Morning Star is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Pierce Brown

Illustration copyright © 2016 by Joel Daniel Phillips

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

DEL REY and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

ISBN 9780345539847

eBook ISBN 9780345539854

randomhousebooks.com

Book design by Caroline Cunningham, adapted for ebook

Cover design: David G. Stevenson and Faceout Studio

Cover illustration: David G. Stevenson

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Map

The Story So Far...

Dramatis Personae

Prologue

Part I: Thorns

Chapter 1: Only the Dark

Chapter 2: Prisoner L17L6363

Chapter 3: Snakebite

Chapter 4: Cell 2187

Chapter 5: Plan C

Chapter 6: Victims

Chapter 7: Bumblebees

Chapter 8: Home

Chapter 9: The City of Ares

Chapter 10: The War

Chapter 11: My People

Chapter 12: The Julii

Part II: Rage

Chapter 13: Howlers

Chapter 14: The Vampire Moon

Chapter 15: The Hunt

Chapter 16: Paramour

Chapter 17: Killing Golds

Chapter 18: Abyss

Chapter 19: Pressure

Chapter 20: Dissent

Chapter 21: Quicksilver

Chapter 22: The Weight of Ares

Chapter 23: The Tide

Chapter 24: Hic Sunt Leones

Chapter 25: Exodus

Chapter 26: The Ice

Chapter 27: Bay of Laughter

Chapter 28: Feast

Chapter 29: Hunters

Chapter 30: The Quiet

Chapter 31: The Pale Queen

Chapter 32: No Man’s Land

Chapter 33: Gods and Men

Chapter 34: Godkillers

Part III: Glory

Chapter 35: The Light

Chapter 36: Swill

Chapter 37: The Last Eagle

Chapter 38: The Bill

Chapter 39: The Heart

Chapter 40: Yellow Sea

Chapter 41: The Moon Lord

Chapter 42: The Poet

Chapter 43: Here Again

Chapter 44: The Lucky Ones

Chapter 45: The Battle of Ilium

Chapter 46: Helldiver

Chapter 47: Hell

Chapter 48: Imperator

Chapter 49: Colossus

Part IV: Stars

Chapter 50: Thunder and Lightning

Chapter 51: Pandora

Chapter 52: Teeth

Chapter 53: Silence

Chapter 54: The Goblin and the Gold

Chapter 55: The Ignoble House Barca

Chapter 56: In Time

Chapter 57: Luna

Chapter 58: Fading Light

Chapter 59: The Lion of Mars

Chapter 60: Dragon’s Maw

Chapter 61: The Red

Chapter 62: Omnis Vir Lupus

Chapter 63: Silence

Chapter 64: Hail

Chapter 65: The Vale

Epilogue

Dedication

Acknowledgments

By Pierce Brown

About the Author

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THE STORY SO FAR…

Red Rising

Darrow is a Red, a lowly miner slaving away below the surface of Mars. He toils to make the surface of his planet habitable for future generations, but he and his kind have been betrayed: the surface is livable and ruled by the unscrupulous Golds. When they hang his wife for voicing rebellious ideas, Darrow joins a revolutionary group known as the Sons of Ares. With the help of the Sons, Darrow is physically transformed into a Gold and sent to take the Society down from the inside.

He enters the Institute, a training school for the Gold elite that turns spoiled teenagers into the best warriors in Society. There Darrow learns the ways of warfare and how to navigate through the often treacherous—but sometimes genuine—friendships and complex political climate of the Golds. Only by changing the paradigm and relying on his new friends is Darrow able to best the Institute and all of its dangers.

Golden Son

From his victory at the Institute Darrow wins prestige and a position in the employ of the ArchGovernor of Mars, Nero au Augustus. However, he finds that it is difficult to live up to his own legend, as Darrow is unsuccessful at the Academy, where Golds train in ship-to-ship combat. Bested by a familial rival of his employer, Darrow’s worth quickly declines in the eyes of the ArchGovernor, until that is, Darrow gives the power-hungry Gold what he wants: civil war.

Playing the Augustus clan against the Bellonas, Darrow throws Society into disarray, sowing the seeds of chaos everywhere he goes. After amassing an impressive army and some dubious allies, Darrow leads a successful assault on Mars, ousting the Bellonas from control of the planet. But at the Triumph held to honor his military victory, betrayal once again rears its ugly head and all that he has worked for is undone. His friends and allies killed or missing, Darrow is captured and his secret identity is discovered; the fate of the rebellion balances on a razor’s edge…

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Golds

OCTAVIA AU LUNE Reigning Sovereign of the Society

LYSANDER AU LUNE Grandson of Octavia, heir to House Lune

ADRIUS AU AUGUSTUS/JACKAL ArchGovernor of Mars, twin brother to Virginia

VIRGINIA AU AUGUSTUS/MUSTANG Twin sister to Adrius

MAGNUS AU GRIMMUS/THE ASH LORD The Sovereign’s Arch Imperator, father to Aja

AJA AU GRIMMUS The Protean Knight, chief bodyguard to the Sovereign