Red Rising

Darrow is a sixteen-year-old Red Helldiver in Lykos, one of the mining colonies whose people are told that their dangerous work is making Mars habitable for humanity. After Lambda loses the Laurel despite Darrow's extraordinary mining output, his wife Eo takes him to a hidden garden and tells him that Reds are not pioneers but slaves. She urges him to live for more than survival. When they are caught outside permitted areas, Eo sings a forbidden song during her punishment, and ArchGovernor Nero au Augustus orders her hanged. Darrow later cuts down and buries her body, is sentenced to hang for that act, and survives because his uncle Narol drugs him and helps the Sons of Ares recover him.

Dancer shows Darrow the already-terraformed surface of Mars and explains that the Society has kept subterranean Reds ignorant while other Colors have lived above them for centuries. Rather than start an uprising that would be crushed, the Sons intend to undermine the Society from within. The Violet Carver Mickey reconstructs Darrow's body to pass as Gold, while Dancer and Matteo train him in Gold history, speech, manners, and politics. Their plan is for Darrow to enter the Institute, become Peerless Scarred, and rise into military or political power where Ares can use him.

At the Institute, the Passage forces Darrow to kill Julian au Bellona, beginning a chain of guilt and deception that later destroys Darrow's friendship with Julian's twin, Cassius. House Mars fractures into rival factions led by students including Darrow, Cassius, Antonia, and Titus. Darrow eventually discovers that Titus is another Red who has been transformed into a Gold, but Titus has turned his grief into indiscriminate vengeance. Darrow sentences him to death and allows Cassius to kill him while Cassius falsely believes Titus killed Julian. Through wars with Minerva, Diana, and Ceres, Darrow becomes known as the Reaper, forms close bonds with Sevro, Roque, Pax, and Mustang, and gradually learns that durable leadership depends more on voluntary loyalty and shared responsibility than on fear and enslavement.

The Jackal, Adrius au Augustus, sends Cassius a recording of Darrow killing Julian. Cassius wounds Darrow and leaves him in the winter, but Mustang saves his life. Darrow rebuilds his force from Oathbreakers and freed students, promising followers purpose and autonomy instead of slavery. Fitchner eventually reveals that Nero au Augustus has pressured and bribed the Proctors to favor the Jackal. Darrow responds by destroying House Apollo and then confronting the Jackal at captured Jupiter Castle. The Jackal cuts off his own hand to escape Darrow's trap after Proctor interference gives him an opening, and Pax dies shielding Darrow from the Jackal's attack. When Proctor Apollo threatens Mustang, Darrow kills Apollo and leads the first student seizure of Olympus, where the Proctors' weapons and surveillance systems are captured.

Fitchner then reveals that Mustang is Virginia au Augustus, the Jackal's twin sister, causing Darrow to believe she has betrayed him. Mustang instead proves her loyalty by returning to Olympus with the Jackal bound and Pluto's standard captured. Director Clintus formally ends the Institute game with Darrow victorious. Nero au Augustus admits that he helped his son and offers Darrow Academy sponsorship, resources, access, and a place in House Augustus in exchange for silence and service. Darrow recognizes that he could choose a more honorable patron, but deliberately accepts service under the man responsible for Eo's death because it gives him a direct route to military training and power. The book ends with Darrow kneeling, abandoning the Andromedus cover name, swearing himself as Augustus's sword, and rising as a Lancer of House Augustus while privately preserving his purpose of fighting for people in bondage.