Iron Gold Reading Blog
I’ve been reading through Iron Gold, throughout much of November. I had hoped to have it finished earlier, but tacking NaNoWriMo onto my litany of other tasks detracted from my reading time, among many other projects and duties that befell me, this month. Additionally, I changed to an overnight (12a-9a) shift, which meant that for at least a couple of weeks, I was sleeping when I should have been reading. Nevertheless, I’ll be wrapping up my reading this week and will have a review for Iron Gold out next Wednesday. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to put together a reading blog for Iron Gold. This is my first time doing something like this, so bear with me while I continue learning the ropes.
There’s a video (vlog!) version of this post available on my YouTube channel, the link for which can be found here:
Without further ado, let’s get to the reading blog!
What’ve I Been Doing?
So if it’s taking me a month to finish Iron Gold, what exactly have I been up to? Well, video editing for one. I’ve been learning a lot about editing videos this month and even set aside a few days to streamline my process. You may notice some changes in my upcoming content, or even in the last couple of videos that have been released! I’m taking to heart a lot of what I’ve learned through trial and error (as well as a class or two). Hopefully, this will help me create engaging content!
In addition to video editing, I’ve been trying to cram for NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. This is pretty tough considering the fact that I have so many other things to write for, including this blog! I’ll be putting out a blog and video about my NaNoWriMo 2021 experience this Friday, so keep an eye out for that if you’re curious as to how it went! I’m saving the real details for that post, so let’s move on.
Another project that I’ve been working on has of course been my Dungeons and Dragons campaign! In the month of November, I ran a Cyberpunk Red campaign for them. Two sessions and they were a lot of work! Learning and running that system took a ton of time, but I think the end result was worth it. This Saturday and the session after that, I’ll be running Call of Cthulhu, so I have a whole other system to learn over the next couple of days. Augh!
Of course, this was also a holiday week. One would think I’d have taken advantage of the extra day off to work on videos, writing, and reading. Instead, I made twenty-one pounds of vegan macaroni and cheese, then ate twenty-one pounds of v—-okay, I didn’t eat it all; I’d be dead. I had a great holiday with friends and family playing Mario Party and smashing food.
Then, lastly (and least, let’s be honest here), is my full-time job. On top of changing my shift (which I wanted, don’t worry--it wasn’t forced on me, I asked for it), I’ve seen an influx in tasks relating to my area of expertise, so I’ve been swamped and exhausted with work, this month. I don’t expect it to improve, either, so I imagine I’m going to need to find a way to balance that workload and my other projects.
And my sleep.
Thoughts on Iron Gold So Far!
As part of this reading blog, I wanted to give my thoughts on Iron Gold thus far. This is really just my initial impression of the book as a whole, not a full-fledged, critical review. So take what I say here with a grain of salt; I haven’t even finished the book, yet! I expect to be finished by the end of this week, at which time I'll begin compiling all my thoughts into a more analytical and critical review of the book as a whole. That full review that's more in line with my standard reviews should be available next Wednesday!
Right now, I’m enjoying Iron Gold and can totally see why it’s necessary. In fact, I honestly wish that there were a way to start with Iron Gold, perhaps with a quick summary book that wraps up the original trilogy in a neat bow so you can dive into the meat of the story: Iron Gold. This book meets the expectations I had for the original trilogy. In fact, if you’ve read my reviews for the other books, you know that one of my key complaints was that I didn’t get to experience enough of the world. Iron Gold solves that.
We have multiple perspective characters, each giving us a unique outlook on the world as a whole. We follow a Red, a Gray, and a Gold (in addition to Darrow), each with unique stories that may intertwine on occasion. I think Lyria’s is the one I’m enjoying least of them all, but that isn’t because I don’t like it or find it necessary, it can just be a bit slow for my tastes, though it starts speeding up toward the end of the novel.
Overall, I’m having a pretty good time with this book. I’m feeling four stars for it already, and I haven’t even finished it. If the ending blows me away somehow, this could end up being a five-star Pierce Brown book, which I didn’t expect. We’ll see how I’m feeling when I wrap up reading in the coming days, and my review will be out next Wednesday!
Conclusion
This is my first post of this type! I know it’s a pretty popular approach to booktube for many booktubers, though I don’t want to fall into cliches or anything of that nature. I hope that this was entertaining in place of a normal review! My actual, critical review of Iron Gold will be out next Wednesday! After that, I have Dark Age, which… in looking at it, may take me quite a bit of time to get through, so there could be another blog/vlog like this one in the interim. Who knows! Maybe I’ll power through it, but it looks daunting… just leering at me from my shelf with its tremendous girth.
That’s a girthy boi.
It’s seven Cs thicc.
Anyway, thanks for checking this out! If you’d like to support me, I’d really appreciate it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel! Additionally, you can support me by following me on social media; I’m TLBainter on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with Instagram being where I’m most active if you’re hoping to interact with me. I’ll have social links down below for ease!