Death
Death has become a norm to Darrow in this book. He kills countless people and their faces all blur into one. His compassion and humanity begins to drain from him, and he begins to emulate the Gold’s, despite his insistence he isn’t one of them. However, Darrow manages to bring himself back to humanity when he recalls Eo would have been disgusted by his killings and that she had wished for a better world for him and their children.
Keep your enemies close
In this book, Darrow has become one of the Peerless Scarred and works for the enemy, Nero au Augustus. He considers negotiations with Jackal, Adrius au Augustus to bring down the Sovereign and the Sons of Ares, with Darrow becoming the face of the revolution. This shows how much Darrow has changed from the first book, in that he is willing to behave like the Gold’s in order to get what he wants.
Social status
Darrow is a member of the Red class, the lowest possible class on Mars. He is forced to mine Helium-3 till the ends of his days, whilst the elite Gold class continue to rule over the lower classes. The clear caste divide between the different groups results in frustration and anger, and eventually transcends to rebellion against an unfair system. Darrow himself infiltrates the Gold’s in order to fight the unfair system but is caught.