Andrey Shmalko was born in Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine, on March 18, 1958. He began writing poetry in 1970, and wrote his first novel while at school. His first pen name was Alexander Nexø. From 1978 till early 2000s he was participating in different archaeological expeditions exploring the sites of Khazar culture, Scythian burial mounds, Genoese castle and especially his favourite Chersonesus, an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the south-western part of the Crimean Peninsula. In 1980 he graduated from Kharkiv National University and became a school teacher of history. From 1982 till 1985 he was a post-graduate student at the Department of Ancient and Medieval History of Kharkiv National University. In 1985 he defended his PhD dissertation in Ancient History, Roman Policy in the Southern Black Sea Region in the 1st Century BC. From 1985 to 1992 he taught history at Kharkiv University of Arts, also known as the Kharkiv Conservatory, where he introduced the first course of the Bible Studies in Ukraine that used to be a primarily atheistic state during the Soviet times. In 1992 he finished his novel The Oversteps, which was published in 1995 under the pen name of Andrey Valentinov. Valentinov is married.
Main Images and Motifs
Valentinov creates his fictional world with the help of the repeating themes, images and motifs. One of them is about the people or race of Dhars. The etymology of their names might be Aryan, Eastern, Celtic or Slavic. According to Valentinov, they are ambiguous creatures: half human, half bearlike, whose origin is very ancient and mysterious. The Dhars live in different places of the world and are endangered because of many enemies, from ignorant cruel people to the evil forces. They keep ancient secret knowledge and have psychic abilities. They usually look like humans, but some of them can transform into werebears. The Dhars might be the descendants of fallen angels and human females. Valentinov suggests that King Arthur whose name meant “bear” was one of them. They are presented in many Valentinov's books, especially in the Logrian series and The Eye of Power Series.
The dystopian events take place in the post-apocalyptic City that resembles Kharkiv, Ukraine, the native city of the authors. 2006 Shooter
Modern Kharkiv, Ukraine, and the events in different countries dated from 1922 till the present time are given through the lenses of the Shooters that are the Knights of the Grand Dame with scythe. 2013 Fortress Of My Soul
The setting resembles the dilogy We Are to Live Here. The realities of modern City and the Old Testament are intermingled and interconnected.
Birthright
Nine Days
Dawn of Sodom
Horror and Mysticism
2005 The Pentacle : the novel-cycle of 30 short stories, written in collaboration with Henry Lion Oldie and Marina and Sergey Dyachenko — Best novel award at the festival "Star Bridge".
The setting is primarily mystic Ukraine of different times.
Speculative Philosophical and Psychological Fiction ([Noosphere] Cycle)
The books of this cycle are based on the idea that there is a parallel universal reality made by our thoughts and dreams named Noosphere or Hypnosphere that is open for some people under some circumstances and allows them to live after death, to travel through time and place and to change the real world where we live.
European technical progress of the 18-19th centuries is presented from the perspective of the metaphysical struggle between the rational scientific and irrational occult forces.
