Biography
Pierce Novak
He grew up amid the lakes and forests of Minnesota, where long winters taught him the power of a good story to outrun the dark.
A polymath with a BS in Mass Communications and Advertising, an MS in Cybersecurity, and an MBA, he balances a day job in technology with a PhD candidacy in Computer Science that keeps him deep in code by night.
For over a decade he honed his craft through short stories and a novella. He wrote Malmorthael because the epic he wanted did not exist — three hundred and ninety-nine pages of vengeance and the brotherhood that forms in the shadow of loss.
When he’s not writing, Pierce deadlifts heavy, runs farther than necessary, hacks for fun, and mainlines coffee like rocket fuel. He lives in the Midwest with his wife and children.
- Home
- Minnesota lakes. Midwest now.
- Degrees
- BS Mass Comm. MS Cybersecurity. MBA. PhD candidate, CS (AI/ML).
- Daylight
- Technology, manufacturing, cyber.
- Otherwise
- Deadlifts. Long runs. Coffee like rocket fuel.
On the work
Why Malmorthael exists
At its heart, Malmorthael is about a man who loses the woman he loves and chooses to burn the world down rather than live without her. It’s a story of vengeance, but more than that, it’s about the brotherhood that forms in the shadow of that loss. It explores what men are willing to become, and what they’re willing to sacrifice, when they fight not for glory or power, but for the people they love.
He wrote it because he could not find the science fantasy he wanted to read. He wanted epic scale, real emotional stakes, morally complex characters, and a story that didn’t shy away from darkness, brotherhood, and vengeance. When he realized no one else had written that book — grand, gritty, and unapologetic — he wrote it himself.
Music is central. The sweep of Hans Zimmer — especially Interstellar and Man of Steel. The heroic drive of Henry Jackman’s “Captain America.” The brotherhood-forged aggression of As I Lay Dying and Born of Osiris. One song, on repeat, for years — until the frequency of the book is the only thing left in the room.