This book offers a rare opportunity to read first-rate science fiction from a country that at one time condemned most writings of this genre. The flavor of these stories is distinctively Russian, but their scope is universal. They are inventive and suspenseful; most important, conjecture does not exceed the realm of technological possibility in these stories. They make the fantastic appear not only possible, but probable.

Issac Asimov, one of America's best-known writers of science fact and fiction, contributes an informative introduction which includes an entertaining and concise history of this most modern literary form.

Contents

• Hoity-Toity by Alexander Belayev
• Spontaneous Reflex by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
• A Visitor from Space by Alexander Kazantsev
• The Martian by Alexander Kazantsev
• Infra Draconis by Gregory Gurevich
• Professor Bern's Awakening by Vladimir Savchenko