From the back cover of The Genome.

Sergei Lukyanenko was born in Kazakhstan, then a republic of the Soviet Union.  In 1985 he entered the Alma-Ata Medical University, where he began to write science fiction and publish his first books.  Though Lukyanenko completed his medical course, he realized that he would never be a doctor.  In 1997 he moved to Moscow, and since then has published prolifically.  Many of his works have become bestsellers and have won science fiction awards.  Night Watch and Day Watch were released as films in 2004 and 2006, respectively.  Lukyanenko's writing has been translated into more than twenty languages and continues to be hugely popular.