Vladimir Nikolaevich Vasilyev (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Васи́льев, uk, Володи́мир Микола́йович Васи́льєв) (born August 8, 1967) is a Russian
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 uni ...
writer and musician. His first book was published in 1991. A professional writer since 1996.
Bibliography
Series
* Shandalar (Шандалар)
** ''Cloudy Land'' (Облачный край), 1994
** ''One Year of Life'' (Год жизни), 1996
** ''Otran's Black Stone'' (Черный камень Отрана), 1996
Shandalar was a rich and beautiful land, but the high gods have become angry with it, and so came great rains, great wars, and great hunger. The world was dying, but there were a few brave (or foolish) heroes who decided to prevent the death of the world, even if each of them will have to die for it. Bloody battles awaited the warriors, but they were protected by the Signs, the guardians of the Balance, and they were led by the fearless Miron, the most famous hero of Shandalar.
* Blades (Клинки)
** ''Blades'' (Клинки), 1996
** ''A Thicket's Soul'' (Душа чащобы), 1996
There is a mystery hidden where the ancient mountains rise, where eternal cold and winter rule. The
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...
call it the Box of Munir-raven, the
Pechenegs
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პა ...
know it as the Magic Chest, but the fair-haired Slavic warriors say that the chest hides the great Books of Crafts greater than all others. Three
druzhina
In the medieval history of Kievan Rus' and Early Poland, a druzhina, drużyna, or družyna ( Slovak and cz, družina; pl, drużyna; ; , ''druzhýna'' literally a "fellowship") was a retinue in service of a Slavic chieftain, also called ''knyaz ...
s head to find the chest from three parts of the world:
Normans
The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...
, sons of the sea;
nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
s from steppes; and the Russian vityazs. They go through danger, darkness, and sorcery. They go through our world and other worlds. Only one of three, however, would get what they seek.
* Big Kiev (Большой Киев)
** ''The Big Kiev Technician'' a.k.a. ''Hunt for Wild Trucks'' (Техник Большого Киева/Охота на дикие грузовики), 1997
** '' The Big Kiev Witcher'' (Ведьмак Большого Киева), 1999–2009
A kind of technological fantasy ''The Big Kiev Technician''. The world in which machines are functioning by themselves and have consciousness similar to that of animals. Various races, such as humans and elves; wild and domestic vehicles.
''The Big Kiev Witcher'' is a short-story cycle included 10 stories which set in the Big Kiev universe. Witcher Geralt's work is to destroy machines-monsters; Geralt combines care for the City and indifference to all other things with inner warm feelings and care for alive, not shown to everyone. The series is inspired by Polish fantasy writer
Andrzej Sapkowski
Andrzej Sapkowski (; born 21 June 1948) is a Polish fantasy writer, essayist, translator and a trained economist. He is best known for his six-volume series of books '' The Witcher'', which revolves around the eponymous "witcher," a monster-hun ...
's series about
Geralt
Geralt of Rivia ( pl, Geralt z Rivii) is a fictional Character (arts), character and the protagonist of ''The Witcher'' series of short stories and novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. He is a magically enhanced monster-hunter known as a "w ...
(
The Witcher
''The Witcher'' ( pl, Wiedźmin ) is a series of six fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are be ...
saga).
* Death or Glory (Смерть или слава)
** '' Death or Glory'' (Смерть или слава), 1998
** ''Black Relay Race'' (Черная эстафета), 1999
** Mobility War (Война за мобильность)
*** ''Giants' Legacy'' (Наследие исполинов), 2002
*** ''No One but Us'' (Никто, кроме нас), 2005
''Death or Glory'' describes the struggle of humanity to find its place among the stars, when a giant ship suddenly appears in the skies of a human Wild-West-like colony world, soon to be followed by the five alien races (reptillian Svaigh, avian Aczanny and Zoopht, insectoid Swarm, and crystalline Ayeshi) and their extragalactic enemies (Imperishables). The humans embark on a quest to find out if the ship is a blessing or a curse.
''Black Relay Race'' departs from the science-fiction theme and becomes a horror novel, in which people disappear one-by-one while transporting a mysterious object across space.
The ''War for Mobility'' duology takes place centuries after ''Death or Glory''. Humanity has just joined the great Alliance of superior races, when a human scout ship locates a portal into another galaxy. The discovery sparks an interstellar war, as two of the former Alliance slave races (skeleton-like Shat-Tsurs and shapeshifting Oaons) attempt to destroy their former masters. Now the aliens which only recently looked down on humans must now rely on them to win the war and be the first to find the cache of star portals left behind by an ancient race in another galaxy, for the one who possesses the portals can move entire fleets instantaneously from system to system with nothing to stop them.
:As Vasilyev noted in an interview, "''Death or Glory'' was written under the impression from
David Brin
Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American scientist and author of science fiction. He has won the Hugo,Startide Rising and
The Uplift War
''The Uplift War'' is a 1987 science fiction novel by American writer David Brin, the third book of six set in his Uplift Universe. It was nominated as the best novel for the 1987 Nebula Award and won the 1988 Hugo and Locus Awards. The previo ...
".2002 Interview with Vladimir Vasilyev (in Russian). While a relative success in Russia (17,000 copied of ''Death or Glory'' issued by 2000), the novel was only PODbr>published in English in 2004 by Capricorn Publishing.
* Wolf Nature (Волчья натура)
** ''Wolf Nature'' (Волчья натура), 1999
** ''Everyone With Beast Inside'' (Зверь в каждом из нас), 2000
In duology describes Earth-like world, inhabited by beings, having descended from dogs not apes.
* World of Watches (Мир Дозоров)
** '' Day Watch'' (Дневной дозор), 2000 with
Sergey Lukyanenko
Sergei Vasilyevich Lukyanenko (russian: Серге́й Васи́льевич Лукья́ненко, ; born 11 April 1968) is a Russian science fiction and fantasy author, writing in Russian. His works often feature intense action-packed plots, ...
** ''Black Palmira's Face'' (Лик Черной Пальмиры), 2003
** ''Time of Inversions'' (Время инверсий), 2012
''Day Watch'' was written in cooperation with famous Russian writer Sergey Lukyanenko. Vladimir Vasilyev wrote the second story of the Day Watch book - ''A Stranger Among Others'' - and part of the third story ''Another Power''.
''Black Palmira's Face'' describes the life of Kiev city Day Watch and secret mission of Ukrainian Dark Mage's team in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
.
''Time of Inversions'' describes the life of Kiev city Day Watch.
* The Altitude (Высота)
** ''The Skies Masters'' (Хозяева поднебесья), 2001
** ''A Chorister Owl Trill'' (Трель певчей совы), 1996
Single novels
* ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'' (UFO: Враг Неизвестен), 1997. Novelization of the game '' UFO: Enemy Unknown''.
"Nobody believes, that we were only eight at first. Eight strong foolhardy chaps, trained at Special Centre in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, for whom it was all the same, whether to be at war with terrorists, mafia or extraterrestrials. And then - hell and war,
flying saucer
A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...
s, combat robots, labs and hangars. And the ruthless conquerors from space, who never knew doubt, as throughout millennia they have subdued thousands of inhabited worlds. All moves have been calculated long ago, every reciprocal action by the enemy considered. Soon a new planet will enter the interstellar empire. However, it is well known that humans learn to fight devilishly easy."
* ''Going Into The Night'' (Идущие в Ночь), 1999 with Anna Kitayeva (Lee).
"Вeyond the Yuben River lie the Wild Lands, where no trodden paths exist and every traveller must choose his or her own way - in the hopes of staying alive. Few have returned from there, and their tales were full of horrors. However, no one has ever told tales of the Stone Forest because nobody has ever returned from it. Who will go into the eternal night of the Stone Forest of their own free will? Morgan and Turi, who have nothing to lose, as there is blood on their hands and death behind them. No one will spare those who had the misfortune of being born
werewolves
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely ...
."
* ''Three Steps on Dankarten'' (Три шага на Данкартен), 2000
* ''Hot Start'' a.k.a. ''Hearts and Engines'' (Горячий старт/Сердца и Моторы), 2002
* ''Antarctica-online'' (Антарктида-online), 2004 with Alexander Gromov
"
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
is a harsh, cold continent on the edge of the world and of little interest to the nations of the world. But if an unknown cataclysm moves it to the tropics, there will be plenty of interested parties who wish to add the new lands to their spheres of influence. Especially if drunk Russian polar researchers jokingly challenge the entire world and declare an independent Antarctic republic."
* ''The "Capudania"'s Treasure'' (Сокровище "Капудании"), 2007
* ''The Shadows of Future'' (Тени грядущего), 2009 with Konstantin Utolin and Roman Arilin
* ''Hide-and-Seek on Centre Line'' (Прятки на осевой), 2010 - novel in cross-author cycle of
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'' is a first-person-shooter survival horror video game series developed by GSC Game World. The series is set in an alternate version of the present-day Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine, where, according to the series' backs ...
game Universe.
* ''Children of a duplicator'' (Дети дупликатора), 2011 - novel in cross-author cycle of
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'' is a first-person-shooter survival horror video game series developed by GSC Game World. The series is set in an alternate version of the present-day Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine, where, according to the series' backs ...
game Universe.
Short story collections
* ''The Warrior Sign'' (Знак воина), 1996
* ''A Boarding in Cyberspace'' (Абордаж в киберспейсе), 1997
* ''A Stars over Shandalar'' (Звезды над Шандаларом), 1999 - Shandalar stories under one cover.
* ''A Jolly Roger on Hydrofoil'' (Веселый Роджер на подводных крыльях), 2002
* ''Forgotten Road'' (Забытая дорога), 2003
* ''Unlucky Gentlemans'' (Джентльмены непрухи), 2006
* ''Foreigner Worlds'' (Чужие миры), 2006
* ''The Subway Genius'' (Гений подземки), 2007
* ''The Unknown Earth'' (Незнакомка Земля), 2008
Awards
Music
Vladimir Vasilyev is also a guitar player and is also known as a singer and composer. In his songs, Vasilyev uses fantastical and unrealistic motifs.
His most well-known song is "Battlecat's March" (Марш Бойцовых котов), which has an allusion to
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
The brothers Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky (russian: Аркадий Натанович Стругацкий; 28 August 1925 – 12 October 1991) and Boris Natanovich Strugatsky ( ru , Борис Натанович Стругацкий; 14 A ...
's novel ''
The Kid from Hell
''The Kid from Hell'' (russian: Парень из преисподней, translit=''Paren' iz preispodney'') is a 1974 science fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky set in the Noon Universe. The English translation was included in a single ...
'' ("Парень из Преисподней").
Albums
* The Ambush-92 (Засада-92)
* Live in Kharkiv (Концерт в Харькове)
* Overdue confession 2014 (with "Prospekt Mira" band)