Young Ukrainian fiction is definitely flourishing and developing. Along with other Ukrainian publishers, «TUT» plays in this field and is doing very well. We have already written about «Synthesis» by Eliel Drake, which was published by the same publishing house. But if I had many questions about that book, I have almost no questions about Andriy Voron’s novel «Leap into the Abyss». This is a high-quality, Ukrainian space opera in the original universe, which is also the basis for the real board game Verge Of War.
Pluses:
a well-developed universe that you believe in; there are a lot of Ukrainians in the book, but there is no overkill; the stories are diverse and interesting, they mix genres and subgenres, but the main ones are space opera and science fiction; a high-quality edition with lace, color cuts, illustrations, etc.
Minuses:
uneven quality of short stories; characters are not as developed as we would like
«Leap into the abyss»
Author Andriy Voron
Publisher HERE
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 296
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 130×200 mm
Website knygarnya.com
«Leap into the Abyss» — is not an ordinary book, but a novel in short stories. There are nine of them, and they run sequentially in time from 2105 to 2448. As you already know from the board game mentioned above, after 2448, humanity will meet other space races, learn about the older Asgars race and other important events.
«Leap into the Abyss» — is a kind of outline of the history of earthlings before this very meeting with aliens. The book focuses on the development of space travel, the founding and maintenance of colonies, conflicts between the descendants of earthlings, and so on. This is a kind of background to the epic events that await humanity.
And although this is not a classic novel with the same characters, but nine different narratives, all of them are created consistently and logically, and most importantly, they are combined with each other as organically as possible. Sometimes the same events are mentioned in them, certain characters or their descendants appear, etc. Yes, the first novels are not as vividly written as those in the middle or the last. But even their quality is good and makes you keep reading.
There are also many Ukrainians here, but without fanaticism. That is, Ukrainians are present, they are involved in the development of space exploration, they create large powerful families and colonies, they have weight, and so on. But at the same time, other nations and their descendants are also shown conquering the universe side by side. And, of course, there are Russians and their equally bumpy descendants, who also haunt us.
I liked «Leap into the Abyss» for its variety of subgenres. Of course, the main one is space opera, but science fiction is no less important. There are space adventures with pirates, dramatic military events that resonate with Ukrainian modern history, an action movie, spy adventures with supernatural phenomena, a horror thriller on a space station, and so on.
All of this is organically combined and mixed so that the reader can switch from one genre to another without getting bored. And the author has succeeded in this. There are also references to other popular worlds, especially Andriy Voron, who clearly has a soft spot for Warhammer 40000.
The weakest element of «Leap into the Abyss» is the characters. And not because the author failed to reveal them or is unable to do so. This applies to most similar novels and the format as a whole. The story, plot, significant event, etc. come first, and the characters are just observers. There is simply no time for their full disclosure, so they turn out to be a bit one-sided, but this still makes them interesting. Yes, sometimes their actions and words are illogical and unrealistic, but in general, the level of their writing is excellent.
The same goes for their writing skills. It is clear that Andriy Voron seems to have learned in the process, or that writing the novels in reality was very long, so the author managed to grow in his capabilities, which affected the book. But even the first novels are interesting and easy to read, so I assure you that you won’t be put off if you like space operas in general.
The quality of the publication is also very good. The publishing house «TUT» has a high level of quality in all their books, and «Leap into the Abyss» is no exception. We have a stylish atmospheric cover that immediately gives an understanding of the book’s genre. There are also trendy color cuts and cool pictures on the flyleaves. We also have high-quality illustrations and a comfortable binding.
I was lucky enough to talk to the author, and he told me that in October-November he is sending the second, already full-fledged novel in the Verge Of War universe for editing and proofreading, so there is a chance to see a new book in 2025. And it’s also cool that it will be much longer than «Leap Into the Abyss», because the existing 296 pages were not enough for me.
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