蜜芽传媒

How do you imagine the future if you are a Ukrainian Science Fiction writer? How do you live in the present with your country at war in a world governed by absolute uncertainty? That鈥檚 the challenge and dilemma for best selling author Max Kidruk.

Kidruk is nearing completion of Collapse, the 2nd volume of a 900 page, epic hard science fiction trilogy The New Dark Ages. The first volume, Colony, sold 30,000 copies in Ukraine. Set on a 222nd century Mars against a backdrop of ecological disaster on Earth, things can only get worse! An insidious extra-terrestrial invasion has caused a fertility crisis whilst the new Martian society is undergoing literal & metaphorical growing pains. Those born on the Red planet are physically changed & unable to return to their mother world. Ukrainians have become the key farmers on Mars, providing three quarters of all the colony鈥檚 food.

In the real world, Kidruk has had to fight against his own biological frailty & the absolute uncertainty of the times he lives in. The presence of Russians in his fiction is an acknowledgement that the existential national threat will not disappear & could grow worse. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all for Kidruk has been to keep his plot relevant. His trilogy is intended as a warning on many levels but real world politics keep outstripping his wildest imaginings!

Mark Burman has been in conversation with Kidruk for the past 18 months as the war has continued to rage & his book nears completion.

Image: Max Kidruk (Credit: Kateryna Kosheleva)