Grigory Ryzhakov – Russian Writer

New Russian Scifi – Future: Immortality and Overpopulation

future

Forget the Death. (the central motto in the  new Russian scifi novel “Future” by Dmitry Glukhovsky).

Dystopian and post-apocalyptic science fiction has been popular from the very birth day of the genre. Many recent novels of this kind focus on intricate plots, yet an occasional gem goes a notch above and explores some deep themes and ideas and things that may actually happen in the near future.

What if the mankind invented immortality? What would happen to the planet? How would the reproduction control work? What would happen to the economies and the political systems?

Future, a new scifi novel by a Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky who created the Metro 2033 universe, gives a disturbing, grim and yet fascinating illustration to this scenario.

The mankind acquired immortality centuries ago. Europe is severely overpopulated. Conceiving a baby is forbidden without a license. If a child is born – one of the parents has to accept a virus injection making a person mortal at an accelerated rate. What happens to those children? They’re made into guardians of the state ensuring the birth control.

panorama

The soundtrack and panorama images of the “Future” are available on the official book Russian website. Click on the image to enter.

The main character, Jan Nachtigal, is one of those children turned into a cruel and ruthless soldier.  It’s his tale. He is haunted by his childhood, yet what awaits him is lot more terrifying. It’s the answers. He will be torn by his duty, his love and his hatred. He’ll kill and he’ll let live.

Glukhovsky achieved a remarkable high-octane tension in the protagonist’s thought and feelings. It is the uncompromising storytelling, the vivid masculine prose, rude, politically-incorrect, that kept me reading this book. And what a grand finale that, in its accomplishment, made me, as a writer, very jealous. However much I disliked Jan, I couldn’t blame him for what he became, –  some hardships break the hardest of us.

Future gives us some uncomfortable vision of the fate of our civilisation and proposes an equally uncomfortable yet prosaic solution to the problem:

  • If we are to survive, we need to respect our nature and they way we have been created.

The future will show our descendants whether or not the book was prophetic.

P.S. I can hear publishers rushing to buy the foreign rights.

P.P.S. I am thrilled to announce that my new book, the scifi novel MADE IN BIONIA, which is a grotesque take on the near future, will be out on Amazon Kindle in April 2014.

A private investigator, a secret society, a bio-terrorist plot, advanced marine virology – all richly peppered and marinated in romance.

So what is being made in Bionia?

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