Young Ukrainian fiction is definitely flourishing and developing. Among other Ukrainian publishers, “TUT” is active in this field and is doing very well. We have already written about “Synthesis” by Eliel Drake, published by the same publisher. But if I had a lot of questions about this 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.
“Stribock у безодню”
Plus points:
a well-developed universe that makes you believe; there are many Ukrainians in the book, but there is no excess; 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 edges, illustrations, etc.
Disadvantages:
inconsistent quality of the short stories; the characters are not as developed as we would like
«Leap into the Abyss»
author Andriy Voron
editor HERE
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 296
cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 130×200mm
website www.knygarnya.com
Leap into the Abyss is not an ordinary book, but a novel in short stories. There are nine of them, and they take place sequentially from 2105 to 2448. As you already know from the board game mentioned above, after 2448, humanity will encounter other space races, learn about the older race of the Asgars, and experience other important events.
“Leap into the Abyss” is a kind of outline of the history of the Earth’s inhabitants before this encounter with aliens. The book focuses on the development of space travel, the establishment and maintenance of colonies, conflicts between the descendants of the Earth’s inhabitants and so on. This is a kind of background for the epic events that await humanity.
And although this is not a classic novel with the same characters all the time, but nine different stories, they are all consistent and logically structured and, most importantly, connected 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 the middle or last ones. But their quality is also good and makes you want to read on.
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 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. The main one is, of course, space opera, but science fiction is no less important. There are space adventures with pirates, dramatic military events reminiscent of modern Ukrainian history, an action film, spy adventures with supernatural phenomena, a horror thriller on a space station, and so on.
All this is organically combined and mixed, allowing the reader to move from one genre to another without getting bored. And the author succeeded in doing 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 The Leap is the characters. And it’s not because the author hasn’t revealed them or isn’t able to. That’s true of most similar novels and the format as a whole. The story, plot, significant event, etc. come first, and the characters are just observers. There’s just no time for their full reveal, so they turn out a bit one-sided, but that still makes them interesting. Yes, sometimes their actions and words are illogical and unrealistic, but overall the level of their writing is excellent.
The same goes for their writing skills. It’s clear that Andriy Voron seems to have learned as he went along, or in reality the novels took a very long time to write, allowing the author to expand his skills, 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» places great emphasis on high quality in all its books, and «Leap into the Abyss» is no exception. We have a stylish, atmospheric cover that immediately gives an understanding of the genre of the book. There are also trendy color edges and cool pictures on the endpapers. We also have high-quality illustrations and a comfortable binding.
I was lucky enough to talk to the author and he told me that he will send me the second, already full-fledged novel in the Verge Of War universe for editing and proofreading in October/November, so there is a chance of seeing 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.
