What kind of books do you read? I don’t read a lot of fiction – and when I do, I stick to the writers on whom I can count, who I know won’t let me down. I probably read about five fiction books a year. The rest of my reading is specialty literature: esoteric stuff, history, psychology. I read everything I can find about new discoveries in physics and astrophysics – I use that knowledge in my books. One of your books, Magatsitles, is in effect a sequel to Alexei Tolstoy’s Aelita. Was it hard to follow in the footsteps of a great master? I don’t think Magatsitles should be considered a sequel per se – after all, it’s based on my own idea. In this case, my idea just happened to be taking part in the world created by Tolstoy. But it was definitely a little scary. When I’d first read the novel, it hit me pretty hard, it had a profound influence on me. I liked everything about it: the air of mystery, the romantic love between an Earth man and a woman from Mars – though Aelita’s status as a Martian is pretty relative: she is the descendant of those very magatsitles who had moved to Mars from Earth generations ago. I must have read that book two dozen times when I was young, and had every detail of it memorized. I was shaken and astounded by the story. I never thought I’d be writing a sequel to anything: I have enough of my own ideas; sometimes I’m worried that I won’t have enough time to write them all down. But about ten years ago, I started thinking, how would I continue the story in Aelita? Tolstoy’s Mars kept calling me. I had to answer the call, there was nothing I could do. I tried writing it a couple of times – couldn’t do it. But then I sat down and wrote it! By the way, the passages from the point of view of Los, the engineer, are written in Tolstoy’s language: short sentences, exotic turns of phrase. For those parts, I used a more saturated, older style of Russian. It was my little homage to the original. How did fans of the original react to the new book? I was very happy with the reaction. The book became a bestseller right away, bookstores kept selling out of it and ordering more copies. But I doubt I’ll ever write another sequel to someone else’s work: as I said before, I have enough of my own ideas. There’s a lot of responsibility in continuing another person’s story… Oh yes. First of all, it has to be as good as the original. You can write something that’s different – but never something that’s worse. I managed to combine the writing style from the beginning of 20th Century with my own style, which tends to be more action-oriented, more fast-paced. I’m sure there were readers who didn’t like your idea. You know, I’ve yet to meet one. I get thousands of emails, and so far I haven’t gotten a single one that talks negatively about Magatsitles. You’re releasing the last book in your latest trilogy, Black Time. Tell us a little bit about the trilogy and its last installment. A book shouldn’t be talked about – it should be read. When I started writing the trilogy, I had certain ideas, certain plans for its direction. But at a certain point, the action took over, and some of the ideas changed and shifted. Many authors of serial science fiction announce that they’re working on a trilogy, but then they keep writing new installments. Would you consider continuing the series beyond the third book? I try not to plan these things too much. If I get new ideas, new twists and turns in the plot, I might continue the story. Otherwise, I won’t waste my time on it – I can always move on to a completely new book. You mentioned that you already have ideas for other books. Will you keep writing science fiction, or are you planning to experiment with other genres? Well… would you call a novel like, say, SMERSH-2, science fiction? It has certain assumptions, certain plot points. But in essence, it describes real, everyday life – a bit exaggerated, a bit grotesque, a bit mystical, but real nonetheless. Many writers before me have used this same technique. Would you call The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov fantasy? What about the stories of Nikolai Gogol – Viy, for example? We call them science fiction or fantasy out of habit, but then we have to do the same with 90% of literature that’s out there. If a book talks about space travel and starships, ok, that’s easy. But if it talks about our earthly life, then a case can be made either way. I try to draw aside the veil of mystery, even just a little bit – it’s always there, right at the edge of our vision. There’s still a lot we don’t know about our earthly life, a lot of things we simply don’t notice.