Iron Gold

By: Pierce Brown

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds, John Curless, Julian Elfer, Aedin Moloney

Length: 23 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

Narration Ruined the amazing series

What disappointed you about Iron Gold?

I despised the new narrators. I just listened to 3 books that were masterfully done, then you give me this. I don't understand why you change it up. Tim was so good by himself.

Should have stopped at 3..

This book was awful, like seriously, it feels like a standalone and should have been. I love the original series and it should have ended at book 3. This one feels disjointed and all over the place. Reaching for a plot and storyline. I wanted to so badly to love it but it was such a hard listen. The first three, I couldn't wait to press play and continue when the kids were in bed or I was driving in the car--this one, I had to force myself to listen to.

SO sad for this series.

Inconsistent Volume and Narration

My review is purely on the quality of the audio book. I have some issues with the story as well, but as I haven't finished it yet, I'm willing to reserve judgment.

Overall, the quality of the audio mixing for this book was pretty bad. From chapter to chapter and sometimes even within chapters, there are noticeable changes in volume that force me to adjust the volume far more often than I'm comfortable with.

My biggest complaint about the audio book though, is with the narrators for the Lysander and Lyria chapters. The narrator who "plays" Lysander speaks in a clipped and businesslike manner, rarely lending any sense of drama to even some of the more dramatic sections. There were times when I wondered if he was paid by the word and was trying to get through it as quickly as possible. By contrast, the Lyria narrator seems to only speak in completely frantic or utterly furious tones (even when narrating very simple sections) to the point that her voice becomes grating and difficult to listen to. Both the Lyria and Lysander narrators seem to pay little attention to punctuation, often running over obvious pauses that sometimes make it difficult to follow dialogue.

I certainly understand why there were four narrators for this book given the story structure, I just find their quality quite disjointed. Tim Gerard Reynolds does a fantastic job in this book as in the previous ones and I thought that the narrator for Effraim is nearly as good. It is to the point where I dread hearing the introduction to a Lysander or Lyria chapter because while I find their stories very interesting, it can feel like a chore to get through them.

Problem with narrators, especially Julian Elfer

Julian Elfer (Lysander) was absolutely terrible. I am not sure if it was the recording or Julian, but I had the volume set to max in my car whenever he comes on and I'd still miss half of what he says.

Audio needs to be balanced

Story is okay, not up to the standards of the first 3 books. The narrators are okay except the audio really needs to be more balanced. If I have it loud enough to hear the quiet parts, the loud parts are piercing. This make sections of the book almost unbearable.

Who the Bloodydamn Chose These Narrotors?

Tim Gerard Reynolds is the most perfect gorydamn narrator for the poetry Pierce Brown writes. I cannot even focus on the story, the other narrative is so obnoxious. AUDIBLE FIX THIS!!!

Too many narrarators

What disappointed you about Iron Gold?

I prefer to have only one person narrate the book. The multiple narrarators detracted and distracted from the book so much that I turned it off after the beginning of the 7th chapter. Booo and shame on them for thinking this was a good idea.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Iron Gold?

Poor performances.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Why change a good thing? Tim Gerard Reynolds did a fine job of the first three books. What made them think it would be a good idea to add an additional 3 persons?

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I'm severely disappointed in the portrayal of this book enough that I want a refund. It was not the way I intended to enjoy this book.

Too many narrators Mr. Brown

What made the experience of listening to Iron Gold the most enjoyable?

Tim Gerald Reynolds is a master narrator. Reynolds has already developed the voices for these characters in 3 other books. Adding the other narrators takes away from TGR performance and the Red Rising experience. It does not flow effortlessly like the other books and gets confusing. Missed the mark as far as the audible version is concerned.

Meh

I absolutely loved the first three books but this was a little lackluster for me. It introduced three new point of view characters with three different narrators, which in concept was a good way to expand the scope of the story but wasn’t executed very well. I honestly didn’t care enough about the new characters for their storylines to hold my attention, save for one. Even Darrow’s chapters were so far removed from the man he was that I didn’t enjoy them. The writing is still beautiful and the world building is still there, but this felt more like the first in a new series in a new time and place than a continuation of the previous. Even then, not much progress was made and it just felt like it was setting up future novels. That is fine for a first book, but not a fourth. I give it a meh and an ehhh.

1 narrator please

TGR needs to go back and narrate the entire book. The other narrators completely ruin the experience for me.

Worthy sequel to a great sci-fi series!

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.

Should've kept to one narrator.

Good book, but the move to multiple narrators didn't work for me overall. TGR great and Julian Elfer decent (good voice, but delivery a bit flat); John Curless seems an impressive narrator, but sounds far too old for the character he's playing, which I found jarring. However, Aedin Moloney's painfully affected, overwrought performance completely ruined those sections for me.

Great tale, let down by 1 terrible narrator

Great story, partially ruined by the painfully overdramatic and shrill narration of Lyria. Please recast!

Narration?

Thoroughly enjoyed this latest offering by Pierce Brown. Tim Gerard Reynolds is outstanding as always. John Curless, and Aedin Moloney also do an admirable job with Lyria and Ephraim. However Julian Elfers Lysander may be some of the worst narration I've heard in my 5 years with Audible. Rushed, clipped and monotonous.

what is going on?

three new narrators who haven't a clue how to read this. was so looking forward to hearing time Gérard Reynolds superb narration as before bring him back to redo this completely. hope he's doing the rest.

Not happy with the mixed narration

I find the mixed narration jarring. I will not be buying any more audio recordings with mixed narration. Should Pierce Brown write more in this series I will buy the ebooks but NOT the audiobook if Tim Gerrard Reynolds is not the ONLY reader.

My enjoyment of the story has suffered from the approach taken.

Narator sounds like she constantly in a panic

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...

Enjoyable - but not as good as his earier works

Where does Iron Gold rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A good yarn, and engaging. Worth listening to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Darrow - central character and likeable, flawed character

What three words best describe the narrators’s voice?

There are 4 narrators - all were good - especially Tim Gerad Reynolds who read the first 3 books in the series - except for Julian Elfer, whose voice I found to be too much of a monotone and almost ruined the book for me.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The Reaper ruturns

very poor narration by some of the performers.

rather glad thus is over. laboured story in places, descending into ancient world in space

All good apart from Lyria’s part

Absolutely fantastic as usual. New narrators element is fresh. Lyria’s part is ok just when she does make parts they’re poorly done and takes you out of story.