Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction

I may not be an international man of mystery, but this short story could claim the title (and possibly play the next James Bond, too?)

The typical thing is for your story to be published and then, if you’re very lucky, for it to find one or more translation opportunities down the line. This story did not play by the rules. It is about teenagers growing up in the world where augmented reality is ubiquitous and how (also, why) they learn to cope without access to the layers of information is plasters over the natural world around them.

A few years ago I was asked to contribute a story to the SF Gala event organized by the Future Affairs Administration. So I wrote an original story knowing it’d come out in Chinese before it found a home in English. (The same thing happened with “Repairs at the Beijing West Space Elevator” which was eventually published in Analog and became a Canopus nominee)

This time, I wrote a story set in the futuristic Ukraine. Specifically at the seaside resort near my home town of Odesa, where I stayed a couple of times as a child. The story is set in the world where augmented reality is ubiquitous, and how (also, why) young people learn to cope with situations where it might be turned off.

The English text found a home in Shapers of Worlds V anthology edited by Ed Willett but as the book made its slow way toward publication, I sold the Ukrainian rights to the Me and My Robots anthology edited by Henry Lion Oldie. My friends (who write at HL Oldie) translated the story into Ukrainian just as I had translated some of their past work into English and, for a while, it looked like English would be the third publication language for my story!

I am excited to see both out in the world, but especially the Ukrainian text since it’s my first Ukrainian publication.