Kirill Yuryevich Eskov (Russian: Кири́лл Ю́рьевич Есько́в; born 16 September 1956) is a Russian writer, biologist and paleontologist.As an author he is known for The Gospel of Afranius in which he presents an atheistic interpretation of the events of the Gospel, and The Last Ringbearer in which he retells J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings from a Mordorian point of view.