From Cirque du Soleil to Rising Empires meet AJ Light and Ridge Kiley
January 20, 2026·49 min·5 clips
The opening is a little scrambled. After some ad-copy clutter, the conversation settles into Rising Empires and the timing of the Kickstarter launch. The host is already in. He has seen the campaign all over the place, heard Mark talk through the opportunity, and downloaded the novel before the interview really starts. The comparison is easy to follow. The Awakening is the huge universe-level story, with a threat pushing in on the whole world. Rising Empires feels closer to the ground. It still has global consequences, but the appeal is how personal and local the story seems to get. That smaller scale helps. With fewer characters to track, the book has more room to make each person matter. The comics talk stays practical, too. The host wants to pull up the Kickstarter, check the cover page, and make sure the launch details are clear. January 20th is the date, with 8 a.m. Pacific and 11 a.m. Eastern pinned down for anyone watching after the livestream. The speaker sounds cheerful about staying out of the way. He says he had more of a hand in the Alpha Clash universe-building before, but this time he has let AJ and Mark run with the creative side. The fan energy is obvious. He is reading scripts early, seeing art come in, and enjoying the book as it comes together. The host keeps the push going. By the end, he tells AJ and Ridge he is hooked and nudges listeners to back it in the first few days. It plays like comics shop talk: part campaign walkthrough, part fan conversation, and pretty clearly not a polished sales deck.
