Book Review: IRON GOLD (Red Rising # 4) by Pierce Brown

Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

My rating: 5 of 5 stars (but I'd give it a 10 out of 5 if I could!!!!!)


"Giants can be felled with words. Words are our salvation... What age do you want to live in? One where the sword leads and we follow? Or an age where our voice can sing louder than an engine can roar?"

Slag it, but IRON GOLD was a gory prime read!!!

(You know you're starting to get obsessed with a series when you start using jargon from the books in actual life!)

I would give this particular book 10 stars if I could! Heck, I'd get me a Red Rising tattoo if my job didn't forbid it!!! Rarely has a book made me stay up waaaaay past midnight, and this one just wouldn't. Let. Me. Sleep.

Pierce Brown just keeps getting better at bringing the philosophical and political debates of the ancient Greeks and Romans to the stars.

You know how in epic movies, there will be one character who says the best lines, whether in a speech before a hostile crowd to sway them to side with him afterwards, or a pre-battle call to arms to stir the blood of soldiers to a frenzy before the fray?

Well in IRON GOLD, there's so many of them! Men and women who utter the best words -- doesn't matter if they're witty one-liners or monologues--- and do the most outlandish things out of an iron sense of duty and honor that comes from myth and legend... and they become so real, you honestly feel the hole in your heart when tragedy inevitably befalls some characters.

Bow before Pierce Brown for writing genius... for the incredible plot twists and turns, the vile betrayal, the sheer skill in making an interplanetary war feel so darn personal, the violent action scenes written in terse sentences that make you hold in your breath while reading as quickly as you can, the intermingling of ethics and politics, and for showing that ending a war is an altogether easier task than keeping the peace.

And oh my goodness, this fourth book raises so many questions!! Can democracy work? Has the hero become the villain? Is social hierarchy necessary for peace?

And yes, sci-fi is a great vehicle for showing how divisions in race, class, and religion play out in terms of far-reaching consequences. No wonder so many are going crazy for this series! (What with graphic novels and a television show in the works) There is so much to learn about our real world from Pierce Brown's incredible one. And while his stories show the pitch black depths that human nature can reach, he also shows us the best that we can aspire to be.

What age do I want to live in? One with literature that truly deserves the adjective "epic," the age of Pierce Brown!!!



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