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Alexander Nikolayevich Gromov (Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Грóмов) is a Russian science fiction writer, who began writing in 1986 and was first published in the early 1990s.

His work is influenced by that of the Strugatsky brothers, and he has stated a preference for the social science fiction genre.^[1] He writes primarily in his native Russian language.

Gromov lives in Moscow,^[2] and is an amateur astronomer^[2] and former electronic engineer.

Gromov's works

Soft Landing

Soft Landing (original Russian title: Myagkaya posadka) was published in 1995. The novel is set in Moscow, approximately at the end of the 21st century. The novel centers on the life of an ordinary man fighting for survival while new subspecies of Homo sapiens wage war against normal humans. Soft Landing received a Belyaev Award and Interpresscon Award in 1996.^[2]

Year of the Lemming

Year of the Lemming (original Russian title: God Lemminga), was published in 1997. It is a prequel to Soft Landing and is set in the year 2040. In the novel, the appearance of contagious diseases and unexpected technological failures has caused the establishment of four services that harshly monitor the life of humankind. The protagonist Michail Malakhov is faced with a suicide epidemic, the cure for which is being hidden by scientists.

Master of the Void

Master of the Void (original Russian title: Vlastelin Pustoty) was first published in 1997.^[3] The plot involves the transition of a nation in peaceful harmony with the natural world on a distant planet, to a phase of industrial dictatorship created to defend against outer aggression.

"Saint Vitus' Minuet"

St. Vitus' Minuet (Russian: Менуэт святого Витта, romanized: Menuet Svyatogo Vitta, lit. 'Minuet of Saint Witt'), published in 1997, is a novella which deals with an emerging society on an unexplored planet, and the psychological aspects of survival. Saint Vitus' Minuet won a Fancon Award in 1997.^[2]

Genres and themes

While most of his novels have a well-defined hard scientific background, Gromov's stated main interest is social science fiction:

I still have to tell a couple of words about my works — not about each one, but about all of them. Most of the things I wrote can be considered social science fiction (not in the sense of "capitalism-socialism" — this topic does not interest me). The recipe of it, worked out by H. G. Wells, has not changed till the present day and looks like this: you take a socium (limited number of people is better — easier to work) and do some ugly thing to it, and then you sit and look at the consequences...^[1]

Two of Gromov's books focus on a theme of power in a social context: his novella Saint Vitus Minuet (Menuet Svyatogo Vitta, 1997), deals with an emerging society; the novel Master of the Void discusses the transition of a peaceful nation in harmony with nature to an aggressive industrial dictatorship. The latter examines the surrounding mechanisms of power in the fictional government as well as the protagonist's rise to leadership.

References

^ ^a ^b "Alexander Gromov - author's page - Books". www.rusf.ru. Retrieved Nov 22, 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Alexander Gromov - author's page". www.rusf.ru.
^ "Alexander Gromov - author's page - Bibliography". www.rusf.ru. Retrieved Nov 22, 2022.

External links

Media related to Alexander Gromov at Wikimedia Commons

[auto-1] "Alexander Gromov - author's page - Books". www.rusf.ru. Retrieved Nov 22, 2022.

[auto1-2] "Alexander Gromov - author's page". www.rusf.ru.

[List_of_Publications_of_A.N._Gromov's_works-3] "Alexander Gromov - author's page - Bibliography". www.rusf.ru. Retrieved Nov 22, 2022.

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+{{short description|Russian science fiction writer}}
-'''Alexander Gromov''' (Алексáндр Грóмов) - is a Russian [[hard science fiction]] writer who began writing in 1986 impressed by works of [[Boris and Arkady Strugatsky|Strugatsky brothers']], his first publication having occurred in early 1990s.
+{{about|the Russian science fiction writer|the Russian politician|Alexander Georgiyevich Gromov}}
+{{BLP sources|date=January 2016}}
+[[File:2020. Звёзды над Донбассом ! DSC 1116.jpg|thumb|right|Gromov in 2020]]
-Most of Gromov's novels combine a well-defined world created by the means of hard science fiction and a foreground of "social fiction", as the author explains it:
-:''I still have to tell a couple of words about my works -  not about each one, but about all of them. Most of the  things I wrote can be considered social science fiction (not in the sense of "capitalism-socialism" - this topic does not interest me). The recipe of it, worked out by H.G.Wells, has not changed till the present day and looks like this: you take a socium (limited number of people is better - easier to work) and do some ugly thing to it, and then you sit and look at the consequences...''
+'''Alexander Nikolayevich Gromov''' ({{lang|ru|Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Грóмов}}) is a [[Russians|Russian]] [[science fiction]] writer, who began writing in 1986 and was first published in the early 1990s.
-:''Of course I'm kidding, and let the shadow of the great writer forgive me. But every joke has a grain of truth...'' [http://www.rusf.ru/english/gromov/books.htm]
+His work is influenced by that of the [[Boris and Arkady Strugatsky|Strugatsky brothers]], and he has stated a preference for the [[social science fiction]] genre.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.rusf.ru/english/gromov/books.htm|title=Alexander Gromov - author's page - Books|website=www.rusf.ru|accessdate=Nov 22, 2022}}</ref> He writes primarily in his native [[Russian language]].
-Also to be mentioned is Gromov's manner of writing, that is a high quality language(with a good "physical" picture of the world). His characters are not flat, they can evolve. In the text, remarks of socio-psychological kind(about people's nature, bosses, societies, etc.) are combined with intrinsic gloomy(not dark!) humour.
+Gromov lives in [[Moscow]],<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.rusf.ru/english/gromov/|title = Alexander Gromov - author's page|website=www.rusf.ru}}</ref> and is an [[amateur astronomy|amateur astronomer]]<ref name="auto1"/> and former [[electronic engineer]].
 ==Gromov's works==
-Until now none of Gromov's novels are known to be translated into English. Yet the article will gain sense with few comments made on his books.
-===Softly landing the Humankind...===
-====Adaptants, the main threat====
-In future the Humankind faced simultaneously two catastrophic processes, that is global climate cooling(on a halfway to ice age) and unaccountable deep fall of IQ level of 70% of the population(the author called such people ''oakcephals''). Probably the Humankind could survive any of these processes alone, but not the both ones.. Yet the fate of the Humankind was different from what one can guess now. ''The flight of the humankind will interrupt, but it will be not be as an explosion... It will be as soft landing''. A caprice of genes gave rise to a new biological branch of people, so-called ''adaptants'', beings with different(less of) intelligence and better biological ability to survive. Adaptants usually weren't visually discernible from oakcephals; they parasitized on human society and acted as bands(flocks) on the streets. To complete the view of adaptants,
-:''Each hidden adaptand touchs first or last that the teacher is as well vulnerable. Just then such a fury flares up in his eyes, that a normal person really shrinks aside. It's important not to miss this moment. A weird fure, inhuman. Virtually, an adaptant isn't a human, he only isn't aware of it. A curious thing -- eyes of an adaptant. The sign of species, equally as the hair of mammoth, and it's impossible to fabricate one -- adaptants feel the alien with their inside. If we could introduce our people into street flocks, perhaps one could live in the city.''
-At a moment(long after their first occurrence) adaptants increased their activity and ceased the existence of the Humankind in a couple of years.
-====Sergey, a look from inside====
-Of course, this novel '''Myagkaya posadka''' ('''''Soft landing''''') is not a cynical exercise in futurism. The main protagonist, Sergey, an university teacher of physics(that is electricity -- cold climate, a need for electrostations!) does live in that world of eternal snowy coldness. Although having no hope for future, Sergey doesn't stay actionless; the situation just doesn't leave him at rest.. and often caused him to fight. Pictures of Sergey's life.. Testing oakcephals for knowledge of Kirchhoff and Ohm laws..
-:''"Rybin, come here."
-:''The slender youth, a kind of mentally-crushed. The face is good, the look is, no dumber possible. But it was he who solved the problem for an adaptant, otherwise i understand nothing in my profession and must be driven out. He isn't a nose, it's exact. And certainly not an adaptant. In my opinion, he even isn't an oakcephal.''
-:''"Right, answer."''
-:''The mentally-crushed one begins to explain, passing his finger, and griveously selecting the words. "A"'s and "m"'s. When there are synonims, he chooses the most idiotic one.''
-:''"Enough", i stop him, "Why don't you learn at the first stream?"''
-:''He stupidly winks, inserts a finger in his nose up to second phalange inclusive, and is flapping his mouth like an encatched carp. Overplays.''
-:''"Well it's enough, enough.", I say rigidly, "Played a bit, and that will do. For me all is clear. You don't want to be open, -- no need then. You are not a moron and occupy the place of other's. I will be obliged to report to the sorting committee about you."''
-:''I am not in the least joking and this reachs him. He sweeps away from face the stupid expression. Intimidation remains.''
-:''The false moron looks sideways behind his shoulder, fright on his face. I can't confuse real fright with faked one.''
-:''"You may speak, the place is sound-proofed."''
-:''He, floundering, explains his situation. He doesn't attempt to knock a tear out of me, and I like that. He can't send his mother and sister out of the city. No, not necessarily to the South. They have no possibility to drive out. When he brought documents in the previous year, he asked right away, whether a request would be viewed of passing examinations without attending the lectures. He was asked whether he considers himself the cleverest one there. He was answered "no". Then he cheated the sorting committee. He has to, he obligatorily has to complete the institute in two years, they wouldn't bear more here. When he will drive to a place of assignment, he will be able to take relatives with him, he inquired about it.''
-:''I ask leading questions, hitting in the aim. Mother? Yes, ill. But it's recent with her, after his sister was caught by adaptants and couldn't be found for two days; as it is she is a strong woman. Sister? No, sistryonka is alive. But... On the whole, she...''
-:''What happened with her, I unfortunately, understand very well''.
-:''"Are you at all in right senses?" at first I'm speaking in a calm and admonishing way, as an elder, who supposedly looks farther and knows better. Then I don't control myself, rushing the fist against the table, shouting and splashing. "A know-all! Lopuh razvesistyj! You became glad -- two years! But with so diploma you for all your life will blow off dust from voltmeters in some kind of Labytnangi! For all your life, up to the moment, until you there with your electrostation will be frozen into ice, do you understand this?"''
-:''He nods dolefully. Then he begins to explain with animation, that all is not so frightening, as it seems to me, one needs just to drive out here, and to wait through several years, and then all will surely change, there is no way of not changing, such things don't occur..''
+===''Soft Landing''===
-:''Such conversations last for five minutes, but you got tired of them as of a training in the Uncle Kolya's basement. The chap is right in his sense. And I can't do anything for him. Just only not to shake my tongue anywhere, but after all the chap doesn't need anything more... Sometimes you think, that the one who devised our society was mad from the birth.''
+''Soft Landing'' (original Russian title: ''Myagkaya posadka'') was published in 1995. The novel is set in [[Moscow]], approximately at the end of the 21st century. The novel centers on the life of an [[everyman|ordinary man]] fighting for survival while [[Homo superior|new subspecies]] of ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' wage war against normal humans. ''Soft Landing'' received a Belyaev Award and Interpresscon Award in 1996.<ref name="auto1"/>
+===''Year of the Lemming''===
-:''"Go", i nod exhaustedly, "You passed the test. And... I wish luck for you."''
+''Year of the Lemming'' (original Russian title: ''God Lemminga''), was published in 1997. It is a prequel to ''Soft Landing'' and is set in the year 2040. In the novel, the appearance of contagious diseases and unexpected technological failures has caused the establishment of four services that harshly monitor the life of humankind. The protagonist Michail Malakhov is faced with a suicide epidemic, the cure for which is being hidden by scientists.
-:''He thanks. Leaving, he looks around:''
+===''Master of the Void''===
-:''"Sorry, Sergey Yevgenyevich, but how did you know?"''
+''Master of the Void'' (original Russian title: ''Vlastelin Pustoty'') was first published in 1997.<ref name="List of Publications of A.N. Gromov's works">{{Cite web|url=http://www.rusf.ru/english/gromov/biblgr.htm|title=Alexander Gromov - author's page - Bibliography|website=www.rusf.ru|accessdate=Nov 22, 2022}}</ref> The plot involves the transition of a nation in peaceful harmony with the natural world on a [[exoplanet|distant planet]], to a phase of industrial dictatorship created to defend against outer aggression.
-:''"There is a mistake in your solution", I speak, "A so stupid one, that it is even talented."''
+==="Saint Vitus' Minuet"===
-:''"Thank you" he sais, "Great thank for you. I will take measures."''
+'''St. Vitus' Minuet''' ({{langx|ru|Менуэт святого Витта|Menuet Svyatogo Vitta|Minuet of Saint Witt}}), published in 1997, is a novella which deals with an emerging society on an unexplored planet, and the psychological aspects of survival. ''Saint Vitus' Minuet'' won a Fancon Award in 1997.<ref name="auto1"/>
+==Genres and themes==
-:''He will do. He will correct the tactics, will begin rehearsing in front of a mirror releasing saliva, and will not be catched more. I know such ones.''
+While most of his novels have a well-defined [[hard science fiction|hard scientific]] background, Gromov's stated main interest is [[social science fiction]]:
-Driving home to his wife Darja (who after a time will become an adaptant), while fighting from still scanty bands of adaptants.. Then, after wars of "local" type arose (small, half-autonomous groups of people acting against elusive flocks of adaptants) -- being at war among his colleagues..
+''I still have to tell a couple of words about my works — not about each one, but about all of them. Most of the things I wrote can be considered social science fiction (not in the sense of "capitalism-socialism" — this topic does not interest me). The recipe of it, worked out by [[H. G. Wells]], has not changed till the present day and looks like this: you take a socium (limited number of people is better — easier to work) and do some ugly thing to it, and then you sit and look at the consequences...''<ref name="auto"/>
-====Unwelcome power====
-Evolving of the situation lead Sergey to take his own actions..  Other character, Sashka (Alexander), the adaptant who retained human minds(officer of Security Service in his human life), wished to make Sergey a controlled leader of remaining people (e.g. he organized fake attempts at Sergey to "teach" him caution). And Sashka nearly completed his plan, murdering all members (except himself) of Headquarters for Mopping-up the city, but he was killed by uncle Kolya (trainer of Sergey) while forcing wounded Sergey for collaboration. By the way, the last words of dying Alexander concerned Sergey: ''Raw material... Still to work and to work... How little...''. However, it caused situation of vacuum of power:
-:''I still stretched and stretched them my stupid submachine gun. I could agree to all. I wouldn't resist if any of them would point on me the flat black circle, and while muttering a curse would bend his forefinger on trigger.''
+Two of Gromov's books focus on a theme of power in a social context: his novella ''Saint Vitus Minuet'' (''Menuet Svyatogo Vitta'', 1997), deals with an emerging society; the novel ''Master of the Void'' discusses the transition of a peaceful nation in harmony with nature to an aggressive [[industrialized nation|industrial]] dictatorship. The latter examines the surrounding mechanisms of power in the fictional government as well as the protagonist's rise to leadership.
-:''None of them did this. I suddenly became to understand, and I got frightened. They haven't shoot me in the first moment. Now they already couldn't shoot me, even if they have wanted to. I was needed by them. I occupied the place, that earlier belonged to someone, and now to me. And exhausted people, armed by submachine guns, looked at me so, as if they were waiting for a command from me. Why, it was so.''
-In the epilogue we see Sergey, a ruler in a free group of several thoudsand people(who settled near a thermonuclear electrostation), which seems to survive for long, despite the seeming death of the rest Humankind. Is it happy end?..
+==References==
-===...and a Year's admire of Lemmings' heroic deaths===
+{{reflist}}
-''It's planned to describe the prequel to "Soft landing"  "God Lemminga" (Year of Lemming) in this section...''
+==External links==
-''And many of Gromov's works yet remain out the scopes of the article...''
+{{Commonscatinline}}
+*{{Official|http://rusf.ru/english/gromov/ }}
+*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050525184713/http://fan.lib.ru/g/gromow_a_n/ Some works of Gromov at lib.ru (Russian)]
+*[http://www.gromovfans.narod.ru/index.htm Gromov fan website]
+{{Authority control}}
-=See also=
-*[http://rusf.ru/english/gromov/ Official (old enough) web-page of A. Gromov]
-*[http://fan.lib.ru/g/gromow_a_n/ Gromov at lib.ru (Russian)]
-*[http://gromovfans.fastbb.ru/ Gromov fans forum (still Russian ;) )]
+{{DEFAULTSORT:Gromov, Alexander}}
-{{Russia-bio-stub}}
+[[Category:Russian science fiction writers]]
-{{Euro-writer-stub}}
+[[Category:Living people]]
-{{sf-stub}}
+[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]

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