Andrew Orange

Andrew Orange is the pen name of a Moscow-born writer and historian who has described science fiction as a way to combine adventure, satire, and social observation. The Game of VORs follows Kier Vorsmith, the youngest son of an aristocratic family whose academic ambitions collapse after failed examinations. Instead of studying history at university, Kier becomes an officer in the Imperial Special Corps and is sent to a remote Arctic base. That assignment opens a larger story involving military hierarchy, strange technology, political pressure, and a society whose institutions are viewed through comic distortion. Orange has identified dystopian and social-fiction elements in the novel, which first appeared in Russian in 2014 before an English edition followed in 2016. His scholarly interest in United States history informs the book’s attention to power and public systems without turning it into a historical study. The Game of VORs begins a continuing science-fiction sequence while giving Kier’s reluctant service its own substantial adventure.