A Visitor from Outer Space

by Alexander Belyaev

Book Overview

A rare first read to science fiction from the soviet block of the 1960's This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589633318
• ISBN13: 9781589633315
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Fredonia Books (NL)
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Some of the best science fiction written in the Soviet Union in the 1950's

It is a common misperception in the west that there was little creative imagination in the Soviet Union in the 1940's and 1950's. Even Isaac Asimov opens his introduction with the sentence, "Science Fiction From the Soviet Union? " However, as these stories demonstrate, the political atmosphere in the Soviet Union at that time did not restrict the creative imagination of the science fiction writers. The stories in this collection are: *) Hoity-Toity - a story about an amazing and intelligent elephant that appears to go berserk but in fact is operating with a human intelligence. Upon investigation, it is discovered that a human brain has been transplanted into the elephant and it is tired of being treated like an animal. *) Spontaneous Reflex - a robot programmed to work in a factory demonstrates behavior that is beyond its' programming, it gets bored and chooses to explore the rest of the factory. *) A Visitor From Outer Space - a scientific expedition is traveling to the Arctic to study the climate and contrast it to that of Mars. The main theme is a conversation between the scientists about the origin of the massive aerial explosion in Siberia in 1909. One of the scientists expresses the firm opinion that it was a spaceship from Mars. *) The Martian - a continuation of the previous story, where the scientists discuss a wild story about some Martians successfully traveling to Earth. *) Infra Draconis - a story about a spaceship designed to colonize planets where the crew is searching for large bodies that are too small to be stars but are large enough to radiate great amounts of infrared energy. They find a planet but it is completely covered with water. One of the crewmembers explores the planet in a submarine. *) Professor Bern's Awakening - a scientist, frustrated with the current political atmosphere of the cold war, decides to place himself in suspended animation. He awakens thousands of years later to find himself surrounded by apelike humans. While there are no ideas in these stories that will be new to the regular reader of science fiction, they are still interesting and quite progressive for the times. It is also a triumph for the relative openness of the scientific community that these stories could be published in the west at that time.