Lukyanenko, Sergei

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Lukyanenko, Sergei

PERSONAL:

Born in Kazakhstan; married. Education: Medical degree.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Moscow, Russia.

CAREER:

Writer and psychiatrist. Actor in the film Nochnoy dozor 3.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Start award, 1993, for the best debut of a young author for the collection of stories Nuclear Dream; Interpresscon award, 1995, for short story "Fugu Fish Cooked in Own Skin à la Russe"; Rumata's Sword award, 1995, for the best heroic-romantic fantasy and science fiction for the novel Knights of the Forty Islands; Interpresscon award, 1996, for short story "A Servant"; Rumata's Sword award, 1997, for the best heroic-romantic fantasy and science fiction for the "Emperors of Illusions" series; Sigma-F award, 1998, for the novel Autumn Visits; Big Zilant award, 1998, for the novel Labyrinth of Reflections; Strannik ("Wanderer") award, 1998, for the novel Night Watch; Interpresscon award, 2000, for the novel False Mirrors; Gold RosCon award for the best book of 2000, cowinner, 2001, for the novel Day Watch.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS IN ENGLISH; TRILOGY

Nochnoi dozor, Izd-vo AST (Moscow, Russia), 1999, translated as Night Watch, Miramax Books (New York, NY), 2006.

(With Vladimir Vasiliev) Dnevnoi Dozor, Izd-vo AST (Moscow, Russia), 2004, translation by Andrew Bromfield published as Day Watch, Miramax Books/Hyperion (New York, NY), 2007.

Dusk Watch, Miramax Books (New York, NY), 2007, also published as The Twilight Watch, Anchor Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

IN RUSSIAN

Rytsari soroka ostrovov: fantasticheskii roman, Terra Fantastica (St. Petersburg, Russia), 1992.

Zvezdy—kholodnye igrushki, Izd-vo AST (Moscow, Russia), 1997.

(With July Burkin) Segodnia, mama!; Ostrov Rus; TSar, tsarevich, korol, korolevich, Argus (Moscow, Russia), 1997.

Genom (title means "The Genome"), 1999.

Imperatory illiuzii; Teni snov, Izd-vo AST (Moscow, Russia), 1999.

(With Nik Perumov) Ne vremia dlia drakonov (title means "No Times for Dragons"), AST (Moscow, Russia), 2000.

Falshivye zerkala, AST (Moscow, Russia), 2000.

Tantsy na snegu, Izd-vo AST (Moscow, Russia), 2001.

Atomnyi son, (title means "The Nuclear Dream"), Izd-vo AST (Moscow, Russia), 2002.

Osennie vizity (title means "Autumn Visits,"), AST (Moscow, Russia), 2003.

Lznachit liudi, Izd-vo AST (Moscow, Russia), 2003.

Zvezdnaia ten, AST (Moscow, Russia), 2003.

Rytsari soroka ostrovov; Malchik i tma; Lord s planety Zemlia, AST/Ermak (Moscow, Russia), 2004.

Gadzhet: [sbornik], Izd-vo AST (Moscow, Russia), 2004.

Poslednii dozor: [fantasticheskii roman], AST (Moscow, Russia), 2006.

Chernovik, AST/Tranzitkniga (Moscow, Russia), 2006.

"A LORD FROM THE PLANET EARTH" TRILOGY

Printsessa stoit smerti (title means "A Princess Is Worth Dying For"), 1992.

Planeta, kotoroj net (title means "The Planet Which Does Not Exist"), 1992.

Stekljannoye more (title means "Sea of Glass"), 1992.

Also author of short stories.

ADAPTATIONS:

Novels have been adapted for film, including Night Watch, 2004, Day Watch, 2006, and Dusk Watch, 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sergei Lukyanenko is a trained psychiatrist and longtime science fiction and fantasy writer with a devoted following in Russia and elsewhere. His trilogy of Night Watch, Day Watch, and Dusk Watch has been published in English. Night Watch takes place in modern-day Russia and features a battle between the forces of good and evil. A group known as the Others—which includes witches, wizards, vampires, and werewolves—have supernatural powers and coexist on earth and in a parallel world where history is based primarily on the struggle among the Others—some serve the Dark Side and some serve the Light Side. Nevertheless, the Light Ones also make compromises, and the line between good and evil and right and wrong is not always clear. Although a truce exists between the Dark Ones and the Light Ones, it is fragile and ultimately threatened by a Night Watch agent named Anton Gorodetsky, a doctor named Svetlana Nazarova who is under the spell of a Dark Magician, and a young boy who struggles to come to terms with his abilities for both good and evil.

"If you've studied the Gospel According to George Lucas, you'll recognize the … metaphysics of Night Watch, but Lukyanenko lays on a heavy gloss of realpolitik: The forces of Light and Dark are locked in a thousand-year-old Cold War, bound by an ancient truce that keeps the world from being destroyed," wrote Ron Charles in the Washington Post Book World. A Publishers Weekly contributor called Night Watch "potent as a shot of vodka" and a "compelling urban fantasy." Andrew Santella, writing in the New York Times Book Review, commented that the novel "comes with its own complex mythology—inquisitions and curses, shapeshifters and magicians of various ranks abound." In his review in the Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri, Tom Baker noted that the author successfully "creates a bridge between his readers' real world and his characters' supernatural one." Tania Barnes wrote in the Library Journal that the author "proves that he has some interesting things to say about all this good and evil business."

In the next book in the trilogy, Day Watch, which Lukyanenko wrote with Vladimir Vasiliev, the struggle between good and evil continues as the story is told by the witch Alisa Donnikova, who has lost her powers while confronting the Light Ones. When she goes to a special camp to recuperate by feasting on the nightmares of children, Alisa falls in love with a magician named Igor who is a Light One. As the two try to come to terms with their relationship, an important and powerful artifact disappears. Referring to Day Watch as "morally ambiguous," a Publishers Weekly contributor added that "the fast-paced story augurs well for the last installment."