Iron Gold - Pierce Brown

⭐ 8/10

The fourth book in the Red Rising series, it had moments I really enjoyed but I didn't love it. That's kind of my review for the series as a whole, but I found reading this one to be a bit more difficult than previous entries. It had been a couple years, and I had completely forgotten everyone. So many times we would bump in to a character and I would recognize the name but completely forget their significance, which was kind of sad.

I think the reason this was bearable at all is because this is the first book with multiple perspectives! So there are new characters I can be with and form a relationship to and start with a blank slate, for the most part. By the end I felt fully back in the world, and promised myself I wouldn't take years to get to the next one.

I think this is a cool sci-fi world, and its refreshing after Sanderson to read fantasy that skimps on the details and leaves a ton to your imagination. The book never felt slow despite being twice as long as every other book thus far. The first series starts out Hunger Game-y and always retained a bit of that YA feel to me, despite how grim this universe is. This book gets political quickly, but still manages to include some exciting action. There is a time jump here and its great to see differing perspectives around the events from the first series.

I'm sure if I had read this immediately after the last one I would have gotten a lot more out of it, but it was a fun world to immerse myself in again.