Ah, Iron Gold, the continuation of the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. Where to start?

Iron Gold simply has a different, colder feeling than its predecessors. Instead of the fast-paced energy of the previous three books, Iron Gold weaves in dark, sinister, morally ambiguous themes of war, freedom, and ideology. It leisurely reveals the consequences of civil war in the ten year lapse between Morning Star and Iron Gold. Civil war, it seems, has taken a terrible toll upon the original trilogy’s characters. On the other hand, it has only emboldened our new characters with seething ambition.

Okay, no more elegance. That paragraph already took a lot of brain power.

I actually didn’t like Iron Gold as much as the original trilogy. It just attempts too much. There’s too many storylines, too many sub-plots, and too many characters to remember. Iron Gold begins interstingly enough, but after a while, it just gets boring. That being said, I still enjoyed a few storylines enough to pull through the ending.

However, I really liked the themes and moral questions Iron Gold attempts to address. Is violence ever the answer? How much war can people endure, before the sacrafices outweigh the conquest? More importantly, what is the worth of a life? Are people’s lives worth the final ambition in conquest? Are the sacrafices worth the eventual peace?

Our characters dream of peace, yet they are unable to find it. For as they fight for freedom, their people fight for rights, and their enemies fight for order in the midst of chaos. Can freedom excuse civil war? And as we ponder these questions, our heroes become twisted, both noble and cruel, mirroring their enemies. Who, in Iron Gold, deserves to win?

With that, I leave the answer in your hands. Read Iron Gold to find out!

Peace out.