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. 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. 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. I certainly understand why there were four narrators for this book given the story structure, I just find their quality quite disjointed. 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. 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. There were times when I wondered if he was paid by the word and was trying to get through it as quickly as possible. 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. My biggest complaint about the audio book though, is with the narrators for the Lysander and Lyria chapters. 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.

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

Iron gold by pierce brown