Sergei Lukyanenko

Sergei Vasilyevich Lukyanenko, born 11 April 1968 in Karatau, Kazakhstan, then part of the Soviet Union, is a Russian science fiction and fantasy author who writes in Russian. His plots are action-packed and often turn on the moral dilemma of staying human while being strong. He studied at the Alma-Ata State Medical Institute from 1986, began writing as a student, published his first short story in 1988 and moved to Moscow in 1996. Alongside literary experiments such as the religiously themed alternative history dilogy Seekers of the Sky, his return to fantasy with the novel Night Watch brought wide fame, and the film adaptations Night Watch and Day Watch were Russian box office successes; he wrote screenplays for some adaptations. English translations of the Watch novels by Andrew Bromfield appeared from 2006. He has said the Strugatsky brothers, Robert A. Heinlein and Vladislav Krapivin shaped his work.