Alex Shvartsman is a writer, translator, game designer, and anthologist from Brooklyn, NY. His adventures so far have included traveling to over thirty countries, playing a card game for a living, and building a successful business.
Alex is the author of Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019) fantasy novels. . Over 120 of his short stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, Fireside, Weird Tales, Galaxy’s Edge, and many other venues. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction in 2014 and was a three-time finalist for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction.
Alex’s translations from Russian have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Tor.com, Asimov’s, Analog, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere.
He’s the editor of the Unidentified Funny Objects series of humorous SF/F, as well as a variety of other anthologies, including The Cackle of Cthulhu (Baen), Humanity 2.0 (Arc Manor), and Funny Science Fiction (UFO). For five years he edited Future Science Fiction Digest, a magazine that focused on international fiction.
His website is www.alexshvartsman.com and his Twitter handle is @AShvartsman.
If you were transported into one of your books as a character, what kind of character would you be and what kind of adventures would you have?
I’d prefer to be transported to the world of my Conradverse Chronicles series takes place in a magical version of present-day New York City, rather than my grimdark fantasy novel Eridani’s Crown where life is less than ideal for most people. While almost all private businesses featured in the Conradverse are fictional (even if they have real-life counterparts that inspired them) one business mentioned in The Middling Affliction that plays a significant role in Kakistocracy is very real.
The series protagonist has no magic of his own, so he’s constantly on the hunt for quality magical artifacts. There are several secret magic shops in Brooklyn that cater to his needs: a jewelry store in Borough Park, a credit union in Boerum Hill, a bookstore in Brighton Beach, and a game store in Midwood. That last one is Kings Games, an actual game store I’ve owned and operated for 20+ years! I used its real name because it amuses me, and because there’s almost no chance of me suing myself over any sort of misrepresentation.
So it stands to reason that if I were to enter the Conradverse, I’d take on the role of the proprietor, buying and selling charms and amulets alongside board games and trading cards.
If you were stranded on a deserted planet with only one book to read, but it turned out to be one of your own, how would you feel?
That would be a raw deal for sure. Not only have I read those books before (you have to read them many times over as you write and revise each book, and then during proofing and publication process) but also, I strongly suspect the author gets all of his ideas from me.
A much better outcome would be for me to end up stranded on a dessert planet with an unfinished manuscript. There would be cake, and it’d be a golden opportunity to get some writing done while I wait for a passing starship to rescue me!
If you had to choose between being a mermaid or a dragon, which would you pick and why?
This one is a no-brainer. I could be a wise, powerful, and long-lived creature of legend, or I could be a half-fish. Whatever Disney has told you, it may be wetter under the sea, but it sure as heck not better than being a dragon.
If you had to choose between fighting 100 duck-sized robots or one robot-sized duck, which would you pick and why?
I’d strongly prefer the latter, because who is to say what robot-sized means, anyway? Sure, it could turn out to be the size of the Iron Giant or one of the Transformers, but it could just as easily be a wind-up robot toy that is both adorable and easy to crush under my heel. So, I’ll take my chances, because I don’t think I’d be defeating a hundred duck-sized robots. In any case, either is better than fighting any number of geese of any size, because geese are basically tactical combat ducks with a bad attitude.
If you had to choose between being a time traveler or a space explorer, which would you pick and why?
I’ll take time travel any day, because people are interesting and there’s quite literally many lifetimes’ worth of people to meet and societies to explore. Whereas I have it on good authority that most of space is empty, and also cold. And even if I were to encounter aliens, who’s to say I was going to like them? They might be completely incomprehensible, or want to eat me, or, worse yet, enjoy Nickelback.
What off-beat location would you like to see host a convention, and why?
Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, would be a wonderful location to host a science fiction convention. It’s a fascinating city that is also safe and friendly to tourists, featuring great food and breathtaking views. I was fortunate to spend some time there a few years ago and would gladly go back, given the opportunity.
Which trope of science fiction (phasers, transporters, time machines, much more) would you like to see put into our own reality? And how would you use it in a mundane way?
Star Trek-style replicators, able to 3-D print matter on a molecular level, would likely be the best and most impactful sci-fi device we could wish for today. It would solve world hunger, global warming, all sorts of inequities and problems across the globe, propelling humanity into a better tomorrow.
Once the big picture stuff is taken care of, I’d probably just use it to make fresh coffee (none of that bitter Earl Grey stuff for me!) and various dog treats for Leia, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
Alex’s current series is The Conradverse Chronicles, which is describes as Men in Black meets American Gods, in Brooklyn.
The Middling Affliction
Conrad Brent protects Brooklyn from monsters and magical threats. When his deepest secret is uncovered and he loses everything, can he save the very people who rejected him from an arcane plague that threatens to expunge their magic?
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Kakistocracy
Conrad’s boss is missing, there’s a totalitarian new regime in City Hall oppressing all magic users, and the mayor has aligned himself with a diabolical villain.
In order to save the day, Conrad must team up with a recovering necromancer to mediate a dispute between two ancient enemy factions, solve a mystery of a warded house adjacent to a cemetery, and stand with his friends against tyranny.
That is, if the interdimensional fae assassins don’t get him first.
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