Alexander Zorich

Alexander Zorich is a collective pen name of the two Russian writers: Yana Botsman and Dmitry Gordevsky. Genres of their activity: science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, PC games scenarios. The duet writes in Russian.

Yana Botsman

Yana Botsman was born on August 7, 1973. She has a Master's degree in applied mathematics and a Ph.D. in philosophy (1999, thesis on philosophy of Buddhism). Until 2004 she worked as an assistant professor in Kharkov State University (Philosophical Faculty), until September 2004 when she became a full-time writer and scenarist. Yana is married.

Dmitry Gordevsky

Dmitry Gordevsky was born on March 21, 1973. He has a Master's degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in philosophy (2000, thesis on philosophy of medieval heresies). Until 2004 he worked as an assistant professor in Kharkov State University (Philosophical Faculty), but became a full-time writer and scenarist since September 2004. Dmitry is unmarried.

Facts

As Alexander Zorich, Yana Botsman and Dmitry Gordevsky are the authors of 18 novels, and are very popular in Russia.

Yana and Dmitry drive a quill together since 1991, when they both were first-year university students. Today Alexander Zorich is "the most venerable among young writers or maybe the youngest among venerable Russian writers" (Nasha Fantastika Magazine).

The first book by Alexander Zorich has never been published.

"It was a huge, about 150 pages, epic poem about fantasy world of Sarmontazara. And we worked on it for about two years. From our present-day point of view, it is absolutely terrible. But back then we both were confident, that it is much more ingenious than all the Shakespeare's writings. Readers often ask us, when will we publish it. The only answer we can give is "Never!" (from an interview to "Zerkalo Nedeli" weekly).

The first published book by Alexander Zorich "The Sign of Destruction" was published in 1997 and rapidly gained popularity among the worshippers of the fantasy worlds. During the next five years Alexander Zorich has more than once astonished his readers with new writings. A historic novel "Charles the Duke" dedicated to Charles the Bold, last Duke of Burgundy, conquered the title "The Best Russian Fiction of a 2001 Year" by "Ex-Libris" book review (Moscow). Over the years Alexander Zorich has published lots of verses and short stories in small literature magazines. The first large novel by Alexander Zorich saw the light of the day in 1997. Since then Zorich wrote 7 fantasy novels ("The Sign of Destruction", "The Seed of Wind", "The Ways of Starborned", "Love and Rule", "You Win", "The Combat Vehicle of Love", "The Light of Nighttime"), one cyberpunk novel ("The Season of Weapon"), the book in the genre of alternate history and its sequel ("Charles the Duke", "The First Sword of Burgundy"), 4 "classic" science fiction novels ("The Consul of Commonwealth" and "Tomorrow War" trilogy), 2 fairy tales ("Denis Kotik" 2 related books), one stories collector ("Nothing Sacred") and one "cryptohistory" novel ("Roman Star") dedicated to Publius Ovidius Naso.

In fact the only fiction genre Alexander Zorich has never worked in is the horror genre.

"Tomorrow War" trilogy – "Tomorrow War", "With No Mercy", "Moscow Time" – brought to Zorich the biggest success in his writers' biography and became a standard of modern Russian space opera. The books of Alexander Zorich are being published by the largest publishing houses of Russia, among them EKSMO and AST (Moscow), Tsenterpolygraph (Moscow), Severo-Zapad (Saint-Petersburg). Alexander Zorich actively cooperates with the leading Russian fantasy & SF magazines: "Mir Fantastiki" ("The World of SF&F), "Esli" ("If"), "Polden" ("Noon"), "Zvezdnaya Doroga" ("Star Trek"), "Nasha Fantastika" ("Our Fiction"), etc.

Several novels and stories by Alexander Zorich are translated into Ukrainian and Polish.

Books

• The Ways of Starborned trilogy (Fantasy. Editions: 1997—1998, EKSMO; 2001 Tsenterpolygraph; 2006 AST-press)

1. The Sign of Destruction
2. The Seed of Wind
3. The Ways of Starborned

• The Vault of Equilibrium tetralogy (Fantasy. Editions: 1998, EKSMO — vol.1; 2000—2001 Tsenterpolygraph; 2006 AST-press)

1. Love and Rule
2. You Win
3. The Combat Vehicle of Love
4. The Light of Nighttime

• The Season of Weapon novel Cyberpunk (Editions: 2001 Tsenterpolygraph; 2000 Severo-Zapad Press/AST-press; 2006 AST-press)
• Charles the Duke alternate history dilogy (Editions: 2001 Tsenterpolygraph)

1. Charles the Duke
2. The First Sword of Burgundy

• Consul of Commowealth novel (SF. Editions: 2002 Tsenterpolygraph; 2007 AST-press)
• Tomorrow War trilogy (SF. Editions: 2003—2006 AST-press)

1. Tomorrow War
2. With No Mercy
3. Moscow Time

• Denis Kotik dilogy (Fairy tales. Editions: 2003—2004 AST-press; 2007 EKSMO)

1. Denis Kotik and Queen of Winged Horses
2. Denis Kotik and Pale Knights Order

• Roman Star novel (cryptohistory. Editions: 2007 AST-press)

PC Games scenarios

• Soldiers: Heroes of World War II – Russian title "V tilu vraga" (RTS dedicated World War II. Studio: Best Way, Ukraine, Severodonetsk. Release: 2004; Russian publisher 1C, international publisher Codemasters)
• Faces of War – Russian title "V tilu vraga 2" (RTS dedicated World War II. Studio: Best Way, Ukraine, Severodonetsk. Release: 2006; Russian publisher 1C, international publisher Ubisoft)
• Tomorrow war – Russian title "Zavtra voina" (Space simulator dedicated space warfare at 27th century. Studio: Crioland, Russia, Novosibisrk. Release: 2006; Russian publisher 1C, international publisher Atari)
• Tomorrow war: K Factor – Russian title "Zavtra voina: Faktor K" (Space simulator dedicated space warfare at 27th century. Studio: Crioland, Russia, Novosibisrk. Release: 2007; Russian publisher 1C, international publisher Atari (?))
• The Vault of Equilibrium: Beltion – Russian title "Svod Ravnovesiya: Beltion" (RPG dedicated magic inquisition of Varan Republic. Studio: Rostok-Games, Ukraine, Kiev. Release: 2009; Russian publisher Novij Disk)
• Men of War: Red Tide – Russian title "Chernye bushlaty" (RTS dedicated World War II. Studio: 1C, Russia, Moscow. Release: 2009; Russian publisher 1C)

Note

1. Tomorrow war/Tomorrow war: K Factor games based on Alexander Zorich space opera trilogy with the same name.
2. The Vault: Beltion Project based on Alexander Zorich fantasy tetralogy «The Vault of Equilibrium».

External links

• Official site
• Tomorrow war PC game by A.Zorich trilogy
• Template:Ru icon A.Zorich Live Journal