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Iron Gold

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About this listen

Honor and betrayal fuel a caste-shattering revolution in the action-packed new novel from the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Red Rising Trilogy.

Ten years after the events of Morning Star, Darrow and the Rising are battling the remaining Gold loyalist forces and are closer than ever to abolishing the color-coded caste system of Society for good. But new foes will emerge from the shadows to threaten the imperfect victory Darrow and his friends have earned. Pierce Brown expands the size and scope of his impressive Red Rising universe with new characters, enemies, and conflicts among the stars.

©2017 Pierce Brown (P)2017 Recorded Books Adventure Dystopian Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Military
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I'll not say too much about the plot or story of Iron Gold but will say that I felt like it was a worthy sequel to the original Red Rising trilogy and that I felt the 10 year time jump and expanded POV cast did more to enhance the story than damage it. I love Darrow but I warmed to a few of the new characters and felt like they offered a different perspective on things which in turn gave the world a bit more depth to it.

Pierce Brown really is my sort of author. His writing is highly engaging and has a beautifully melancholic and poetic feel to it. His books are always intense and exciting and really drag me through the emotional ringer from start to finish. It is great when you find a book where you find the story super exciting and can emotionally engage with the characters and happenings.

On to the important stuff: Recorded Books decision to bring in three additional narrators!

I had some serious concerns going into Iron Gold when I heard that Recorded Books had decided to limit Tim Gerard Reynolds role in the book by brining in three new narrators to voice the three new POV's. The only positive was that they had retained TGR for the Darrow POV segments. I'm still puzzled by why they thought this was a good idea as TGR is one of the best narrators out there and his performance of the original Red Rising was fantastic. One of the best performances of any audio I've ever heard (and I've listened to hundreds of audios over the years!). The guy was so good he enhanced the quality of an already great story with his ability to convey emotion with his voice and his excellent voice acting.

It goes without saying that TGR's Darrow POV section of Iron Gold were as fantastic as one would expect. His take on Apollonius was stand out good and worthy of praise!

So how did the new narrators get on? They were a bit of a mixed bag.

John Curless - He did the Ephraim POV segments and I thought he was fantastic. Almost as good as TGR with his ability to convey emotions and he really got the tone and humour of the story. If he had a flaw it was that his character voices, while pretty good, were just not quite as good as TGR's. Still, he gets the thumbs up from me and I'll be happy to listen to more books he narrates in the future.

Aedin Moloney - She voiced the Lyria POV segments. I felt like she did an decent job. I took a bit of time to get used to her strong Irish accent and her dramatic style but once I did I warmed to her quickly. She struggled a little with the set voices and accents of the established characters but seemed to get the tone of the story and was also quite good at conveying emotion with her voice.

Julian Elfer - The guy voiced the Lysander bits of the story. I felt like he was the real weak link and the only narrator not up to the job. He was pretty awful. The only good thing he had going for him was that he was well-spoken and his voice was a great fit for an upper class Gold. The problem is that he was a poor voice actor and just read everything in a monotone. He even failed to get the humour which sounded decidedly off and stilted via his poorly timed delivery. He was also not great with the dialogue in general. It was often tough to figure out which characters were speaking!

At least the production by Recorded Books was not awful. To their credit they had the new narrators retain the accents used by TGR in the original RR trilogy. It is a minor thing but really makes a difference as it helps with consistency.

I feel like this would have been better if they had just stuck with TGR as the narrator for the whole book but that the additional narrators did not overly hurt my enjoyment of the audio as two of them were good and only Elfer was not up to the job.

Worthy sequel to a great sci-fi series!

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Nice story, only the female naration by Aedin Moloney is a constant dissonant. She sound like she’s in a chronic state of panic and anguish.
That’s all well and good when the character is actually in such a state, but not all the time...

Narator sounds like she constantly in a panic

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Pierce Brown has done it again; Iron Gold, the first in a new series following the story from the Red Rising trilogy, doesn't miss a beat.

adding depth & expansion to an already huge universe; Iron Gold expands the POV characters from 1 in the first series (Darrow) to 4.

As an Audiobook series, the initial trilogy was flawless. Tim Gerard Reynolds captures every character, every emotion and every tense moment, making the series come alive.

The decision to bring in new narrators for the new POV characters might seem natural enough, but none manage to keep pace with Reynolds.

Though I will say; props to John Curless & Aedin Moloney. While I preferred Reynolds' chapters & narration, these 2 really got into their character roles. Curless really sounds like a bitter, war weary soul who has lost too much to care anymore. Moloney stays true to the Red roots & style of narration Reynolds brought in the first series; a long suffering but strong willed people.

Only Julian Elfer really bring the book down. He voices some huge personalities & important characters for the ongoing story. Yet his narration is rushed, lacking emotion & difficult to digest.

Personally - I'd have preferred Reynolds to narrate the book solo. However, I won't be sad to see Curless & Moloney return for the sequel.

Elfer, however, needs to either be replaced altogether or understand the gravity of the characters & story he's narrating. His voice is perfect for Gold, but that's the only really positive thing I can say about it.

Overall - Iron Gold is another success by Pierce Brown. He's fast becoming a favourite story teller of mine.

if you enjoyed Red Rising, you'll enjoy this.

Give the new narrators a chance to grow on you and I suspect you'll end up enjoying them (most of them,anyway).

Can't wait for Dark Age now!

A Worthy Sequel Faulted by Narrator Changes

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love the story
the audio levels is a bit crap, listen to it in car and have to constantly adjust the audio

love the story, frustrating audio levels

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I enjoyed the story, and on the whole there are plenty of aspects that keep you wanting to listen to more and more.

My biggest criticism is about the sound / volume of the performances. From narrator to narrator the levels seemed to change, which because really frustrating. Also, the narrators were inconsistent with one another in the speed that they performed. One seemed to be really quick, another really slow.

Worth a listen, but the performance and sound issues overshadowed it a little for me

Enjoyable… but…

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