Andrii Voron is a science fiction writer who released a collection of short stories “Jump into the Abyss” in 2024, where the events take place in the distant future when humanity began to spread across the Galaxy.
By profession, Andrii is a programmer of autonomous control and management systems. He is very fond of science fiction, especially space opera and cyberpunk. He talks about this on his YouTube channel Astrogator.
Andrii Voron wrote his first fiction story in 8th grade. In 2013, he became a prize-winner of the contest “Zoriana Fortetsia”, and in 2021 his story was included in the collection “Agency Independence”.
However, the fictional universe of the “Verge Of War”, in which the events of “Leap Into the Abyss” unfolded, came even earlier. In 2018 and 2019, the tabletop wargame (games similar to Warhammer 40000), twice raised a kickstarter.
Andrii Voron is fond of board wargames and has even acted as a judge at wargame tournaments. We asked him how he imagines the cosmic future of humanity.
How did you become interested in space and space fiction?
When I saw stars in the sky. 🙂 I am serious. A full celestial dome of stars from horizon to horizon. Filled with the mysteries of time and space, the Universe beckoned and enthralled. I was learning to read from the atlases of the solar system and constellations. Like all small children, I was interested in dinosaurs, but I was much more interested in stars. And I avidly sought out every possible story about stars and space travel. But there were not so many of them in the times of my childhood.
And then, already in free Ukraine, came books by Western authors, and the first were “The Star Kings” by Edmond Hamilton. Since then I knew that I wanted to tell the same stories about stars, traveling, uncharted planets and the mysteries of eternity.
Your book “Leap into the Abyss” is part of the Verge Of War universe you created. How would you characterize it?
It’s a universe of adventure and possibility. In creating this universe, I was inspired by the Age of Discovery. When the world expanded rapidly. New lands, uncharted and unseen cultures and things were discovered. The stories of Captain Blood and Treasure Island brought to a cosmic scale.
How did it even happen that the “Verge Of War” was first used to make a game and then a book?
When I first published in 2013, it was a little more difficult than unrealistic to break into the Ukrainian fiction market. Today it’s not easy either, but it’s still easier.
And then there was an opportunity to translate the universe into real objects. And already promote it, having a successful game case at hand. And the bonus of miniatures and artwork. And a better-developed universe.
But.
Working on artwork and kickstarters has consumed all my time. And there was simply no time or energy left to work on the books. And yet the main idea and goal was to create a book universe.
However, my team and I raised two kickstarters. Not a bad achievement, if you think about it.
Space piracy plays a significant role in your books. Do you think there will be room for so many criminal elements in space in the future?
As I said, the universe has its roots in the Age of Exploration. There is no FTL communication. A message goes as far as the Mail-Clipper, a super-fast yacht. But that’s still time. This makes the colony isolated. And a certain amount of autonomy for both the administration and the corporate bosses.
This tempts a certain impunity. Piracy will therefore develop not only as a means of profit for adventurers and robbers but also as a means of unfair competition.
Humans seek profit and freedom. And the Boundlessness of Space, where it is so easy to get lost, will entice with the possibilities of both.
Do you think that when people start settling in space, they will change it? Or is it more likely that space itself will change people?
It’s both. When ancient people settled in Oceania on balsa rafts, they were changing, adapting to the conditions of the boundless ocean and new uncharted islands. But then humans themselves also changed the Ocean, building powerful new ships and reliable routes.
And so it will be here. At first, space will change people, but then, changed by the boundless Universe and adapted to the tiny islands of the planets, people will start to change space by building more powerful ships, bigger colonies and more reliable routes.
I’m not sure I can see it with my own eyes, but I can try to imagine how it might happen, in my books. That’s what I’m doing. 🙂
What do you think about the Fermi paradox?
More civilizations have arisen and perished in the Universe than we will ever encounter. Living things are cruel and particular. And primarily to themselves. Therefore, in most cases, human explorers will come across the remnants of civilizations that destroyed themselves somewhere on the verge of going into space / establishing the first colonies.
And I want to believe that it is humanity that will be able to cross the threshold, not destroy itself with war or environmental disasters, and reach the stars.
I am an optimist and believe in the best.
The universe you have created is called the “Verge of War”. Do you think civilizations coming from different planets can stay on it, or in the far dark future can there be only war?
In general, the Verge Of War is an idiom that translated into Ukrainian, sounds like “An instant before the war.’’ This is the state when war is one careless movement away. But it seems that everything can still be avoided. We could see this in January 2022. And now the World is living on the Verge Of World War III. It seems to be still avoidable, but all responsible people are doing the maximum to make it all inevitable…
Within the same species, on a small planet, we can’t find common ground. Let alone species that are completely alien to each other. It would be a dark forest where everyone is both hunter and prey at the same time. So today we hide xenophobia under masks. Even Western civilization with all its tolerance and inclusiveness is very xenophobic and not at all tolerant of other thoughts… Just try to abstract a little and you will notice fangs and claws in pink unicorns. So why then should a race that came from other planets be more tolerant and open to others than to themselves?
No, of course, there will be those who promote openness and peacefulness. And even sincerely believe in it. There will be pacifists and just good-natured beings. But the masses and political currents… that’s another matter entirely.
Have I mentioned that I am an optimist?
And that’s the second big pillar of the Verge Of War world. Not as obvious as space and adventurous adventures with pirates and treasure. The universe is frozen in a Mexican dueling stance. Only the guns are pointed at each other not by Bad, Good and Evil, but by a dozen races, who are watching each other closely and waiting to see who will miss first. The whole Galaxy is frozen in a precarious equilibrium, and it seems that nothing can prevent the inevitable catastrophe. But the delicate hand has not yet measured the last second. And the chance… There is always a chance.
What do you say to our readers?
The future is not determined, you choose it. And no matter how small you may seem to yourself, the sea is made up of drops. And you have the power to change the future.
I once watched an interesting lecture on astrophysics. It was given by a luminary of science (the last name is not important now). It was at Harvard or MIT (also not important). By the way, it was about the Fermi paradox. And then it was question time. One student stood up and said: “Professor, don’t you feel down when you look at a star map and realize that there are infinite billions of billions of billions of galaxies, an infinite number of planets, and your own life is smaller than a grain of sand and shorter than a flash? And you mean absolutely nothing to the Universe.”
The audience applauded the good question, but it was noticeable that most of the young people thought the same way. The professor thanked for the question, thought about it, and then replied: “You know, I have been thinking about it myself. And I can tell you this, summarizing all my knowledge and experience. Every atom of my body, and yours as well, was born in the forges of supernovae and passed billions of years of stars’ evolution. The very fact of the existence of my body and consciousness is a miracle of thermodynamics. I am the universe itself, which has realized itself and is now looking back into the starry sky to understand itself.”
I believe that.
Dear readers, you are an integral part of the Universe, born of its stars. And nothing less.
