Nick Perumov (Russian: Ник Перумов ) is the pen name of Nikolay Daniilovich Perumov (Russian: Николай Даниилович Перумов; born 21 November 1963), a Russian fantasy and science fiction writer. Perumov was born November 21, 1963 in Leningrad, USSR. He began writing short stories since he was a teenager, and after reading The Lord of the Rings in the early 1980s, he became a fantasy fan. After studying at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute, Perumov worked at a research institute, and later as a translator. In 1985-1991 he his debut 'Кольцо Тьмы ' (The Ring of Darkness), a fantasy triology, which consisted of two novels: Эльфийский Клинок (Elven Blade),Черное Копье (Black Lance)and Адамант Хенны. The events of the book took place in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, 300 years after the War of the Ring. Perumov initially regarded his novel as just a fan fiction written for friends, until one of his colleagues offered to publish it. In 1993 the duology, re-edited and renamed 'Кольцо Тьмы' (The Ring of Darkness) was published in Severo-Zapad publishing, which paid Perumov just $300. The Ring of Darkness has sold at least 100,000 copies, and ranked high in popularity among Russian fantasy readers. At the same time it also provoked a controversy in Tolkien fandom. Some Tolkien fans considered that no one has the right to write sequels to The Lord of the Rings and to change Middle-earth's history. Other critics argue that Perumov eroded the edge between Good and Evil by giving Uruk-hai humanlike behaviour. After the success of his debut, Perumov decided to start a career of professional writer. He wrote the novel 'Гибель Богов' (Godsdoom), the first to be set in Упорядоченное (The Consistent), his universe of multiple connected worlds. The Consistent became the main locale of his following books, including the most known, 8-volume series Хранитель Мечей (The Keeper of Swords). Perumov's books published in overall number of more than 4 millions of copies and translated to many languages, Northern and Eastern European mostly. One of his books, Godsdoom has also been translated to English. At Eurocon 2004 he was awarded as the best fiction writer of Europe. Perumov now lives in the United States of America, where he works at a research center as a microbiologist. He claims writing is his 'hobby', while science is his work. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia