Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)

by Pierce Brown

I was forged in the bowels of this hard world. Sharpened by hate. Strengthened by love.

“Death isn’t empty like you say it is. Emptiness is life without freedom, Darrow. Emptiness is living chained by fear, fear of loss, of death. I say we break those chains.

“It’s not just some dream, Darrow. I live for the dream that my children will be born free. That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”

“Life is the most effective school ever created.

“The measure of a man is what he does when he has power,” I say loudly.

“You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do.”

“I am something different. I freed the enslaved and let the broken mend themselves. I gave them something you older generations can’t understand.”

I am the spark that will set the worlds afire. I am the hammer that cracks the chains.

Words are a weapon stronger than he knows. And songs are even greater. The words wake the mind. The melody wakes the heart.