON HIM. Likewise killing Wulfgar is his fault even with mitigating circumstances, he knew what could happen when he co-opted the man's soldiers and drew a razor, a sword is a sword it only does certain things. If he had surrendered Wulfgar would have lived. From the perspective of Dancers team they see a guy who disobeyed their orders, got millions of soldiers killed all while ignoring a peace offering, it's easy to see from their perspective that Darrow is losing touch from years of war and needs checks and balances. It's wild to me that you guys didn't mention Apollonius this whole video, he's awesome, way more impressive than I expected, has some of the Jackals' Psychopathy but with dick swagger and madness. There's one monologue he has about Darrow that is just Chefs Kiss all over, an unpredictable element, he is crazy over forgiving his brother, I can't wait to see more. Darrow himself has a compelling journey, Pierce had my attention from the start “Men call him father, liberator, warlord, Slave King, Reaper. But he feels a boy as he falls toward the war-torn planet, his armor red, his army vast, his heart heavy. It is the tenth year of war and the thirty-third of his life.” Killer. You are right, this is mostly a set up, "part one" book for Darrow but I trust Pierce to deliver. This is the book where we see the consequences of the original trilogy in a Dune Messiah esq. way, it ain't all it's cracked up to be, we saw parts of that in the original trilogy where Darrow didn't know what a new world should look like. Now people suffer. He's not like Paul though, this is a man still determined to make the world right, to snuff out the last of tyranny. But it's a heavy burden and he is running out of friends to carry it with him.

Y’all consistently have the worst takes I’ve ever seen 😭😭😭

I get it! I almost quit the series because I just did not click with Iron Gold! I didn’t like Eph and Lyria the first time. Their POVs were so random. I liked Lysander especially with Cassius. BUT….Dark Age! Man does that book enhance everything. Ephraim went from someone whose chapters I wanted to skip to being my favorite! I bet you guys will love it!

I’ve read iron gold twice now and I gotta say the first time reading i didn’t care for it but the second I came to like it more because I think the first time I didn’t appreciate the world building that pierce goes into a bit more than the other books and also appreciated that pierce took a leap and told the story in a different way

I won't defend Iron Gold, it wasn't my favourite and Lyria and Ephram weren't the strongest characters. So just a more objective observation about Darrow - He did lie outright about the offer of peace from the Ash Lord, and he did ignore the will of the people over the invasion of Mercury. It's perfectly reasonable the Vox did not want an invasion of Mercury because of the likely loss of life because that's exactly what happened. The fact that Darrow is right is meaningless, his actions pit him against the republic and his former father figure, that's the key. I won't say more because there are things happening that are spoilers for later books. Again, won't defend Iron Gold but I think you guys missed the mark criticising this aspect of the book.

Bit of a book here, sorry! But, I just finished Iron Gold and have been sitting with it for about an hour, trying to figure out how I feel about it. I couldn't get my hands on a physical copy, so I had to do the audio book, and Lysander's narrator did a good job UNTIL it got to what should have been exciting or emotional moments. His cadence and tone didn't change, so they sounded exactly like all the mundane moments which made him feel flatter than he probably would have, had I read it. I thought it was funny you couldn't remember Romulus' name or that of his family, bc I was trying to remember who Lysander and Cassius spent all that time with, and all I could remember was Romulus and Dio. No idea what their daughter's name was that Lysander liked. Not sure why they needed to spend SO much of the book there. Surpsingly, I liked Lyria's character the best of all the four POVs, probably in no small part due to the wonderful narrator who really conveyed ALL the emotions so well. She also had a story that made sense. She had a journey you could follow, with a beginning, middle, and end. Which, isn't saying much, actually. Completly agree with Richard that she didn't feel deserving of so much page time. Even as someone who got swept up in something, she seemed very . . . one dimensional. Ephraim I never cared about because I never knew what his goal was. All we knew about him was that he really loved Trigg. His parts kept me asking "what's the point?" Then, when we finally saw it in Part 3, I think it was, I was past the point of caring. I LOVED Sevro, Victra, and Electra! They were the only ones that had parts I ever got emotional about. As a mother, I viscerally understood Victra and loved her for her fire. And getting to see what a badass Electra is? Oh, I'm looking forward to seeing more from her! She's a little hellfire! ❤ And, poor, loyal Sevro! I love him so much and my heart hurts for him. As to Darrow...what? Good to see he FINALLY mentions having some PTSD, but WTH was that ending? I am so mad at Pierce Brown! What do you mean Darrow isn't gonna go find his kid? Why isn't he like Victra -- moving heaven and earth and going THROUGH whoever he's gotta go through to get his son? And, what about Mustang? He's just going to throw his hands up and say, "eh, she can handle it as well as I could." WHAT?!? Brown completley broke Darrow's character there. He most certainly wasn't a "fired arrow" in this book. His character was off in this book. I liked seeing how he handled being between a rock and a hard place, but his actions at the end, that isn't the Darrow I know. Darrow not being Darrow in Morning Star after a year of torture, sure, THAT made sense. But Darrow not going after his son? No way. Not sure if that is a character issue, or more of a plot issue, bc I know he is setting up the next book and he needs Darrow going off in another direction, but, this wasn't the way to do it. So, I think that's a plot issue, then. The book I had to trudge through falls apart completely for me right there in the last few pages. So dissapointing. This one was absolutely a 2.5 overall for me (in your new rating system).

The word you’re looking for is decisive

I finally feel validated with my opinion on this one. Totally not looking forward to reading the longest book in the series following this lol😊

Ooh, I’ve been waiting for this one! SPOILERS BELOW: My bigger gripes with this book were Darrows decisions coming off as pretty wild to me and maybe even slightly out of character, and THE LYSANDER CHAPTERS. Cassius was the only thing holding those chapters together for me. I loved him in them. Maybe I would’ve loved it more if they actually went off being Guardians of the Galaxy with Pytha but unfortunately, I didn’t care for Lysander all that much in this book he came off as dull to me. Now Ephraim and Lyria, I really did like. The emotional impact of these two new characters and their backstories and how Darrow has inadvertently affected them, hit me hard. It broadens the world outside of Darrows inner circle and shows you two characters who have been shit on from all of this and theyre at their lowest of lows. And what is better than seeing someone at rock bottom claw and crawl their way back to the surface?? Bonus points for introduction of Volga (who doesn’t love Volga??) and more Kavax and Sophocles! The Telemanus family continues to be grade A content for me. All in all, it goes just above book 1 for me in terms of the series so far. Not my favorite, not the worst, certainly sets stuff up for possibly the best books of the series in my most humble opinion. Can’t wait for the Dark Age ep! Keep up the good work, boys!

Ephraim became my favorite side character in this saga. Can't believe IG didn't land for you both but I'm glad DA and LB worked better.

Not caught up yet, but just commenting to hopefully help with boosting engagement 😅

In the audio book it’s pronounced wolf-gar it’s just easier to say I think great work I agree completely

I struggled with this book. Started a lil slow, picked up, then slowed down. I devoured the first three, love Darrow and the gang. The widening of the cast threw me for a bit. I see what you guys were saying about Ephraim and Lydia. A few chapters too much, I think, but I did enjoy seeing the world expand beyond the primary original characters and how those within are effected by the previous & current actions of the previous main cast. I disagree with Rich about Lysander. To me he is the rebellious teenager who was taught all the lessons of the world he is supposed to shine in, and does everything to go against it, because something new and shiny to him is showing in the forefront. His continued failures are going to costs so much later (haven’t read Dark Age yet), to all those later. He’s the equivalent of a spoiled brat losing in a chess match he doesn’t even know is being played.

Agree this is my least favorite as well. The way Lyria's camp is destroyed is typical Pierce Brown. The difference between Eo is that we found out that she waited for Darrow to come to age. She had agency through her conviction of ideas. Ultimately had a deeply personal moment with Darrow before her defiance lead to her death. Juxtaposed to Darrow's thoughts of compliance within the society and role in a family. Lyria instead provides background for new Red plight. Alas, no personal emotional setup to her situation. Where Darrow wanted a family and to be father in the 1st book to sacrificing it for responsibility in the following trilogy.

mag·nan·i·mous adjective generous or forgiving, especially toward a rival or less powerful person. Also the way they say wolfgar... OMG Also was anyone else weirded out they didn't have tongueless tongue carved back in? And why didn't they ever ask him to type his name?

It sounded like Magnanimous is the word you were looking for but the incorrect word for sure

I'm the opposite of Austin in that I think Iron Gold was a great set-up, and then Dark Age fumbled the ball hard. I almost didn't pick up Light Bringer afterwards. But I'm glad I did, because LB might be my favorite RR book. It's either that or Morning Star.

I wasn’t that disappointed, it was a slow start & the new character throw me off but they grew on me I liked the way the story turned out

I disagreed w a lot. But red beard guy(sorry don’t remember name) actually remembering more of book, and you guys agreeing made this video flow better and more enjoyable.

This live action episode of Pinky and the Brain was strange because they talked about a book instead of trying to take over the world.

I read the entire trilogy in the last month. Then I read this book and had to stop halfway through. I liked the new characters (I would've chosen another POV). For me, the main issue was just the teardown of Darrow. I think that's what makes this book so hard to finish, cause gosh do I just not understand Darrow in this one. It felt like we had this whole arc in the trilogy and yes these are the consequences but dam it just feels like a different Darrow from what took so long to develop in the first three

I just finished the first trilogy and loved it all the way through. Super excited about this book. I’m a Dave!! The first 9 minutes of this video have destroyed my expectations and now I’m already disappointed going in. 😐

Magnificent? Marvelous? Lol Love the take. Agreed. It felt like it was a trudge for both the reader and characters. I hate when the writer takes a character already established and then declawing them or giving them a stupid idea that they would never entertain before. Cut some pov’s down and change the Darrow commitment and you have a better book. 😢poor Richard… poor Austin. Hope the next read is worth it. I’ll be reading it soon as well

What did you think about Apollonius ??? He's my favorite new villain so gooood !

I findished Irong Gold two days ago and I agree with almost all of what was said by you guys, but there is one charecter that saved it for me and the is apollonius au valii-rath, what a magnifcent charecter he is gold at it's extreme like he stole the show everytime he spoke. One thing is I felt a lot of charecters like Mustang, Victra and Kavax became dumber to service the plot a lot of characters who had more nuance in the original trilogy became one note here to service the new characters who fell flat. i think I got the wrong message from this book at the end I was like golds are intresting the other colors are borling LOL. **Spoilers** My favorite quotes from the book are: "I am Cassius Au Bellona, Son of Tiberius, Son of Julia, Morning knight. And my honor remain" “I dissected the underlying mistakes which led to my incarceration and set upon an internal odyssey to remake myself. But-and you would know this, Reaper-long is the road up out of hell! I made arrangements for supplies. I toiled twenty hours a day. I reread the books of youth with the gravity of age. I perfected my body. My mind. Planks were replaced; new banks of cannon wrought in the fires of solitude. All for the next storm. “Now I see it is upon me and I sail before you the paragon of Apollonius au Valii-Rath. And I ask one question: for what purpose have you pulled me from the deep?” "I ride to war. To glory. I ride for the head of the Ash Lord..." "I would not ride alone. So I say to you, my darkest devils, awake, arise, and reclaim your glory!"

PLEASE DO LIGHTBRINGER!!!!

I’ll be shocked if Richard doesn’t love Dark Age.

Giving Iron Gold a 6 or less out of 10 is a crime. The bare minimum score I could see this getting is 7/10. The bald guy is weird, saying he wants to ditch the series after experiencing the awesomeness of the first trilogy and with the knowledge that Dark Age and Lightbringer elevate so far beyond Iron Gold's setup yet still he says he's not interested; crazy. He also said he likes Lysander...

Im a bit confused with both your reactions to Darrow's character. In the morning star episode we spent quite a bit of time talking about how there were no consequences to the trauma he was put through. Couldn't a lot of the actions in this book be a result if the long term of effects of the trauma along with decisions he's made over the 10 year period? I've only finished half this episode, so apologies we if you get into this in more detail later to justify your options.

I absolutely disagree with these guys but love the honesty and energy

"magnanimous" is the word you're looking for

I just finished it! Please bear with me for a sec because English isn’t my first language but… man, I disagree with you guys on the Lysander chapters. Yeah his dynamic with Cassius was fun (because of Cassius) and it was interesting on the rim and all, but what a pedantic little guy. All his chapters were something like “I’ll show Cassius is wrong” [….] “ops, Cassius was right”. At some point he says “I outgrew him” and then does something magnanimously stupid. He gave me teenager Anakin Skywalker vibes, thinking he knows better than his mentors and having all that rage bottled up. At least I think he’s gonna be a more reasonable antagonist than the Jackal, who was just plain evil. I agree the others pov’s were weak too and very few thing kept me interested but I guess what kept me going was the connection I felt for those characters on the first trilogy and the promise it’s a build up for something more. Also, I’m probably boring but can’t Darrow have a break please? I was tired just from reading his pov. He should listen to Dancer, get himself some paid vacation time, go be a father for a bit!! Hahaha jk Can’t wait for the next book and next video!!

Throwaway character? How dare you insult my boy, Ephraim, that way.

I actively despise this book, and Lysander is actually the worst to me. The unrepentant space racist is not a personality that I can get on board with. I have no connection at all with the character and less than 0 sympathy for any of his struggles. And then there's Darrow. That big decision that he made makes no sense given his history in the trilogy. I also think that Pierce Brown really struggled with multiple POVs. The inner thoughts of all of the characters had the same word choices, sentence structures and general vibe. The only way that you can tell a difference is when they talk about their relationships with other characters. I challenge you to take 2 sentences from any random part of the book, remove names, and then tell me who is the POV. It can't be done. The Red Rising trilogy was fun, if not deeply flawed. THIS, however, was dreadful

My biggest thing is I feel like lyria is really being looked over here , for being the bottom of the barrel what the rage of the masses looks like who have, nothing , can do nothing but are stuck with the feelings I also like her growth I won’t lie I’m suprised how much I enjoyed her parts

First time I read it it was hard to get into, fast forward 10 re reads later, it’s ranked higher than the original trilogy, it makes sense after multiple re reads!!

I loved Lyria tho something about her story was great. The intro to Eph and Lyria were needed to show how the Republic failed

I have to hard disagree on this. While Iron Gold is definitely not my favorite, not even close, I think it’s got such an unnecessary bad reputation. I think getting into the new characters was difficult because, after reading three books with just Darrow, all you want is more Darrow. That’s how I felt at least. When it swapped to Lyria the first time, I flipped through the book until I found the next Darrow chapter and it’s legit like 80 pages later. I was so disappointed, and I think that made it harder to connect with the new characters because I had already kind of closed myself off to them. I think Lyria’s POV does such a great job at showing the ramifications of Darrow and co.’s actions. They freed these Reds but then what? Force them to assimilate in camps where they’re no better off really? It was a really interesting evolution of the story imo. I also think the dynamic between Sevro and Darrow in this book is such a more complex, dynamic, and interesting relationship than in the original trilogy. Sorry for the long comment! I also have to say that Dark Age and Light Bringer really are amazing.

The reason the Republic is hesitant about finishing off the Society is because when the book starts, Darrow just got a million troops killed in an iron rain

I wasn’t around for Iron Gold when it first released, but I’m pretty sure the complaints from fans were down to the switch from first person to different POV’s. It was strange at first, but absolutely needed for the story in order to really see the world and effects of everything. I don’t agree that Lysander carried the book, but stuff during his POV was probably the best of the book for me. Still need to listen to the rest, so I’m sure I’ll disagree more. I can’t say I would agree even an ounce about this book being as bad as you both feel it is. Everyone will have different tastes of course. Edit 1 - Lyria may have been there for the world explanations or building. We have the opportunity to see that there are reds that hate Darrow and things aren’t rosy just because Darrow and The Republic have succeeded. People still have shit lives with lower colors.

Phew, thought I was taking crazy pills for being bored for the majority of this book. Watched your spoiler free review of Dark Age and glad to see it improves, great vids!

I rly liked Efram tbh

Magnaniomous might be the word but I don’t think it applies in the way you guys mean it to

Were you going for magnanimous? Haha

Magnesium

As a Jangal supporter. I feel that I committed a crime giving this a like.

I've just read the first 3 books in 4 days. I am holding iron gold in my hand right now, untouched, fresh, crisp.... Should I pull the trigger on it???? Now I don't know, I'll wait a day and decide I guess?...

Started following you guys after i saw the Red Rissing review. Now i think i may be done with you guys. I think Iron Gold is a mastery in character development and world building. I dont think we enjoy the same things in books like i originally thought. Sad.

So I would agree that Iron Gold is the Weakest of the sequel books just like I think that Red Rising is the weakest of the original trilogy. But man I wouldn’t recommend skipping the sequel books as Dark Age and especially Light Bringer are Bangers!