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.

We grew together, and now are grown. In her eyes, I see my heart. In her breath, I hear my soul. She is my land. She is my kin. My 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.

Personally, I do not want to make you a man. Men are so very frail. Men break. Men die. No, I’ve always wished to make a god.”

“Society has three stages: Savagery, Ascendance, Decadence. The great rise because of Savagery. They rule in Ascendance. They fall because of their own Decadence.”

“It’s sad.” “Most things are.”

“Why, if it isn’t my belly buddy!” Tactus drawls. “Why the limp, my friend?” “Your mother rode me ragged,” Sevro grunts. “Bah, you’d have to stand on your tiptoes to even kiss her chin.” “Wasn’t her chin I was trying to kiss.”

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