Iron Gold

“Man cannot be freed by the same injustice that enslaved it.”Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown5*I have decided to review the first 3 books as one review, as I read them in quick succession (I guess you already can guess my impression of the books!). The reviews will not include any spoilers for those who have not read the second or third books, and minimal spoilers for the first book.The series is based on a future when we have colonised the planets in the solar system and it is organised by a caste system divided into colours with the Golds at the top who live in luxury and other colours who serve them, Blues who fly the ship, the Pinks who provide sexual services etc. Each colour has been genetically modified to perform a specific function, or look a certain way and their role in life is dictated by the colour they are born into, even their personalities moulded to keep them in line, though circumstance, upbringing or even manipulation.Our main character, Darrow, is a Red, a miner and is smaller than most other colours but his role as a Helldriver requires him to be more dexterous and fearless than other Reds. He is based on Mars and he works in difficult conditions, believing that one day his descendants will benefit as he helps make the surface of Mars viable for living for future generations.However, Darrow learns that he is betrayed, and the higher colours have been lying and are living opulently on the surface for many years. This and other personal reasons, sends Darrow on a mission to “break the chains” and infiltrate the Golds to bring the caste system down from the inside. His transformation is (view spoiler)I especially liked the camaraderie that develops between unlikely friends in the books, and more so the realistic fragility within these friendships as it says in one of the books “Friendships take minutes to make, moments to break, years to repair.”I also enjoyed the fight scenes and starship battles that are spread throughout the books, and be aware that not everyone survives!Lastly, there is a political element to the story as many people and influential families try to persuade Darrow to their point of view or their solution to the situation. Will he accept the privileges offered to him or continue to fight the cause for those he left behind.“The measure of a man is what he does when he has power.”The three books build on each other, with the stakes getting higher in each book, both for Darrow and those he loves. And that kept me enthralled and forced me to pick up each book in succession.The only negative point is that Darrow can be at times unlikable, he is melancholy, whiny, self-absorbed and files off the handle quickly. However, remembering he is a 16 yr old with his world torn from him.. I will give him a pass!If you like this book, read the series then I would suggest the The Interdependency series by John Scalzi, Divergent series by Veronica Roth and reluctantly accept others' comparison to the Hunger Games but I would put this series above them all in terms of world building, relationships and action. Adding The Expanse by James SA Corey for things happening in space

I recall reading the first three books in the Red Rising Saga all in one sitting, and I suppose it must have been a while ago because the next two books weren't out yet. I found out they existed quite by surprise and having forgotten pretty much everything but the plot of the first book (thank goodness for Wikipedia's plot summaries).I very much enjoyed this book. It was especially gripping towards the end, though I'd forgotten just how long these books are! I particularly loved the sections with the Raa, and the plot involving Ephraim was a brilliant one to follow. Even though I'd forgotten most of the characters, I warmed back up to them again pretty fast.Maybe my becoming fussier with age has made me drop a star, but the density of sentence fragments really grated after a while. It quite often distracted me from what was going on. And perhaps it's an issue with how the ebook was formatted, but when you had narration in the middle of a paragraph between dialogue, often the first speech mark in the second bit of dialogue would be missing entirely, which again made things quite distracting.

Absolutely loved this entry.

Set a few years after the events of Morning Star, Pierce Brown takes a different tact by writing Iron Gold from the perspective of four different characters (all 1st person). Darrow and Lysander we are of course familiar with, Ephraim and Lyria are new. Inevitably, people will enjoy reading some characters better than others and it is naturally much easier and more intriguing to read about Darrow and Lysander than it is the newer characters with whom we have no history. Lysander's story is by far the strongest, Darrow's begins and ends well, and Ephraim's, though a little slow initially, gets stronger and stronger the more you read. It does feel a little like Lyria's story was written so the reader could see how other character's such as Mustang, Kavax and Victra are responding to events, and I can understand why, as you do want to see how these characters are reacting, but the fallout of that was that I ended up being less interested in Lyria's own personal story and more about those around here.The pacing is not as ravaging as Golden Son and Morning Star, and as such it is less addictive, but it's still a pretty engaging read. And to be fair to Iron Gold, this is only the first of a large arc in the next cycle of Red Rising novels. Overall it is an enjoyable book which successfully manages to feel familiar with the previous novels, whilst feeling like a new start. Twists and turns are still aplenty, and Pierce continues his knack of keeping you guessing. I'm looking forward to finding out where we go from here.