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Covers of published novels
Covers of multi-author anthologies
I am Yury Nesterenko, SF, fantasy and horror writer with 20 years of writing experience. Seven my books were sold to major Russian publishing companies (Eksmo, AST, Armada - Alfa-kniga). Also tens of my short stories and novellas were published in anthologies and magazines in Russia and several other countries including the USA. My novels "The Wings" and "Pilot from Frontier" have received appreciations and "Editorial choice" selection with rating of 9/10 from the leading Russian science fiction magazine "Mir fantastiki"("World of Fiction"). My novel "Age of Sword" got the 3rd place in readers voting for the book of the year (2002) on the publisher's (Armada) website. My short story "Pattern" won the first prize on the SF story contest of Olma publishing company in 2008. My horror/SF novella "Despair" was translated and published in Polish anthology "Kroki w nieznane 2011" ("Steps into Unknown") under the same cover with Dan Simmons and K. J. Parker.
Now I live in the USA and continue my writer's career in English, too; I am greatly interested in publishing in other Western countries, too. I am also interested in cooperation with computer games developers (I was a co-author of several Russian games, including critically acclaimed "Space Rangers"), film makers, graphic novels creators and so on. So I'm looking for agents (or any useful contacts) in these spheres.
Most of my writings have no Russian specifics and can be published under my pen name "George Right". The only problem is: for now, only three of my novellas, "Despair", "Downtown" and "Rilme Gfurku", and several short stories are translated to English. For the novel "The Wings", firstt 10% is translated already and can be seen here. All other texts, including large novels, still have to be translated from Russian, and I need help with it. I understand that no publisher will spend money to translate a novel if he is not sure that it deserves publishing, but maybe a good agent, using my aforementioned English texts as examples of my writing plus detailed synopses, can convince publishers? Of course the agent's fee would be higher than usual in that case. If any Russian-English translator agrees to translate any of my novels for a small advance now and a share of royalty after publication, that also will be great.
So, if you are interested, or just can give me a useful advice (e.g. recommend me a person to contact) - please e-mail me: etsenberg@gmail.com (please fill the Subject line, otherwise the letter can be killed by spam-filter). If you have a friend who can be interested, please send him a link to this page ;)
Below are the annotations to most of my novels and novellas. I also have tens of short stories.
Formerly omnipotent magicians lost their force and, with it, the power. Their great empires have broken up to usual medieval kingdoms, emirates and khanates, nowadays ruled by secular leaders. The western kingdom of Tarvilon is put into a flutter by the arrival of ambassadors from the far East, any communications with which were lost generations ago. Prince Arten, Tirlond king's nephew, who is a guest in Tarvilon, is excited by the offer of one of ambassadors about joint expedition to the dead country Zurbestan, which was damned by magicians at the epoch of their power for aspiration to forbidden scientific knowledge. Elina Aizendorg, the daughter of the glorified hero count Aizendorg, dreaming of feats and glory, would like to accompany her childhood friend in expedition, but that looks to be not possible due to big-times politics reasons. However, neither Elina, nor her father, neither the prince, nor the royal household know about the plans of a certain mysterious organisation which has already involved all of them in its game...
In this novel there are no Light and Dark, no Gods and Demons, no "absolute good" vs. "absolute evil". Only people, which have their own feelings and moral and their own truth. The main conflict is "peace, stability and prosperity at the cost of total control and stagnation" vs. "freedom and scientific progress at the cost of violence, natural and social disasters, decline of ancient culture". The main characters, even when they can be described with standard fantasy terms like "fighter", "wizard", "elf", "prince", "warrioress" and so on, are very different from usual cliches. And the world of the novel is much more credible than usual fantasy worlds.
A classical “Stephen King- type” of story that is taking place in Russian Siberia. In one of the hot days of 1999 summer Sergey Korzhuhin, who ferries a car from Omsk to Krasnoyarsk, and Alex Sitnikov, a hitchhiker, make a wrong turn and, after several hours of straying through godforsaken Siberian forest roads, enter an isolated town of Ignatyev, surrounded with wild forests and swamps. At the first glance it looks like just an ordinary Russian poky hole of place which has not changed from Soviet times, but its streets are deserted and have no lamp-posts, and the only road leading to and out of the town seems to be unused for years. It is not easy to come to Black Swamp (the real name of Ignatyev), but to leave it- is much more difficult...
In fact, while most of the readers don't notice it, it is more than just a horror story. The novel tells (in allegorical form) how Putin came to the power and restored the KGB oppression in modern Russia, supported by most Russians...
This novel was conceived as a mockery of space opera, but became much more serious. However, it still contains some parody and satirical elements, and turns inside out the usual space opera cliches.
Deep in the Far Space, humans met the alien Korringart Empire. Korringartians are a strange civilization: they are developed in science and technology almost as humans, but their social organization is medieval. By the way, they are very ugly (from human point of view, of course). And they attacked Earthlings without any obvious reason, starting the interstellar war...
Or at least so Earth schoolbooks say. The truth is the most guarded secret on the both sides of the Frontier...
While the Far Space planets are engaged in the battles, the Close Space, and especially Earth itself, is a paradise for elite which prefer not o speak about the war. Emily Clirense, the single daughter of a multibillionaire, flies to one of the inner colonies to her betrothal ceremony, but a strange malfunction of her ship makes her to hire Robert White, a freelancer pilot, who is, in fact, very different from the stereotype of a "space dog". But a bug in a navigation computer leads White's ship to a planet in the Far Space, minutes before the Korringartian attack...
This novel addresses several serious topics. One is the conflict between a person and the society in which this person, being clever and offbeat, cannot (and don't want to) find his place. The second one is the dangerous and potential dead-locked trends of our civilization. The third is the role of a personality in history, the impossibility of solving the system problems neither by just replacing the "evil" ruler by a "good" one, nor even by forced technical progress...
A thrilling non-PC detective novel, with elements of satire and non-predictable end, set in the near future. After a series of crises, the world has changed. UN is shut down, the United Stated split after the Second Secession (now without a civil war), China invaded Russian Siberia, Cuba is involved in 15-years civil war in which both sides are supported by rival clans of US mafia. But Martin Meyer enjoyed his life on his own paradise Caribbean island. The secret of his success is simple - he has stolen the mafia's money and was sure that he would never be found. However, he was wrong at the latter point... At the very last moment he is saved by a mysterious beauty, but Meyer suspects that it looks too similar to comic clich?s to be the truth - and he is right...
The main idea of this novel (while it uncovers only at the very end) is - what is "I"? If a person drastically changed after some brain manipulation, is the restoring of the previous state a return to norm - or a killing of a new person? At the same time, the novel exlores and criticize, sometimes very serious, basing on actual statistical data, sometimes in grotesque and satirical way, many trends in modern American and general Western society, from political correctness to "global warming" hysteria.
The world of Thear (very similar to Earth) is in deep and total crisis. However, the invention of the time machine seems to give an alternative to a struggle against endless problems: to flee to the future where they are already solved. Oppressive governments try to stop this massive getaway, but more and more secret societies of refugees are formed. Rillen Lee, an engineer in military agency, joins such society. After a bloody fight with the state police they manage to escape to the future - not by 200, as most of the others, but by 700 years ahead, as Lee insisted. Though, instead of the futuristic paradise they had found the Dark Age. When the cleverest, brave and ambitious people fled to the future, those who remained could not solve Thear's problems, and the civilization collapsed.
The time machine only "shoots" the travelers to the future, but doesn't travel itself - so there is no way back. Losing his comrades, one after another, Rillen tries to survive and find his place in this gloomy new world...
The moral "running away from the problem doesn't solve it" is only one aspect of this dilogy. The most important idea is: we don't have a second chance. On the contrary to many post-apocaliptic books, If our civilization collapses, it will be impossible to rebuild it again - and it is not just a version, it is proved in the text.
The story is about American special-forces squad, that is searching an American archaeologist Dr. Quinsley, captured by local terrorist group, in the depth of Guatemala jungles.
However, the most of the squad members don't know that the primary goal of their mission is not to rescue the captured scientist, but to retrieve the enigmatic Mayan artifacts which he has found - and which can be related to the mystery of Mayan civilization sudden end. By the way, it is December of 2012 - the date of the alleged end of the world, according to Mayan calendar. Neither colonel Breddock, an archetypical "ideal soldier", nor Dr. Johnes (no, not Indiana!), Quinsley's friend and colleague, believes to any "mystical bullshit". But soon the modern American soldiers will meet the ancient American evil. Will their high tech equipment help them?
This short novel, containing exotic adventures, battles and unriddling a rebus in Mayan (Yukatek) language, is actually a hymn for scientific and technical progress. All technologies mentioned in it, while may look science fiction, do exist already and are going to be used soon (or used already) by US army.
In 2057 Congress canceled financing of the project "Marsopolis". Humans have left the Martian colony, having deactivated it till better times. 62 years later the program has been decided to resume. The astronauts, who arrived to reactivate the station and to prepare it for the arrival of the majority of colonists, could not even imagine what they will face...
People are used to some values, moral and social stereotypes, considering them obvious and undoubtful. But what if for somebody - and not even aliens, but another group of human beings - these values mean nothing? Can they be defended on rational, not emotional, level?
Ronald Dexter learns that he is death-sick. However, the recently appeared technology allows him to create a "backup" - a clone who will be his copy not only physically, but also mentally. That clone will have all rights of the original after the latter's death, but has no responsibility for anything which was done by the original after the copying procedure. So Dexter decides to devote his last days to "cleaning the way" for his copy, eliminating the obstacles which troubled his own life - and, having nothing to lose, goes all lengths...
This short novella, combining SF and criminal thriller, address the problem of personal identity. What is "I" and how the concept of a person can be changed by technical progress? How far a person can go when he is sure that he is doomed? At the same time, it shows the development of some modern social trends in the future and realistic details of the future world.
In the future, the three most developed civilization - Earth and two alien ones - are the superpowers of Galaxy. Less advanced (and less rich) planets, while formally independent, lead a miserable existence much like modern "third-world" countries; concessions are the common practice for them. Wirt, one of such planets, leases concession for its own independence. Everyone can buy a post of a president or monarch of one of Wirtian countries for a pre-paid period. Jadson, who is an ordinary man on Earth, decides that this is his chance for glory...
What is the power - an aim, a mean, or both? Is it really so easy and fun to be a dictator? What is more important - a chance given to you or your own features? These are the topics of this short novella.
He recovered consciousness in a strange room without windows. It is hard to imagine a more gloomy and dismal place: dirt and desolation are everywhere, dim unsteady light of hardly working roof lamp scarcely dispels the twilight, from a tap, instead of water, dust and cockroaches fall, and on the walls one can see insane writings, made by something very similar to blood... His body is in scars and dirty dried bandages, but he does not remember what has happened to him. He even doesn't remember who he is and what is his name... Versions, one more gloomy than another, come to his mind while he is trying to find the exit, but the truth will turn out to be more awful than the most terrible nightmares - and not only for him...
Many people who read this novella agree that it is the most dark and terrifying horror story they have ever read. It doesn't just put the reader into position of an observer who safely watches how some monsters kill the characters. It makes him feel the real fear: what if it is true? What if the main Universe power, law and aim is the Eternal Despair?
Do you think that New York Downtown is just a business part of Manhattan? Tony Logan thought so, too.
Also he never shared any irrational fears about the New York subway. In modern times it is the safest form of transportation in the city, he knew it. The absolute majority of those millions of passengers who daily go down under the earth safely comes back to the surface.
But when late at night Tony lost his way in the maze of the 42nd Street Station, he found out where the rest get.
This novella is not just a really chilling story; it also demonstrates an elegant play with sound and literal meaning of accustomed words.
Near future. A virus, designed as a biological weapon, ran out of control and killed all mammals on Earth. The only hope to revive the mankind is Eve - a girl who was born onboard of an orbital station and educated by the intelligent Apple computer. Her parents died to make her mission possible; looks like they have envisioned all problems... except the one: does mankind really deserve reviving?
Her father was a pirate. Her step-father was a royal executioner. She learnt to read not by children's fairy tales, but by historical chronicles, and became proficient not only in languages and math, but also with guns and sword fighting. But what really made her a pariah among her race of An'yo is the fact that she had been born with wings and dreams to return to the sky. Neither ages-long biases nor cruel laws of her medieval planet; neither people's treachery nor natural disasters can stop her on her way to her dream. But what price does she have to pay and what will she find at the end of her road?
This novel is not just an adventure story. It raises many serious and hard questions, including the fate of being not like the others - and the struggle for the right of not becoming like them; the price for the goal, which can be the more hard and dark, the more light and brilliant the goal is; the flaws of human civilization from non-human perspective; the problems of immortality. The supporters of Ayn Rand ideas will probably like this novel much.
The civil war between Lion and Griffon clans, that has been lasted for 20 years, destroyed the formerly great medieval Empire. Decay, devastation, hunger and violence are everywhere. Villages are covered with ashes, robbers rule the roads, and enforcers of the Law are more terrible than its breakers. Though, what is the most important - is that the war uncovers the worst in the souls of people, from the top of the knights nobility to ordinary peasants.
At this time the two travel through the agonizing country. He was born in a slum, she - in the family castle. He can heal, she can shoot. He is 30, she is 12. She dreams to revenge, but does not know, how. He - knows, but has no right...
This novel shows how thin and unreliable is the coating of culture and civilization over the abyss of human vices. Many scenes may shock with their cruelty, but none of them are imagined - such things happened many times in reality, and not only in medieval era. At the same time, the novel contains a lot of serious discussions, exploring moral and social stereotypes and showing things from unusual perspective. The reader may disagree with protagonists arguments and conclusions, but cannot ignore them...
Frank Handergan, a new IT specialist, arrives to Terran legation on the planet Exanville, which is inhabited by two races: dainty aesthetes Eliants and brutal barbarians Grumdrucks. Only Eliants agreed to contact with humans, but it is not easy to deal with their ancient, arrogant and very individualistic culture. They even don't have the words "good" and "evil" in their language - they have only "elegant" and "not elegant"- and this defines their attitude to almost everything. Handergan tries to understand their culture, but at the same time he works for his bosses who have more pragmatic interests. However, none of the earthlings understands the development of an intrigue which can lead to the ultimate disaster...
This is a science fiction with a philosophical context. It considers different cultures and ways of civilizations and describes how wrong an anthropomorphic point of view can be...
999 years ago the Light Ones won the decisive, Armageddon-like battle against the Dark Ones. The main Dark God is captured, his army is smashed, dark temples are destroyed, dark cults are forbidden. The Brotherhood of Light rules the world with virtually unlimited power. But the Order of Dark, while in underground, still continues its resistance, and an old prophecy says that the 1000-th year after the Great Battle will be the year of Retaliation...
This novella begins in action-style, but ends with a serious discussion. Light vs Dark, "golden cage" vs. dangerous freedom, stability vs. progress, hypocrite kindness vs. honest cruelty, inert majority vs. progressive minority, gods vs. humans...