Jiří Kulhánek

Jiří Kulhánek (born December 31, 1967) is a popular Czech science fiction and fantasy writer. He is among the most successful contemporary authors of the genre in the Czech Republic, being one of only two Czech authors who rely solely on writing for their livelihood; he even tolerates to some extent the unauthorised distribution of his works on the internet. (*Citation needed)

In 1996 he was awarded the Prize of the Czech Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror for promising new authors.

The heroes of Kulhánek's books possess extraordinary or even supernatural abilities (vampires, cyborgs etc.); an often used plot element is that the main protagonist is assaulted at the beginning of the story, then takes refuge from the more numerous, albeit 'normal', enemies. In the end he then faces hidden leaders, even more powerful than the hero himself.

Kulhánek's narrative style is swift with lots of black humour and naturalistic descriptions of violence and is sometimes compared to the style of Quentin Tarantino. The language used in his works is, however, rather simple and the plot sometimes has logical flaws. (*Citation needed)(*May be biased)

Jiří Kulhánek´s latest novel - "Stroncium" (English: Strontium)

The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, the cataclysm in question being the onset of a new ice age. The opening part of the book takes place in a virtual reality of sorts, a world even worse than what is left of the physical reality. Here we get introduced to the main character, who has no memories of his former life, yet someone helps him to return back to the real world. There his mind is placed into a "super-body". The hero is solitary, and if he does make attachments to other people, then they die soon. The main story arc is filled with blood, ice, bullets, gore and black humour, which forms the main premise of the book.Yet the qustion still remains: What is true, and what is false?

Novels

* "Vládci strachu" ("Rulers of Fear"), 1995
* "Cesta krve" ("The Path of Blood"), in two parts: "Část I - Dobrák" ("Part I - The Good Man"), 1996 and "Část II - Cynik" ("Part II - The Cynic"), 1997. Third part "Kat" ("The Hangman"), concluding the series and connecting them to "Divocí a zlí" was not written by Jiří Kulhánek, but by another Czech writer, Martin Moudrý (also known as "Jafff"), and was distributed on the Internet.
* "Divocí a zlí" ("Wild and Evil"), four parts: "Čas mrtvých" ("Time of the Dead") and "Hardcore" in 1999, "Temný prorok" ("Dark Prophet") and "Kříže" ("Crucifixes"), 2000
* "Noční klub" ("Night Club"), two parts: published 2002 and 2003
* "Stroncium" ("Strontium"), 2006

External links

* [http://kulhanek.mysteria.cz/default.html A fan website] (in Czech)