Author Spotlight: Pierce Brown Dark Age event!

If you’ve been reading my posts until now, then you might know I love the Red Rising series (by Pierce Brown). If you didn’t know or are new to the blog then here it is: I LOVE THE RED RISING SERIES!!!! It’s an epic science fiction series that is about a dystopian society that has class hierarchies described by color, with Golds being the top of society. Each color has a type of job that they’re allowed to do, and everything is very restrictive – you can’t marry outside your class (each color is genetically modified, some with special enhancements but also so that you can’t conceive children outside of your own color). Anyway it’s brilliant and brutal and gut-wrenching and you all gotta read it.

The fifth book in the series was released at the end of July, and Pierce went on tour to promote it. I am lucky to live close to New York City, so I was able to attend his even there on the 7th at the Barnes and Noble Union Square.

I wanted to share with you my experience of the event and meeting Pierce! I’ve included a lot of the stuff I could remember from Pierce’s discussion and Q&A session which will hopefully those of you who wanted to see him but couldn’t will enjoy 🙂 Sorry in advance, this is kind of a long one! But it’s worth it 🙂

P.S. There may be slight spoilers for the original trilogy + Iron Gold! But most of it is pretty tame.

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Getting event tickets

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There wasn’t much information on Pierce’s or the B&N website about the event, so I had to call the store to see how the event was going to work. Basically they were giving out wristbands that gave you access to the signing and to get a wristband you had to purchase a copy of Dark Age (the recent release) in the store on the day of the event. I didn’t know how popular the event would be, if the wristband would be limited, or if they were numbered so I decided to stay closer to the city with some friends the night before, and get to the store when it opened at 9:00am.

I ended up getting there about half an hour early, and there were already about 25 people lined up waiting. Once the store opened, the employees were super organized and had copies of Dark Age with wristbands just ready at the register, so you just had to get in line and pay. I was pretty impressed with their organization.

I will say that I don’t like this way of doing tickets – it’s super skewed towards those who have the time and ability to be at the store in person. It’s really difficult for people who live far away, work normal 9-5 jobs, aren’t able bodied, etc. Also, it’s almost like they’re against pre-orders?? Like doing it this way definitely drives revenue for the store which is fair, but a lot of poeple who love his books have pre-ordered the book and may not be able to afford a second copy and therefore this event. I’m not sure what the best solution is – maybe a lower ticket price, and also doing tickets online? But that’s not my job I guess haha, just my thoughts.

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A whole day before the event

Luckily the friends I stayed with work in the city and one of them let me hang out at her work for the day! Her office has free cold brew coffee, tea, and kombucha so it was pretty rad. I was planning on reading Iron Gold all day but I was too tired haha so I worked on some blog posts, answered some emails, and did a little research.

At lunch I got to meet up with Alyx (The Book’s Buzz, @alyxandriaang)!! We had delicious Korean food for lunch, and then we went to get bubble tea which both of us are obsessed with. I want more bubble tea now just thinking about it hahaha. Then we went to The Strand for a bit and browsed around! I love being able to meet up with fellow bloggers/bookstagrammers.

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Event time!!!

The event started at 7:00pm, and I got there a bit after 6:00pm and it was already packed! I wasn’t too fussed about getting a seat up front, so I sat somewhere in the middle and just listened to a podcast until the event started. I think most author events are set up in a similar way to how this one was – an hour of discussion/Q&A followed by signing and meeting. At this event there was roughly a half an hour each of discussion and Q&A.

Discussion with Peter V. Brett

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Here are some photos from the event! Sorry for the low quality zoom lol. And look at that cute dog in the front!!

Pierce is a really great speaker – he has a great voice but he’s also hilarious and really charismatic. He makes a lot of jokes, but can also really get into the serious stuff.

It was really awesome that they had another author moderate the discussion, because the two of them could talk about their different writing styles and other craft things. Peter V. Brett is the author of a pretty well known fantasy series called The Demon Cycle. I haven’t read his books yet but a few of my friends really like his books!

I’m gonna list some of the main talking points from the discussion. I took pretty good notes because I wanted to be able to share stuff with people who weren’t able to go to any of his events! But I couldn’t get everything, naturally. Some things may not have a lot of context but they were just funny things I wanted to include haha.

• “I don’t want them to know me too well.” (Pierce) “Well I didn’t ask you boxers or briefs!” (Peter) “Neither, duh!” (Pierce)
• Peter asked about going from 1 POV to 4 POVs – and then Pierce made a joke about going full George R. R. Martin and doing 19 POVs in his next book
• Peter said he had his first “awww man!” reaction to a death in the first five chapters and Pierce said “yeah sorry about Darrow man” 😂
• Pierce doesn’t outline – tries but is hard because of different POVs; he likes first person for immediacy and getting in the character’s head, also gets to see how the character speaks; “keeping your nose to the ground”; he feels outlines are too omniscient – to him it’s like the outline decides the plot/characters rather than characters deciding plot
• As he writes, he re-layers as he goes to add in seeds and details, so first drafts take him like 9 months (longer than next three drafts combined)
• First draft: for the main characters, voice, etc. Second draft: thematic resonance, making themes connect. Third draft: for secondary characters. Fourth draft: overall themes/plot/etc
• When Pierce is old and disillusioned – “Imagine how dark the books will be then. No one will survive! Except Sophocles. Can’t kill the fox.”
• Peter says “Things are a mess going into Dark Age” and Pierce responds with “What do you mean? Darrow’s made so many good decisions up until now.” 😂
• Darrow’s misconception in Iron Gold is that he can finish everything in one blow (finish the rising etc) – he also feels that people at home don’t understand the enemy and what it is to be fighting and out there doing the work so he thinks he knows better
• The first trilogy is about rebellions and zany schemes and the archetypes we know. The second trilogy is indicting that – not trying to undermine the first trilogy, but rather the point is to assess and challenge the thesis of the rising and the zaniness and the pluckiness and see if it stands, see if the thesis is still right. Darrow is kinda like the main antagonist! What happens – does he stick with Eo’s dream or abandon it? Does it stand up? If it does, then it’s the right thesis.
• Lyria’s POV is important because the thesis is that marginalized people deserve agency, everyone is equal etc. so we want to see how this thesis plays out, we need to see the marginalized POV and see how the rising affected her
• Greek influences – Antigone, Plato’s Republic, the Iliad, etc. also Roman and Byzantine empires. Characters inspired by themes present in Roman society (super competitive, you couldn’t win even once you get to the top)
• Peter asked him what made him feel he needed more time with this book (referencing delays of release date). Pierce’s response: Kept wanting to explore things; when writing he kinda made Ephraim’s POV like a Russian novel – anthropological survey of the other colors through his eyes; kept wanting to dive deeper into the world; how to maintain balance between huge scope and intimacy; thought of himself by the end as the eye of Sauron – following the action around instead of following each POV equally, learning about how to use POVs in a different way
• Pierce wrote each POV individually and then pieced them together (important to make each one sound distinct – really wanted fidelity of perspective); syncing them up was a mess
• He has three main arcs in each book: the action/kinetic arc (physical stuff happening); the emotional arc (how the characters feel, etc); and the thematic arc (what’s the point of the book?) – this becomes really hard with five POVs since each POV basically has those three arcs within it

Q&A Session

Once again I’m listing as many questions as I could keep up with! Sorry if the notes are choppy, I was typing on my phone and trying to go fast haha.

• Who hurt you?
• Same question my mom asked. She read the whole beginning thing about Eo and she was like “…where did you learn all this?”
• From your writing, you’re into military history, battle strategy, etc. I also pick up on camaraderie and interest in psychology. Do you have a connection to the military?
• Long history of service in the family, and basically I chickened out. A lot of my friends served. Any team based activity is similar and military is exponential returns. It’s hurry up and wait, and frustration, and filling time between shifts. The sense of futility. That’s what interests me.
• How do you view the fandom’s general dislike of Lysander?
• I hope they would dislike him, since he’s a born racist. A “noble” racist. If we only saw him through other person’s POV then we’d like him. But we see his reasonings and ideals and we dislike him for that. I’d be more concerned if people liked him. I think his upbringing was so fucked up he can’t escape it.
• Any piece of theater that has moved or inspired you?
• No. Haha yeah I think there’s been a lot of things but mostly from books. I often fall asleep in theater. I oddly like opera. I like it for the first 30 minutes then I fall asleep and then I come back for the last 40 minutes. It’s about playing with the themes of sound and fury – same themes of Red Rising. For me plays are a little to cute. I enjoy them but they don’t inspire me as much.
• Do you have a favorite poem?
• I do. Great question. I love *I couldn’t catch the name 🙁 * by Rudyard Kipling. Also Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe, about his love dying young. Feeling of indignation at loss of a loved one – inspired Darrow. There’s also mermaids in it so I loved that.
• Do you think if Tactus had survived would he have joined Darrow?
• Yes, but still ten years later? I don’t know. Appollonius did a number on him.
• Who inspired Victra?
• **HE’S BLUSHING**. Considering I have a girlfriend now and we don’t talk about past relationships I’m gonna take the fifth on that. I’m literally turning purple right now.
• Who or what inspired Darrow?
• Hollywood always make the heroes righteous heroes – all the things they do that could be seen as evil are okay because someone bad forced them into doing it (i.e. they kill the villain because the villain pulled a gun on them, so it was self defense). I wanted a hero that wasn’t necessarily that way. One that may just commit horrible acts in the name of justice. How do I make a character that strikes the villain when they’re on the ground? How do they deal with the vicious and brutal acts they commit in the name of good? Antigone inspired Eo. Eo came first and then Darrow. How does someone come to terms with the person the love more than anything loving something other than them the most?

One of the last things he said was: “No character is interesting to me unless they’re at war with themselves.” which I found just immensely interesting!

Meeting Pierce!

I’ve met a few authors now and each time is no exception, I have no idea how to interact with them 😂. I mostly just say hello and something random that pops into my head. When I went up to the table, Pierce asked me if I had any questions and I was like “uh no” HAHAHA. But then I told him I love his books and I love all the science aspects in them since I’m an astrophysicist and he said “Ahhh so you can be my bullshit detector!” hahaha. And then we got to take a photo together 🙂 all in all, it was amazing and I am still giddy over getting to meet him.

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I hope you enjoyed reading about the event and what Pierce had to say!! Have you read his books? What did you think? Lemme know, I’m always up for discussing haha.

Have you been to any author events? If you haven’t, which authors would you most like to meet?