The Fandom administrator Nat sat down with Red Rising series author Pierce Brown for an exclusive interview at San Diego Comic Con! The two discussed the evolution of the Red Rising series, broke down some of Iron Gold‘s biggest moments, and talked about what’s next for Dark Age.
Don’t worry, this interview is free of major Dark Age spoilers!
In the story’s chronology, there’s only a couple weeks between the end of Iron Gold and the start of Dark Age, making it Brown’s shortest book-to-book transition period to date. Still, there are new conflict brewing, and Brown clearly sees why some of his characters are unsure about the past decade of changes and their fragile system:
“When you’re progressing toward a new conflict, characters feel nostalgic for the past and so do their leaders. ‘Things were better before you stirred the pot.’ But the story doesn’t have a clean ending, you know what I mean? It was going that way in Book 3 of the last series, but I felt like it was insincere in the overall world of Darrow. It’s all about shades of gray. It’s all about what the permutations of evil and good are, and if they even exist in that holistic idea. The characters are reminiscing about the past because they understood that world and this new world, while it’s hard– There’s new freedom, there’s a broken regime, and there’s the New Republic led by Virginia. It’s still in a state of flux.”
How is Darrow, the character who first brought us into the world of Red Rising? He’s absolutely feeling the weight of this new world, perhaps even more so than the rest of the characters.
“The guy’s tired. He’s carried all these peoples’ hopes and dreams on his shoulders for so long and he can feel the love waning. He can feel the affection and loyalty slipping away. And I think it’s because few people are willing to make sacrifices to the extent that he is. And I think at some point, he takes responsibility for Red Rising. He knows all the horrors that he created, but he also knows it’s a chance he created for freedom. I think he finally just wants to end the box of horrors, put a lid on it and finish this war.”
While we’ll get more of the characters we love, Dark Age will also offer up some new characters. We’ll see their triumphs and failures, but we won’t see is their POV. “I told my editor I was going to possibly do another POV in this and she just said ‘No.’ No. Flat-out no,” said Brown.
At just over 700 pages and with the war picking up speed, you can expect to see some glorious battle sequences in the fifth novel– and Brown promises they’ll not only be action-packed, but poignant.
“I get really bored in battle scenes unless there’s a big emotional component. The emotional arc has to have the same peaks and valleys as the battle arc… I don’t actually like writing battle scenes. I find that my favorite moments are the quiet, small ones. Battle scenes have to be really earned.”
Watch Part 1 of the interview at the top of the post and watch Part 2 below!
Dark Age (Red Rising #5) is out now. You can pick up a copy via Amazon or support your local independent bookstore via Indiebound!
