Iron Gold

Reviews

• nak0

  Finished August 28, 2026

  3.7/5★ Iron Gold starts with Darrow being as pessimistic as ever, and almost immediately I had a problem with where his character had ended up. After the ending of the original trilogy, I thought Darrow would finally make way for democracy and start helping rebuild Mars and integrate the Reds into the new society. Instead, ten years have passed and he is still fighting on the other side of the Solar System. At some point I genuinely started wondering: why doesn't he just quit? That's probably my biggest issue with Darrow in this book. Maybe he should have given up being ArchImperator after five-ish years and transitioned into more of a mentor for the younger generation, spending time with Mustang, Pax, and his family. I think that role would have suited him far better at this point in his life. Instead, he keeps making increasingly questionable decisions—and eventually those decisions come back to bite him in the ass. Hard. And yes, Darrow has always been reckless, but some things here felt less like believable flaws and more like the author deliberately forcing him to make stupid choices so the plot could explode later. Killing the wrong people, ignoring everyone around him, refusing to stop… blah, blah, blah. These are exactly the kinds of things that inevitably cost the book points for me. That said, the brutality starts picking up again pretty quickly, which I loved. *"No, Sevro. Summon the Howlers."* Now that's the Red Rising I remember. I also really respect that Pierce Brown didn't simply make Iron Gold "Red Rising 4." Instead, he massively expands the universe—or, technically, the Solar System—and introduces completely new main characters, perspectives, societies, and conflicts. At first I wasn't sure how I felt about leaving Darrow behind for entire chapters, but the new POVs eventually became one of the most interesting parts of the book. Lyria in particular has quite the temper, lol. Her storyline initially felt disconnected from everything else, but once Ephraim enters the picture and the kidnapping plot starts taking shape, things get much more interesting. There were several moments where I had absolutely no idea what was happening, followed by another WTF moment, followed by me hating the author's decisions again. Classic Pierce Brown. Ephraim was another interesting addition. For a while I was basically sitting there thinking, "This guy is definitely someone bad." Then everything started connecting. Lysander, meanwhile, initially surprised me. Apparently he's a bookworm, which I didn't expect, and his relationship with the people around him made that side of the Solar System interesting to explore. And then, naturally, the author made him an asshole too. How surprising. By the end, Lysander has officially "chosen a side." And of course he chooses the side where the hot chick is. Honestly, who wouldn't? lol. One thing I really appreciated throughout the book was the continued worldbuilding. Brown keeps adding details about how this civilization actually functions rather than just introducing new planets because they sound cool. Learning how Venus was terraformed, for example, was exactly the kind of background information I wanted from this universe. Then around the final third, the book really starts moving. There are always snitches involved somewhere in these plots, aren't there? The whole situation with Victra openly going against Mustang was one of the moments that really injected fuel into the story. Brown absolutely knows how to keep the reader on edge when he wants to. From that point onward, the consequences of everyone's decisions start piling up very quickly. And Darrow's decisions especially. By about 80%, I was already convinced Sevro was going to die. First Darrow insists that Sevro stay behind, then later he won't let him leave. At that point I was basically preparing myself for another enormous shitshow. Meanwhile Lyria's situation became increasingly interesting. I suspected something major would happen to her, and part of me still wants them to somehow give her the physical abilities of a Gold while keeping her identity as a Red. Basically: let Lyria become ridiculously powerful and start kicking everyone's ass. And then, at 97%, Darrow suddenly remembers Pax exists. LMFAO. Overall, Iron Gold wasn't more frustrating for me than the original trilogy. I just didn't like several of the author's decisions, especially the direction Brown chose for Darrow and the way several major plot developments depended on characters making unnecessarily stupid decisions. But at the same time, I can't deny how ambitious this book is. The universe becomes considerably larger, the politics become messier, the consequences of the Rising are actually explored instead of everything magically becoming perfect after the revolution, and the multiple POV structure gives the series an entirely different scale. It annoyed me. It surprised me. It made me say "what the fuck?" repeatedly. And when Pierce Brown wants to create tension, he absolutely can. I also saw Iron Gold described by FictionVortex as: "What The Hunger Games should have been." And honestly? That's so true.

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