Russian publisher Eksmo alters Joe Hill's 'King Sorrow,' removing a Putin reference and replacing the invasion of Ukraine with 'war in Europe'
The Russian edition of American author Joe Hill's novel 'King Sorrow,' published by Eksmo group's Fanzon, has several passages rewritten to avoid censorship problems. Eksmo CEO Yevgeny Kapyev promised to look into the matter and criticized the author.
Several passages in the Russian translation of American fantasy and horror author Joe Hill's novel "King Sorrow" have been rewritten to avoid censorship problems, altering the author's meaning. Nikolai Karayev, who runs the Telegram channel Zvezdnye Mayaki Kapitana Norta, which is devoted to speculative fiction, drew attention to the changes by posting passages from the original next to their Russian versions.
Hill is the son of writer Stephen King. "King Sorrow" is about students who summon a dragon from another world. The Russian edition, translated by Dmitry Starkov, came out in August 2026 from Fanzon, part of the Eksmo publishing group.
What was changed
In the original, a character says he has reliable information that Russians are farming trolls like potatoes in Siberia's permafrost. In Eksmo's version, it is Ukrainians who are breeding trolls, raising them like little pigs.
In another scene, characters watch footage of the war in Ukraine, and the novel describes a strike on a maternity ward in Mariupol. In the translation, Mariupol became Donetsk. A reference to Russian oligarchs who vacationed in Italy with Vladimir Putin was shortened to Russian oligarchs who vacationed in Italy. The line "Russia invaded Ukraine" was replaced with "that night war broke out in Europe."
The publisher's response
After media coverage, Eksmo CEO Yevgeny Kapyev promised to look into the situation thoroughly. He also criticized Hill, asking whether the trend in Western popular culture, which he said began with James Bond, of casting Russians or Asians as villains will ever end. He asked authors not to put "Easter eggs" about the current tense political and military situation into their books.
In the spring, Kapyev was detained along with other senior Eksmo executives in the so-called "publishers' case." Law enforcement authorities alleged that Popcorn Books, another publisher owned by Eksmo, had engaged in the "distribution of LGBT literature."
