Alexander Gromov

The novel centers on the life of an ordinary man fighting for survival while new subspecies of Homo sapiens wage war against normal humans.

In the novel, the appearance of contagious diseases and unexpected technological failures has caused the establishment of four services that harshly monitor the life of humankind.

[3] The plot involves the transition of a nation in peaceful harmony with the natural world on a distant planet, to a phase of industrial dictatorship created to defend against outer aggression.

[2] While most of his novels have a well-defined hard scientific background, Gromov's stated main interest is social science fiction: I still have to tell a couple of words about my works — not about each one, but about all of them.

The recipe of it, worked out by H. G. Wells, has not changed till the present day and looks like this: you take a socium (limited number of people is better — easier to work) and do some ugly thing to it, and then you sit and look at the consequences...[1] Two of Gromov's books focus on a theme of power in a social context: his novella Saint Vitus Minuet (Menuet Svyatogo Vitta, 1997), deals with an emerging society; the novel Master of the Void discusses the transition of a peaceful nation in harmony with nature to an aggressive industrial dictatorship.