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Pierce Brown

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Pierce Brown
Brown at the 2017 Phoenix Comicon
Brown at the 2017 Phoenix Comicon
Born (1988-01-28) January 28, 1988 (age 36)
Denver, Colorado, United States
OccupationNovelist and screenwriter
LanguageEnglish
Alma materPepperdine University (BA)
SubjectScience fiction, young adult, dystopian
Notable worksRed Rising saga
Notable awardsGoodreads Best Science Fiction Novel 2015 & 2016, Goodreads Best New Author 2014
Website
piercebrown.com

Pierce Brown (born January 28, 1988) is an American science fiction author who writes the Red Rising series, consisting of Red Rising (2014), Golden Son (2015), Morning Star (2016), Iron Gold (2018), Dark Age (2019), and Light Bringer (2023). He also has written a six-issue prequel comic book series, Red Rising: Sons of Ares, that was published in 2017.

Personal life

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Pierce Brown grew up in seven different states. His mother, Colleen Birdnow Brown, was the President and CEO of Fisher Communications and the Chairman of American Apparel's Board of Directors.[1][2] His father, Guy Brown, is a former local banker.[3]

Brown graduated from Pepperdine University, where he majored in political science and economics. After graduation, he worked a variety of jobs in politics and startup tech companies.[4] Brown was working for the NBC Page Program in Burbank, California and living in his former political science professor's garage when he sold Red Rising in 2012.[3]

Career

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Brown wrote six novels[5] and faced rejection from over 120 agents before selling Red Rising.[6] He wrote the novel in two months above his parents' garage in Seattle, Washington.[3]

Red Rising, published in 2014, received widespread positive reviews,[7][8][9] and hit #20 on The New York Times Best Seller list.[10] The 2015 sequel, Golden Son, hit #6 on the same list and was equally praised by critics.[11] In 2016, Morning Star reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list in Adult Hardcover, Digital Book and cumulative.[12] It also reached #1 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list.[13]

In February 2014, shortly after the release of Red Rising, Universal Pictures acquired the rights for a film adaptation in a 7-figure auction.[14] Marc Forster is set to direct, with Brown writing the screenplay.[14][15] Brown told Entertainment Weekly that after completing the original trilogy, "I took a meager little break, mostly to stretch my screenwriting muscles."[16] As of February 2016, the film was still in development, with Brown having written the first two drafts.[17] He said in March 2016, "I have written the first two drafts of the film and now we're on the third. Hopefully it will be greenlit this year. The vision from the film makers is 'Lawrence of Arabia in space', which is terribly exciting for me as it's my favorite film."[18] The rights eventually reverted to Brown,[19] and in January 2018, Brown said he was developing Red Rising as a television series.[19][20] Brown confirmed in October 2018 that the project had a director and a showrunner, and added that the film rights had also been resold to an unspecified studio.[21]

Brown announced a sequel trilogy in February 2016,[13] to begin with the novel Iron Gold in August 2017.[16] A prequel comic book series, Red Rising: Sons of Ares, debuted in May 2017.[22][23]

Brown said of his writing:

It has been fun to have it take on a life of its own. I feel like I'm not even creating as much as I'm revealing things, and that's a really lovely thing for me to have because it is so fun to get to explore my own world ... Anyone who writes books is at least mostly an introvert. It is amazing to be able to share that internalized part of myself, that little world that no one really knows about. I just wrote it down on a piece of paper just to be crazy, and people loving that is so strange.[13]

The author has said that his writing has been "hugely" influenced by his readers' feedback, explaining:

I was able to see which punches connected with the readers. It can teach you to be a better writer. I could see readers' perspectives of Darrow evolve and was able to mold him to evolve with that. I also don't want to take away from the reader's imagination. I don't talk too much about how most of my characters look, I want them to have a tonal quality where the reader creates the image for themselves.[18]

Brown also noted the popularity of his novels among the LGBT community, saying "It's amazing that they have found a home in these books ... All these lost souls in my books have connected with people and I find it incredibly moving."[18]

As of June 2021, the Red Rising saga had sold over 2 million copies in the US alone.[24]

Reception

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Marc Snetiker of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Brown has packed his pages with an astonishing amount of cinematic action and twists",[25] and Jason Sheehan of NPR agreed that "Brown writes layered, flawed characters ... but plot is his most breathtaking strength ... Every action seems to flow into the next."[26] Kirkus Reviews called the third installment, Morning Star, "multilayered and seething with characters who exist in a shadow world between history and myth, much as in Frank Herbert's Dune ... an ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga".[27]

Brown is the recipient of the Goodreads 2014 Best New Novelist Award, as well as the Goodreads Best Science Fiction Novel Award in 2015 for Golden Son and in 2016 for Morning Star.[28][29][30]

Bibliography

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Novels

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Comic books

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Short stories

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Notes

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  1. ^ Briefly reviewed by Peter Heck in the August 2015 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, pp.107–111.

References

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  1. ^ "Colleen Birdnow Brown". Bloomberg.
  2. ^ "American Apparel Appoints Colleen B. Brown as Chairperson of the Board of Directors (AMEX:APP)". investors.americanapparel.net. Archived from the original on 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  3. ^ a b c La Rosa, Erin (February 6, 2014). "Why Pierce Brown Might Be Fiction's Next Superstar". BuzzFeed. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  4. ^ "Red Rising Author Pierce Brown Shares Experiences That Shaped His Futuristic Society – The Surge™". The Surge™. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  5. ^ Cooke, Lacy (January 1, 2015). "Red Rising Author Pierce Brown Shares Experiences That Shaped His Futuristic Society". TheSurge.com. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  6. ^ Patrick, Diane (May 31, 2013). "BEA 2013: Pierce Brown: Six Is the Charm". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  7. ^ Snetiker, Marc (February 5, 2014). "Red Rising (2014)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  8. ^ Truitt, Brian (February 1, 2014). "Red Rising ascends above a crowded dystopian field". USA Today. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  9. ^ Michaelian, Britt (January 17, 2014). "14 to 40: The Mother-Daughter Book Experience of Red Rising". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  10. ^ "Best Sellers for the week of February 16, 2014". The New York Times. February 16, 2014. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  11. ^ "Best Sellers: Hardcover Fiction". The New York Times. January 25, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  12. ^ "Best Sellers: Combined Print & E-book Fiction". The New York Times. February 28, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  13. ^ a b c Truitt, Brian (February 17, 2016). "Pierce Brown lands at No. 1 with Morning Star, plans new series". USA Today. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  14. ^ a b Fleming, Mike Jr. (February 6, 2014). "Universal Wins 7-Figure Auction For Red Rising, With Marc Forster Helming Mars Tale". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  15. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (February 5, 2014). "Hot Book Du Jour: Red Rising, With WWZ's Marc Forster Helming". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  16. ^ a b Snetiker, Marc (December 15, 2016). "Pierce Brown debuts new Red Rising trilogy, cover, plot". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
  17. ^ Sarner, Lauren (February 4, 2016). "Pierce Brown Knows Mars the Planet and Mars the God". Inverse. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  18. ^ a b c Kyriazis, Stefan (March 6, 2016). "Red Rising author Pierce Brown on film casting, the Irongold sequels & fan power". Daily Express. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  19. ^ a b Howler, Kelly (May 3, 2018). "Pierce Brown Talks Red Rising TV Show, Violet Life and More". Howler Life. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  20. ^ Howler, Kelly (January 29, 2018). "A Red Rising TV Show Could Happen Instead of a Movie". Howler Life. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  21. ^ Howler, Kelly (October 5, 2018). "Pierce Brown Talks Dark Age, the TV Show Status and Red Rising Tattoos at NYCC". Howler Life. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  22. ^ Wickline, Dan (February 20, 2017). "Pierce Brown's Red Rising Gets A Prequel Comic From Dynamite". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  23. ^ "Full Creative Team of Pierce Brown's Original Red Rising: Sons of Ares Comic Book Series Announced". IndieComix.net. February 20, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  24. ^ "piercebrownofficial". Instagram.
  25. ^ Snetiker, Marc (December 30, 2014). "Golden Son (2015)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  26. ^ Sheehan, Jason (January 11, 2015). "Golden Son Is Space Opera That Doesn't Forget The Opera". NPR. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  27. ^ "Morning Star by Pierce Brown". Kirkus Reviews. December 9, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  28. ^ "Best Books 2014 — Goodreads Choice Awards". Goodreads. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  29. ^ "Best Books 2015 — Goodreads Choice Awards". Goodreads. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  30. ^ Nickelsburg, Monica (December 6, 2016). "The votes are in: Goodreads reveals 20 best books of 2016". GeekWire. Archived from the original on December 22, 2023. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
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