Nick Perumov is a well known Russian fantasy and science fiction author. He was one of the pioneers of genre fantasy in Russia, and became famous after writing an unauthorized sequel to The Lord of the Rings; however, afterwards he used his newfound controversial fame to sell his own brand of fantasy. Although most of his works is fantasy, he also wrote the sci-fi duology Empire Is Above All.
Notable series
- Ring Of Darkness (1993-1995) is what made him (in)famous: an unauthorized sequel trilogy to The Lord of the Rings, set several hundred years after the original. There is sufficient attention to J. R. R. Tolkien canon to make this series reasonably consistent and entertaining, but it is also widely berated for both being very similar (The lead characters are two dwarves and a hobbit, the MacGuffin is a set of mysteriously surviving Nazgûl ringsnote ) and avoiding Status Quo Is God by featuring warlike hobbits, Token Heroic Orc and, ultimately, the fact that the writer had the audacity to blow up the entire planet and evacuate the survivors into his own spin-off world of Hjorvard. Let's leave it at that.
- Chronicles of Hjorvard (1995-ongoing) is his first series set in The Consistent ("Упорядоченное") multiverse. This series of non-connected novels tells the story of Hedin and Rakot, two True Mages who defeated the evil-ish Young Gods and set themselves as chief deities of the multiverse, and various other heroes from the above mentioned Hjorvard.
- The Chronicles of the Rift cycle consists of one standalone novel and two Sequel Series, set in The Consistent multiverse:
- Diamond Sword, Wooden Sword (1998) is the opening novel of the cycle, depicting a Dark Fantasy world known as Mel'in, where racism and elitism permeate society and eventually spark off an apocalyptic war.
- Keeper of the Swords (1999-2006) tells the story of Fess, mage, assassin and, most famously, necromancer, his travels over two worlds, quest to recover his memories and his ultimate battle to save both of these worlds from several malevolent deities, including an evil Crystal Dragon Jesus and his Path of Inspiration. Several non-Fess-centric novels are also included in this series.
- Enchanted Forest (1999-2013, with a large Sequel Gap) consists of three novels: The Necromancer's Daughter, Return the Staff, and Plowshare and Furrow.
- Death of Gods, Part Two. Planned as a Grand Finale novel in the Consistent series, it grew into a sequel cycle of novels continuing both the Hjorvard and Rift plotlines of Nick's main cycle. The cycle is still in the works, with new novels being written.
- Empire Above All (2002-2004) is a Science Fiction duology set in an interstellar Fourth Reich which is invaded by mysterious alien "Biomorphs". The hero, Ruslan Fateev, fights to free his Russian-speaking planet New Crimea from the empire and discover the truth behind the alien invasion.
- Seven Beasts of Raileg (2007-ongoing) is Perumov's new fantasy series, unconnected to his old Consistent multiverse.
Standalone works
- Black Blood (1996), co-authored with Svyatoslav Loginov
- Wrong Time for Dragons (1997), co-authored with Sergey Lukyanenko. The two finally got together to write a sequel, Wrong Place for People in 2020.
- Mlava the Red (2011), co-authored with Vera Kamsha (Arcia Chronicles), an alternate history story set in the XIX century not-quite-Russia fighting a European war.
The proper chronological order of novels from the Consistent Cycle:
- Prequel: Thousand Years of Hroft
- Hjorvard subcycle:
- Death of Gods
- Warrior of the Great Darkness
- Land Without Mirth
- Rift subcycle:
- Prequel: The Necromancer's Daughter (the rest of the Enchanted Forest series is optional sidequels)
- Diamond Sword, Wooden Sword
- The Keeper of the Swords series (seven books);
- Death of Gods, Part Two, the final subcycle:
- Memory of Flame
- Holding the Sky
- Ashes of Asgard
- Asgard Reborn
- Hedin, Enemy Mine
- ongoing...
