What happened in A Million Suns by Beth Revis - Recaptains

The basics

Title: A Million Suns

Author: Beth Revis

Series: Across the Universe #2

- Across the Universe (January 2011)
- A Million Suns (January 2012)
- Shades of Earth (January 2013)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

It’s been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. Everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed.

But there may be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to act on his vision—no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder learns shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a mystery that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier. Their success—or failure—will determine the fate of the 2,298 passengers aboard Godspeed. But with each step, the journey becomes more perilous, the ship more chaotic, and the love between them more impossible to fight.

Read a full summary of A Million Suns by Beth Revis below. If you can’t remember what happened in A Million Suns and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

in short

what happened in A Million Suns?

• Elder, now Eldest by title not by name, finds out that Godspeed is not even moving anymore.
• Doc finds a wi-com, and gives it to Amy since she doesn’t have one. It’s made to be like a bracelet. Doc says he found it in the Recorder Room, and Amy realizes that it’s Orion’s.
• The Shippers request Elder to put the Feeders back on phydus, because they are not working to their full potential. He then explains that they need a police force to make sure they don’t do anything bad.
• Everyone sees that someone has hacked the floppy system with text that says there is no leader and to lead yourself.
• When Amy looks closer to her wi-com, she sees that there’s a small text on it. It says “Abandon all hope”. She realizes that is a note Orion left for her. She remembers that the phrase is written above the gates of hell in Dante’s Inferno. Amy goes to the Recorder hall and slips out the book, and sees that a memory chip falls out.
• While Amy is examining the clip, a girl bursts into the room. Amy realizes that it’s Elder’s friend, Victria. She tries to find out what’s wrong. Soon Luthe bursts into the room, and smiles as the two are together.
• Elder finds a robe in Eldest’s closet. It was a robe usually used for important occasions and such.
• Amy starts to throw books are Luthe’s head, gets Victria, and takes a run for it away from him.
• Amy goes to the Keeper Level to meet up with Elder. When she does, Elder tells her they’ve stopped. She asks if she could wake up her parents, but he says no. They start to fight. She decided whether or not to ask him about the floppy, but she decided against it.
• Amy slides her finger on the floppy she found, and a video of Orion plays. He says that there’s a choice she’s going to have to make, and that there are clues to get her way to it, but he can’t tell her directly.
• In the Recorder Room, someone purposely waited for Elder to go into the Room, so when he left he could see his shredded portrait.
• Amy goes into Harley’s room looking for a painting for the next clue, but Victria catches her, and tell her that she doesn’t belong there.
• Doc asks Elder permission if he can use the new medicine patches. They are specifically for depressed patients, and have phydus in them. Elder accepts the new patch. He also tells him that if they food is low, that there a black medicine patches, realizing that it’s a quick death rather than a slow one.
• Amy finds a chip behind Harley’s painting. Along with “Follow me down the rabbit hole”. Amy coms Elder, and bursts into her room in 2.5 seconds. Elder puts the chip in a floppy, and the video plays. It’s of Elder opening Amy’s chamber, Orion putting her back in, and then taking her back out. It was the time he realized he could kill the people in the chambers like this so they couldn’t fight back.
• They see a girl died in the rabbit field dead, and Amy thinks Luthe murdered her.
• Amy runs to the Recorder Room and looks at the Alice in Wonderland book not finding any clues in it.
• Amy and Elder find another clue to find the next clue. They go to the City to find Harley’s home, assuming the painting is there since it wasn’t in the Recorder Room, where it should be. Elder and Amy find the painting in the house, and find another memory card. Along with “1 2 3 4 Add it up to unlock the door.” The find out that Kayleigh’s death was murder, and not suicide. At the end of the video Orion tells Amy to “Go home.” But she doesn’t even know what’s home.
• Harley’s mother starts to not work, so Stevy, and others, say she doesn’t deserve food. Stevy punches Elder and then Elder makes a screeching sound though Stevy’s wi-com. By the time the sound should stop, Stevy doesn’t get up so Bartie and Elder continue to argue.
• A riot is in front of the food distribution, and the riot believes that the owner will only give people food if they work, and that he would keep most of it for himself. The riot starts to get worse, so Amy coms Elder hearing that something is wrong, and she is told to go back to her room, and lock it. Someone soon screams, because Stevy is found dead on the ground. He was killed with three phydus patches saying “Follow the leader”. Everyone starts to believe Elder did this as a warning to everyone.
• Amy goes to the fourth floor to talk to her parents instead of going to her room. When she does, she finds a piece of paper with all the people Orion planned to melt in her chamber. She thinks about her last clue, and adds the amount of people there was, but it didn’t open any locked doors.
• Amy shows Elder the piece of paper, and they go to the fourth level together. Amy shows him that the code she tried did not work. Instead, Elder added up each person’s number. He types the numbers in, and the last door opens. The door reveals the armory and they find the next clue. When they watch the next clue, Orion is much younger than all the other ones. Orion tells them there has to be something on Centauri-Earth if they needed that many weapons. Amy thinks about how the video was odd. How it wasn’t updated, is on a floppy, and mainly scrolling text. She figures that someone else has the real clue, and that the one she found was a fake.
• Doc tells Elder that someone stole the new med patches in his office, so he no longer has them. Soon, Harley’s mother is reported to be dead from the patches with the same phrase on it.
• Amy finds Victria crying, and she sits by her attempting to comfort her. Suddenly Luthe walks in, and tries to seduce Amy. As he draws closer to her, she slaps him across the face, with a med patch she got from Kit, Doc’s assistant, and Luthe falls staring at the ceiling. Victria holds her stomach, and Amy realizes she’s pregnant with Luthe. Amy also realizes that Victria hates her is because Amy escaped Luthe when he tried to rape her, but she did not. Victria ends up kicking him as revenge, and Amy threatens to shoot him.
• Any finally realizes that Orion said that whatever he found was outside, so they needed to be in space to see whatever secret he was talking about. They go into the room with spacesuits, figuring the code was roman numerals rather than regular numbers, and start to read the manual. Under the manual was “The Little Prince”. Circled multiple times, was the phrase, “’I,’ replied the little prince, ‘do not like to condemn anyone to death.’”.
• Elder goes into space, and stares at all the stars around him. Elder’s suit starts to beep, realizing that he’s running out of oxygen. He starts to pull the tether back, but notices the planet, realizing that’s the secret, that Centauri-Earth is right there. He tries to focus, and continues to pull the tether. When he reaches the hatch, he falls on the floor. Amy gives him CPR, and coms Doc.
• Amy has a piece of paper that helps her figure out to use roman numerals rather than regular numbers, and examines it more. She notices by the words that there is a stair-like pattern, and that she needs to find it. She just doesn’t know where they are.
• Elder is told Marae, the head shipper, is dead. He quickly goes to the spot where she died which is the Shipper level. She is killed by patches as well with the same phrase. Elder tells Shelby, next best shipper, to now be head shipper. He tells her to lock the doors, and he shows her the stars, and also reveals the Centauri-Earth.
• Amy goes to the Keeper Level to find a hidden door of some sort to find the stairs. She knocks on the walls to see if she could hear/feel any hollowness. It takes a few moments, but she eventually finds the hallway with stairs.
• Elder and Amy hold a conversation and Amy changes the subject saying how the pond was still. She remembers Harley and Elder saying how there was fish, and this makes her think. Amy confesses how Luthe tried to rape her, and raped Victria, and then Elder gets angry.
• Elder gets a com, and Fridrick, owner of the food management, dies along with the patches and phrase. Somehow, Bartie, Elder’s friend and someone rioting, hacks into the wi-com system, and sends an all-call. Everyone starts to riot, take food from the food building, and they set it on fire. Elder coms Amy telling her to go to her room, and lock the door, but of course, she goes to the chambers.
• Amy thinks because they are so close to Centauri-Earth she could unfreeze her parents. She stares at the button to unfreeze them, thinking of what to do.
• Elder goes to the shipper Level, and starts the rain, and turns the lamp on and off to get everyone’s attention. He does an all-call, telling everyone to go to the Keeper Level, and overrides the system so Bartie, or anyone, couldn’t com anyone.
• Amy walks toward the room door with all the locked rooms, and hatch. She notices someone put the wrong code, and that someone is lying down inside. She runs, and discovers it’s Luthe with green patches over him, but without the phrase. She then puts him though the hatch.
• Elder shows everyone that Godspeed will land soon on Centauri-Earth. He shows them real stars, and how close they are to it.
• Amy goes to the fourth floor to visit her parents. She suddenly hears one of the locked doors slam shut. She thinks that the person is the person who was tampering with the clues. She starts to realize this person knows about the stairs. Amy starts to close the door that was left open, but notices a floppy. Orion confirms they are near Centauri-Earth. Eldest told Doc to kill him when he found out, but he didn’t, and Orion escaped. Orion says to do whatever she can to stop Godspeed from landing. The screen then goes black and shows the phrase “Follow the leader” Amy notices the explosives are gone, and sees that whoever tries to land Godspeed, it will blow.
• When Amy reaches the shipper Level, the explosives go off. The Bridge is now gone, and has to close the door before Godspeed gets sucked out, and that means sacrificing Shelby. Elder finds Amy and knew that she was coming to warn him.
• Another explosive goes off, and it’s on the fourth floor. Elder tells Amy to go check on her parents. She tries to go every way she can, but there’s no entry way for her to get in.
• Amy discovers that Godspeed has a contingency plan. The plan was that the fourth level breaks away from Godspeed as an escape shuttle. Amy finds out it’s under the pond. Since there used to be koi in the pond, they realize how Kayleigh’s death was murder and not suicide. She had found the tunnel at the bottom of the pond, and Eldest killed her making it look like she drowned. Bartie and Victria see Amy swimming in the pond wondering what they’re doing. Bartie drains the pond so Amy can get though.

how did A Million Suns end?

anything else

Other recaps for this series:

• Across the Universe (Across the Universe #1)