“I’m willing to suffer another film for the good company,” I said.
He grinned, the lines around his eyes creasing, and some hidden tension in my chest loosened. Despite myself, I was also worried about Vassily’s trial. Besides that, I was already ruminating on Maslak, my father, the dead cat, Kovacs and Slava, and the blurry, anxious recollections of the night before. The events of the last week – perhaps the most difficult of my life – marched through my head in a confused tumble. It all needed to be put aside to face the dawn. Revenge and the plan for my father’s death could wait. My best friend needed me in the now, and that was all that mattered.
Get Book #1 & #2 of the Alexi Sokolsky Series with these handy links:
Afterword
There are times when I really have to wince my way through depicting the realities of criminal chauvinism and the bull-headed, black-and-white thoughtlessness of organized crime in general. Criminals can be complex and sympathetic people, like Vassily or Alexi or Lev, or dismayingly simple people – violent, racist, misogynistic – like Grigori. Regardless, organized crime is fundamentally based on toxic machismo and greed, and anyone involved it becomes sick.
I grew up within the confines of Australian organized crime. I was born to someone involved in the Irish mob, and spent a lot of my early life in women’s shelters and protective services with my mother. I developed an interest in the Soviet underworld after spending years studying World War and Soviet history, and noting how the criminal element in Russia so often evolved in opposition to repression: first by the Tsars, and then by the Soviet Union. There were periods where the underworld and the black market were the most efficient systems in the country. This has led to Russia essentially turning into a kleptocracy, and the Russian mafia into the dark shadow of the global capitalist business world – which is why they are currently the most numerous and successful of the all the ethnic organized criminal operations currently in operation.
Alexi, through dint of being a mystic, is fated to always remain on the fringes in many respects. He cannot not think about the things that his peers take for granted. Why are we racist, sexist, homophobic? Why do we hate, and kill, and why do we value the things we do? Why do we fear what we do not understand, instead of trying to understand them? A mage, by his very nature, cannot gain power without seeking deeper meaning to things. The life expectancy of spooks in Alexi’s universe is generally very low for this reason – it’s impossible to function properly in the underworld while seeking out a greater understanding of reality. To have survived to his mid-20s, Alexi is better at lying to himself than he realizes.
The point of this, I suppose, is that I’m not actually endorsing anything that happens in Burn Artist or my future books in this series. I don’t endorse racism or celebrate gangster culture: indeed, my childhood was destroyed by it. A few people have emailed me to tell me how uncomfortable the language and attitudes of people like Grigori and Nicolai make them, and my only reply to that is to say: “I tell stories to explore the human condition, and remind myself and other people of our ability to overcome crisis, ignorance, and grief. This is the reality of how many people still think and speak. If it makes you uncomfortable, then I’ve done my job – go outside or go on Facebook and stand up to someone who says these uncomfortable things, and continue to be part of the solution.”
If you choose to keep going with the series – and I hope you do – you will not always be comfortable. I write to entertain, but I also write to challenge. There’s plenty of fluff in the world already, and I do not shy away from difficult language or themes, such as racism, child trafficking, the abuse inherent in the justice system, cartel massacres or modern-day slavery. Across the books in this series, there is fun, and love (eventually), and heroism… but there is the Shadow, too. Men like Grigori are real. I know, because I was raised by one.
A huge thanks to the Facebook NaNoWriMo group, especially Eric K’s excellent performance as a snotty Israeli pyromancer. My wife and Heather, for putting up with my 4th book-related hibernation of the year. All friends for support and encouragement, and Stacy for her patient and generous feedback.
Structure of the Yaroshenko Organizatsiya
The Yaroschenko Organizatsiya is actually two gangs: the largely autonomous Brighton Beach/USA faction who identify with Sergei’s surname, plus a larger Organizatsiya in Kiev, Ukraine who call themselves the Sviatoshyn Gang. As of 1986, the hierarchy is as follows:
Pakhun:
Sergei Yaroshenko
Avtoritet
Rodion Brukov
Vassily Lovenko (under apprenticeship/in training)
Brighton Beach Advokat
Lev Moskalysk
Alexi Sokolsky (in training)
Volkhv/Spook
Alexi Sokolsky
Brighton Beach Kommandant
Grigori Sokolsky
Brighton Beach Street Captain/Head of Security
Nicolai Chiernenko
Red Hook/East Village Kommandant
Vanya Kazupov
Red Hook Advokat
Yegor Gavrilyuk
Red Hook Street Captain
Ivan ‘Ivanko’ Andreichenko
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