Gennady Malianov is a fictional detective from a cycle of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

techno thriller A techno-thriller or technothriller is a hybrid genre drawing from science fiction, thrillers, spy fiction, action, and war novels. They include a disproportionate amount (relative to other genres) of technical details on their subject matter (t ...

stories by Canadian writer Karl Schroeder set in the

near future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

."Why Science Fiction Likes To Look 50 Years Into The Future"
by Ria Misra, ''

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' ( ) is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the subsite ''io9'', whic ...

'', June 11, 2014 Typically Malianov operates as a freelance nuclear arms inspector investigating various cases of threats related to radioactive materials.

Overview

Malianov is a "pathologically shy Ukrainian arms inspector and anti-

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

", "neither dashing nor brave, not a killer, manipulator or even particularly clever". Within the context of technological progress, he is neither optimist, nor apocalypic pessimist. Regardless rises and falls in the world, Malianov works hard to clean up the mess, thus working towards the progress. As Schroeder puts it: "Shooting radioactive camels in the Gobi desertShooting radioactive camels in China, as well as tracking the " Becquerel reindeer" carcasses in Norway, are mentioned in the setup of the story "To Hie from Far Cilenia". is one of the prices to be paid for our industrialist past, and somebody has to pay it. Gennady represents that side of technological progress that we in SF so rarely acknowledge: he's a trash collector,""Gennady Malianov"
at Shroeder's blog "a world's janitor". Malianov is a favorite of the writer."B55 Mini Interviews with Victoria Sandbrook, Robert J. Sawyer, Flourish Klink & Karl Schroeder"
''The Boskone Blog'', January 6, 2018 In 2019 Schroeder tweeted that he was hoping to collect all Malianov stories in one book.

Stories

; "The Dragon of Pripyat", 1999 ''Tesseracts 8'' anthology, Tesseract Books, 1999.) Malianov enters the Chernobyl exclusion zone to investigate an

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

ist's threat to breach the nuclear containment "sarcophagus" and dump the

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

into the Pripyat River. Also there are rumors about a

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

in the area.The Engine of Recall by Karl Schroeder
a review by Ernest Lilley ; "Alexander's Road", 2005 ''The Engine of Recall'' Malianov's search of missing stolen uranium leads him to a search of two stolen Soviet nuclear bombs, hidden under abandoned oil derricks in Azerbaijan. Nominated for the

Aurora Award for Best Short Fiction The Aurora Awards are granted annually by the Canadian SF and Fantasy Association and SFSF Boreal Inc. The Award for Best Short Fiction ( French: ''La meilleure fiction courte''), was first recognized in 1986 as a separate category from Best Long- ...

in 2006. ; "To Hie from Far Cilenia", 2008 '' METAtropolis: The Dawn of Uncivilization'' Malianov is tracking some stolen plutonium to be smuggled, and finds that the illegal deals are carried out in virtual states. The story is set in near future, with advanced developments in the area of

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

and information networking. ; "Deodand", 2010 Originally published in ''METAtropolis: Cascadia'' In the story, a deodand is an

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

that represents some system of the

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

: a lake, a pack of wolves, etc. As such, the deodands try to optimize the interests of the systems they represent. Malianov runs into them during a temporary gig after the events from the Cilenia story: a robotics company hires him to figure out why their AI misbehave. ; "Laika's Ghost", 2010 '' Engineering Infinity'', edited by Jonathan Strahan, December 2010 Paul Kincaid in his review of the 2012 "Best of the Year" anthologies called it one of the best stories in the reviewed collections. He sees it as a reflection of the growing pessimism in science fiction: alianov"discovers that the only people ready to take up the dream of flight to other worlds are aged remnants of the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

". Schroeder disagrees with Kincaid's judgement: in the broader context of Malianov stories, the world is not exhausted in its energy, it merely shifts the gears. The title alludes to Laika, a Soviet space dog. ; "Kheldyu", 2014 ''

Reach for Infinity ''Reach for Infinity'' is a 2014 science fiction anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan. In 2015, it was nominated for a Locus Award for Best Anthology, an Aurealis Award for Best Anthology and the Philip K. Dick Award. Contents * "Introduction" ( ...

'', edited by Jonathan Strahan, May 2014 An Achille Marceau builds solar updraft towers in Siberia, which generate electricity while taking CO₂ out of the air, thus supposedly helping to combat the

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

while profiting from the market in carbon. However, Malianov notices an environmental disaster in the area. With the help of an ally, who is Achille's sister and UN's arms inspector, the sinister design is thwarted in an action-packed story. Shroeder describes "Kheldyu" as "my most pessimistic Gennady Malianov piece"."Loosed Upon the World"
at Shroeder's blog

Notes

References

External links

*
''Laika's Ghost''
a reprint in '' Clarkesworld'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Malianov, Gennady Fictional private investigators Science fiction characters Nuclear safety and security Fictional Ukrainian people