In Conversation with Thomas Parrott, author of Tom Clancy’s The Division Recruited
From the bleak and desperate near-future setting of Tom Clancy’s The Division, comes a new literary tale of adrenaline and endurance from Aconyte Books, where fear, hope, despair and love are intertwined at every turn. The Division: Recruited is a thrill ride that keeps the action and drama center stage all the way until the final page. It was therefore The Book Network’s extreme pleasure to pick the brains of author, Thomas Parrott, regarding the novel's creation and themes, starting with what The Division: Recruited is really all about…
‘It’s the story of an ordinary person put into extraordinary circumstances' says Thomas. 'Maira Kanhai is not a classical action hero, but she finds herself with lives depending on her. She has to rise to the occasion. In the process, she has to also start to learn to forgive herself for the times when she’s come up short. Plus, there’s some super spy tech, weapons of mass destruction, and a bear.’
The Division: Recruited serves as Thomas Parrott's contribution to the post-apocalyptic American landscape first created in The Division video games. It is by no means a jolly place to be. Disease, poverty, and the ever-looming threat of deranged bloodthirsty thugs are a fact of life, and innocent survivors face near-impossible odds in an abandoned society where the only authority is their own. This world is therefore a fitting one for main protagonist Maira and her suitably adept Division colleagues to showcase their survival skills. It is also an ideal setting for Parrott to exercise some rather intense creative writing skills. Tom Clancy’s The Division is a lore he was instantly drawn to.
‘The moment I knew I was hooked was when I was going through the materials and saw the phrase “there are still 30 million Americans who need supplies to make it through the winter.” The terrifying depopulation that that figure suggests really pulled me in. The human element of that, the way it means no one has come through unscathed and everyone has lost people they love, that’s something that’s really interesting to explore.’
It’s not the first time that fiction has painted a world fallen to ruin. This meant that Thomas Parrott had no end of pre-existing material to draw influence from, one of the most obvious of course being the Mad Max movies… Or as put more accurately by Thomas, 'This book isn’t The Sum of All Fears. ..this is Mad Max with orange watches!'
However Mad Max is by no means the only place to find the dystopian tropes used in The Division: Recruited.
‘The scene from early in the movie I Am Legend, where Will Smith’s character is walking through the overgrown city hunting deer in the streets? That was really in my mind for a lot of the scene setting. I’ve also watched a documentary called Life After People, and it’s amazing how transitory the marks we’ve made on the world would really be. All the trappings of modern life fall away shockingly fast without constant maintenance.
‘I also read the diaries from the Lewis and Clark expedition when I was younger, and that was a big impact on this story. The journey into the unknown, having to piece together an understanding as you go, it informed the mindset a lot.’
Of course, creating the world is only half the challenge… You also need a gripping story. Fortunately, The Division: Recruited excels at this. Across this book resides an unfaltering tempo of action and suspense, which prevents the readers from growing restless at any point. The more relaxed parts of the book don’t stay relaxed for long, and when this writer said that the action is sustained until the very last page, he meant that literally. Thomas Parrot let us in one some of the techniques he used in order to achieve this level of excitement within the novel.
‘I’ve learned a lot of techniques from people who have been doing this much longer than I have… Ways to structure sentences, that kind of thing. When I was a younger writer, I had a bad habit of letting my writing get in the way of itself, when good action is often the opposite. The key is stripping away everything unnecessary; if the reader is reading fast, the scene will feel fast to them.
‘I think people sometimes underestimate the importance of the quiet scenes between the big flashy sequences too. You have to let the audience breathe, and give them a chance to care about these characters. It’s a matter of stakes. In addition to that, I often ask myself before I write an action scene “what do my characters lose here?” Because if there’s no cost, there’s no point to it.’
And in conjunction with writing good action, one also needs a good level of knowledge pertaining to the real world. Thomas is no slouch when it comes to research, a lot of which was needed to convey the mechanics of vehicles, the topography of land both rural and urban, and of course, the plentiful amount of military hardware at the disposal of each character.
‘I’m constantly researching everything when I’m writing anything. That’s just how I operate. (Anecdote: I spent two hours watching 'Let’s Plays' of The Division video games, trying to find where someone used a sticky bomb launcher so I could get the sound it made right) If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Even if the details are largely lost on the average reader, I still think having things right enriches the tapestry of the story in a way that comes across. It makes the world feel more real, even if only subconsciously.’
Speaking of realistic, this book showcases humanity at its best and worst at a number of points, with some extreme examples of villainy and the exact opposite… Which brings us nicely back to the central protagonist. Maria truly is a wonderful brain to inhabit throughout the course of the book. She's vulnerable, cerebral, kind, and markedly tough. Being led along the story by such a three-dimensional and strikingly resilient human is one of The Division: Recruited’s key attractions, which raises the question: What is the secret to a character like Maira?
The answer, as Thomas explains, is markedly candid.
'This might be a weird answer, but: pain. I think that, as human beings, we are defined by the moments we have fallen short of who we want to be. Everyone I know intimately has the moments they can’t let go of, the failures that they carry around with them. I think that pain is what makes a character come to life. And to take it a step further, it’s what they do with that pain that makes them a hero or a villain.
'I think the driving theme of the book is the cost of the choices we make. Every time you keep a secret, every time you lie to someone, and definitely every time you hurt someone, there is a cost to it. Might not be obvious at the moment, but it’s there. I don’t think there’s a moral, exactly. The book doesn’t offer any perfect answers, because I don’t know any. You have to do your best to do what you think is right, and try to forgive yourself when it doesn’t go the way you wanted it to.'
With The Division: Recruited being a fresh example of high suspense done well, it's easy to imagine many aspiring writers taking influence from this piece of work. It goes without saying that a career in freelance writing is far from an easy or certain one. That said, Parrott was still happy to offer some friendly, and honest, advice.
'It's a tough topic, and here’s why: there are no guarantees. It’s not enough to be a good writer. You have to be a good writer with the right idea at the right moment. A huge part of that is just dumb luck. It’s not fair, but it’s the truth.
‘That said, the part you can control is your writing. That’s the only bit of this you have a grip on. So if you really want to be a freelancer, what you have to do is write. Make time for it. Practice it. Read other writers and take apart how they did what they did. Everyone’s going to want to tell you the 10 Rules of Writing; read them but don’t worship them. Don’t let anyone control your writing, because if you do you’ll lose your voice. Instead, try to understand why they think those are the rules. That way you can make your own informed choice.'
Sage advice without any doubt! As for the future in Thomas Parrott's own writing career…
'I’m currently contracted to do another novel for Aconyte Books, but that’s all I can say on that for now! '
In other words, good readers… Stay tuned!
About the Author
Thomas Parrott grew up reading science fiction and fantasy from a very young age. This was only compounded by the discovery of video games and tabletop roleplaying. This has led to a life of dealing with the mundane while dreaming of dragons. He has written Isha’s Lament, The Test of Faith, and Loyal to the End, all for the Warhammer 40,000 setting, as well as short fiction for Arkham Horror and KeyForge anthologies. He lives in Georgia.
Thomas Parrott Twitter: @ThomasP71740560
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