Welcome back book club readers! I just got done reading Iron Gold, the follow up book to the Red Rising series that I’ve blogged extensively on. This was the lowest rated in the series per Goodreads, and I was a little curious as the results seem to be more polarizing than they were mediocre. The biggest difference here is that it’s told from four points of view instead of just Darrow’s. Along with Darrow’s point of view, you get the narration from Lysander (grandson of the former Sovereign Octavia), Lyria (a Red Gamma girl who’s new to us), and Ephraim (the fiancé of deceased Sons of Ares member Trigg). Four unique stories that tie together at times and greatly expand what we know of this world. In my opinion, it was fantastic writing and I enjoyed it very much. Alright, let’s get into it.
The story starts ten years after the events of Morning Star. Darrow has just launched an iron rain on Mercury, liberating it at the cost of millions of his soldiers’ lives. With this victory, the new Republic now has control of the entire core except for Venus. Darrow arrives home to be with his son, Pax, and Mustang. Shoutout to Mustang, she’s the Sovereign now and has legislatively reduced her power to form a democracy. Dancer has become political adversary, representing the people’s party, the Vox Populi. While they are happy for Darrow’s return, there is restlessness amongst the people about the never-ending war. Darrow maintains that they need to defeat the Ash Lord before the Outer Rim allies with the Ash Armada. You get where this is going, but I’ll recap this in the order the book did.
Lyria is a Gamma Red girl from Mars. She and her family have been “liberated” from the mines and are now years into living in a temporary refugee camp. The conditions are horrible, and she holds a lot of anger towards Mustang for promising change and not delivering. One night, there is a massacre via the Red Hand resistance group. Her whole family is slaughtered until Republic soldiers come to their aid; she is able to save her blind nephew Liam. She also saves one of the soldiers, Kavax Telemanus, who repays her by hiring her on his staff as a valet and bringing Liam with. I think her main job is walking his fox Sophocles, but Kavax is very kind to them. The only other person to show kindness to her was a stranger who stopped museum security from wrongfully accusing her of theft.
Ephraim is, putting it lightly, a very skilled scumbag thief. He took a dark turn to crime after breaking from the Rising after he lost faith in the cause. He completes a series of high-risk jobs for a special client, when he’s captured and brought to a Pink called the Duke of Hands. It’s revealed the Duke was the client, testing Ephraim who passes and gets offered a job stealing for The Syndicate. He and his team begrudgingly accept, his second in charge is an Obsidian named Volga. Their story will get good, trust.
Lysander and Cassius are essentially pirate stoppers lol. Cassius has done all he can to raise Lysander well, and they share a brotherly bond. Lysander, however, believes Cassius made a mistake in helping Darrow overthrow the Society. They respond to a distress call for a ship near the Outer Rim and go to help. They arrive to a pack of pirates killing the crew and holding a Gold girl captive. They free who they can and quickly take them to safety. Lysander abandons the plan to go free the Gold girl and more of the prisoners. He frees the girl who immediately disarms him and flees. He isn’t able to save anyone else, and his cover is blown. He barely escapes and they are forced to flee to the Outer Rim to avoid destruction. This is against the peace agreement that Darrow struck with Romulus au Raa, and the boys are quickly boarded and taken captive. However! The Gold they saved turns out to be Seraphina au Raa.
Darrow is in trouble. He goes to a Senate hearing hoping to get more troops for an assault against the Ash Lord on Venus. Dancer in turn, presents Julia au Bellona who informs everyone that they approached Darrow about a peace treaty, something Darrow didn’t tell Mustang and who no one outside the Howlers were aware of. The Senate ousts Darrow from his ArchPraetor status and is under house arrest until they decide how to proceed. Darrow doesn’t accept this, gathers his Howlers, and informs them he plans to assassinate the Ash Lord. Many don’t follow, including Holiday who wants to stay and protect Mustang and Pax. Victra begs Darrow not to let Sevro come but they know he won’t let Darrow go alone. While saying goodbye to their kids, Mustang approaches him with her guard to make sure he doesn’t leave the planet. Darrow takes them out, killing Wolfgar before him and Sevro leave. So now on top of treason, Darrow is wanted for murder. Good thing his wife is the Sovereign!
Lyria runs into the man who saved her at the Museum, he introduces himself as Philippe. He gives her a necklace and she sets off with the Telemanuses. She overhears a meeting between the Sovereign, Quicksilver, and Kavax Telemanus as they were discussing the state of the Senate and the war. They are worried Darrow is right, and this peace treaty is about sewing a civil war within the Republic. She later meets Mustang and Darrow’s son, Pax. He is kind, but when she finds out he knows her family has been killed she is cruel and wants nothing to do with him. Mustang and Victra depart the ship. While back in the hold, Lyria’s necklace turns into a robot. An antigravity and gas bomb activates, incapacitating all on board and crashing the ship.
Ephraim approaches the crashed ship with his team. They take Pax along with Sevro’s daughter Electra. Ephraim also decides to save Lyria and take her as well. One of his teammates is killed by Kavax, who is gravely wounded before they flee. He delivers the children to the Duke of Hands. The Duke informs Ephraim that two members of his team have been informing on him, one with them and the one who was killed by Kavax. The one who is with them, is thrown off the building. Ephraim is paid and informs the Duke that he won’t take any more contracts going forward. Ephraim and Vulga decide to take their money and devise a plan to retire in Africa on Earth. Lyria manages to escape via a garbage shoot and is on the run from the Obsidian guards.
Lysander and Cassius watch as Romulus interrogates Seraphina about why she was out in the asteroid belt. He is interrupted by his wife Dedo who arrests Romulus and one of their sons. Dedo sent Seraphina to get proof that Darrow was behind the bombing of the Ganymede docks. Cassius and Lysander still have their identities concealed, but Seraphina hid the evidence in their Razor which they hid in a safe. Lysander is charmed by Seraphina, and they go back and forth.
Darrow and the Howlers are on Earth to break some bad guys out of jail. They go to the deep undersea prison Deepgrave and work their way to their target. Apollonius au Valli-Rath, the brother of Tactus and the man that Darrow and friends jailed years prior. They find an Obsidian guard with his tongue ripped out instead, Sevro calls him Tongueless lol. Tongueless leads them to the Warden’s luxury area where they find Apollonius. They need him to overthrow the Ash Lord on Venus, and free him and his goons and bring them on his ship. Sevro is not happy with Darrow, lots of tension between them.
Lyria runs to the capital to try and plead her innocence. She is interrogated about the bombing and the whereabouts of the children by Daxo Telemanus and the Rose, Theodora. They are about to start torturing her when Mustang walks in, demanding to speak with her and Holiday. Lyria is able to convince Mustang of the truth, and with Holiday they start scanning for the man who gave her the necklace. Holiday discovers it’s her dead brother Trigg’s fiancée Ephraim.
Ephraim is ready to depart for Africa, but Vulga hasn’t showed since their blowout the day before. He waits a few hours, and eventually is boarded by Holiday. After some interrogation and back and forth he admits the truth and agrees to help. Not to help the kids, but to help Vulga who is held captive by Mustang and Holiday. He approaches the Duke of Hands about a new job, and after a fight he finds the kids in the vault. He is able to free them and escape on the Duke’s ship.
Lysander and Cassius are at dinner with the Raa family under the guise of gratitude for helping Seraphina. However, it is revealed the Raa’s have their safe and know who Cassius is. Lysander also admits who he is, but neither will give up the combination to the safe that has the evidence they’re looking for. Cassius is hated by the Raa’s and is challenged to a duel by one of the cousins, Bellerophon. In a bloody duel, Cassius is able to defeat him. Dido, however, keeps allowing new contenders to fight the wounded Cassius. After none can beat him, she calls on her son Diomedes to end it. He refuses, as he knows there is no honor in this. Seraphina steps in and kills Cassius. Lysander gives the combination to the safe, and they get their evidence that will lead to Romulus’s removal from the Sovereign position. While imprisoned, Romulus’s mother tries to free Lysander with the promise that he’ll go free Romulus. Lysander responds by going straight to Dido and telling her of the old lady’s betrayal. Fucking scumbag rat just like his grandma.
Darrow and Apollonius ambush Apollonius’s traitor brother, Tharsus, and take control of the Valii-Rath army. They launch an assault against the Ash Lord’s fortress. Heavy casualties occur, multiple howlers die. They are saved by Apollonius’s army and overtake the fortress. They find the Ash Lord emaciated and clearly in his end-of-life state. Darrow realizes his daughter, Atalantia, has been pulling the strings and this assault was for nothing. He also is informed of Pax and Electra’s kidnapping and is devastated. Sevro is enraged, and Apollonius burns the Ash Lord’s alive. They leave and Darrow agrees to let Apollonius keep Venus, banking on a civil war to cripple it from within.
Lyria is approached by Mustang, who profusely apologizes for failing to follow through on her promises to help the Red people. Lyria accepts her apology and agrees to help her with the next steps in rebuilding the Republic. Once again, Mustang fucking rocks. My Sovereign!
Ephraim agrees to return the kids provided that he and Vulga are given immunity and safe passage to a new life. While returning the ship to meet the Telemanus rescue fleet, the ship is overridden with a message from the leader of the Syndicate. She takes control of the ship remotely and redirects it back to her. Ephraim knowing what’s going to happen, blows the ships engines so it goes falling below. Brave move, keep these two damn kids alive so we can get another trilogy in 5 years about them!
Lysander watches Romulus’s trial in angst. Dido only levies charges only of military negligence, sparing him of treason that would lead to his execution. She just wants him to share power with her, not to die. Women, am I right? However, the courts override her, and convict him of treason as well. Romulus admits he was sent the same evidence that Dido was, and thought he was able to destroy it fearing if the public found out it would launch a new war with the core. Romulus is executed, and Lysander approaches Dido about a deal. He wants to ally with her and restore the fallen Society in the core. This little fucking Hitler made me like him and all book and then pulls this bullshit. Cassius would be ashamed.
Darrow and Sevro are in a heated argument, and Sevro tells Darrow he is done, and he won’t help him anymore. He takes the howlers to return home, still believing his daughter is in enemy hands. Darrow informs everyone he’s going to Mercury to fight Atalantia with his men as he is a wanted criminal back home. He is broken and puts away any memory of Pax he has. He is once again focused on winning this war, and the Reaper is back.
Damn, this book was great. My only complaint was that I was so invested in each storyline that it was frustrating to cut off and bounce to a new perspective. Along with this being a slow burn, I can understand why people didn’t like this as much as the first trilogy. For me however, this was a home run.
The further characterization was just unbelievable. Along with building on existing characters, Pierce Brown was able to introduce new ones to us in seamless fashion. Darrow is a straight up war criminal, and I still root for him though it’s tough to see how far he’s fallen. I think this book was needed to tear him back down, I have a feeling that he’ll be built back up in the next two books. Cassius once again was just great. Devastated when he died, I can’t believe how much my opinion of him changed since Red Rising. Mustang was exactly what you’d hope for, I’m glad she isn’t an antagonist in this. Little Lyria was such a sad story, I was so heartbroken for her and am happy she gets to move on to hopefully better things. Ephraim the complete opposite, a fun character but kind of a piece of shit. His redemption was earned, and I hope he sticks around to protect the two kids from whatever comes next. And finally, fucking Lysander. I thought that Cassius was raising a young Cassius, unfortunately he raised a young Darrow. This kid is going to be a fucking problem, I hate that I spent most of the book rooting for him.
For the story, I am so excited for what comes next. Darrow will be a warlord again while Mustang fights the political fight. We’re going to need to unify the core and prepare for battle verse the Rim. I honestly have no idea what to expect, I will start Dark Age in about 15 minutes and have a blog up next week on it.
I loved this book, and I’m glad I didn’t let the negative reviews impact my opinion when reading this. This was a masterclass in world building, and have fully set the stage for at least two more world class sci-fi books. My score is (shocker) 5.0/5.0, thank for reading!
