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Red Star Tales: A Century of Russian and Soviet Science Fiction
For over a century, most of the science fiction produced by the world’s largest country has been beyond the reach of Western readers. This new collection aims to change that, bringing a large body of influential works into the English orbit.
A scientist keeps a severed head alive, and the head lives to tell the tale… An explorer experiences life on the moon, in a story written six decades before the first moon landing... Electrical appliances respond to human anxieties and threaten to crash the electrical grid… Archaeologists discover strange powers emanating from a Central Asian excavation site… A teleporting experiment goes awry, leaving a subject to cope with a bizarre sensory swap… A boy discovers the explosive truth of his father’s “antiseptic” work, stamping out dissent on distant worlds…
The last 100 years in Russia have seen an astonishing diversity and depth of literary works in the science fiction genre, by authors with a dizzying array of styles and subject matter.
This new volume brings together 18 such works, translated into English for the first time, spanning from path-breaking, pre-revolutionary works of the 1890s, through the difficult Stalinist era, to post-Soviet stories published in the 1980s and 1990s.
A scientist keeps a severed head alive, and the head lives to tell the tale… An explorer experiences life on the moon, in a story written six decades before the first moon landing... Electrical appliances respond to human anxieties and threaten to crash the electrical grid… Archaeologists discover strange powers emanating from a Central Asian excavation site… A teleporting experiment goes awry, leaving a subject to cope with a bizarre sensory swap… A boy discovers the explosive truth of his father’s “antiseptic” work, stamping out dissent on distant worlds…
The last 100 years in Russia have seen an astonishing diversity and depth of literary works in the science fiction genre, by authors with a dizzying array of styles and subject matter.
This new volume brings together 18 such works, translated into English for the first time, spanning from path-breaking, pre-revolutionary works of the 1890s, through the difficult Stalinist era, to post-Soviet stories published in the 1980s and 1990s.
470 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2015
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234 people want to read
About the author
Arkady Strugatsky
513 books1,900 followersThe brothers Arkady Strugatsky [Russian: Аркадий Стругацкий] and Boris Strugatsky [Russian: Борис Стругацкий] were Soviet-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated through most of their careers.
Arkady Strugatsky was born 25 August 1925 in Batumi; the family later moved to Leningrad. In January 1942, Arkady and his father were evacuated from the Siege of Leningrad, but Arkady was the only survivor in his train car; his father died upon reaching Vologda. Arkady was drafted into the Soviet army in 1943. He trained first at the artillery school in Aktyubinsk and later at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow, from which he graduated in 1949 as an interpreter of English and Japanese. He worked as a teacher and interpreter for the military until 1955. In 1955, he began working as an editor and writer.
In 1958, he began collaborating with his brother Boris, a collaboration that lasted until Arkady's death on 12 October 1991. Arkady Strugatsky became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1964. In addition to his own writing, he translated Japanese language short stories and novels, as well as some English works with his brother.
Source: Wikipedia
Arkady Strugatsky was born 25 August 1925 in Batumi; the family later moved to Leningrad. In January 1942, Arkady and his father were evacuated from the Siege of Leningrad, but Arkady was the only survivor in his train car; his father died upon reaching Vologda. Arkady was drafted into the Soviet army in 1943. He trained first at the artillery school in Aktyubinsk and later at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow, from which he graduated in 1949 as an interpreter of English and Japanese. He worked as a teacher and interpreter for the military until 1955. In 1955, he began working as an editor and writer.
In 1958, he began collaborating with his brother Boris, a collaboration that lasted until Arkady's death on 12 October 1991. Arkady Strugatsky became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1964. In addition to his own writing, he translated Japanese language short stories and novels, as well as some English works with his brother.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 11, 2023
Most of the stories in this book were dull and boring. I understand the sensibilities and history, but when I read my beloved SF, I try to be entertained, not only preached to. Unfortunately, the few stories that entertained me were overshadowed by the sheer effort of heavily prodding through the marsh of the rest for three weeks.
This book is only my second acquaintance with Russian SF, and the previous one was The Snail on the Slope was an odd three-star book; perhaps this sub-genre is not for me. This book gets two stars out of five because I just didn't enjoy my time.
This book is only my second acquaintance with Russian SF, and the previous one was The Snail on the Slope was an odd three-star book; perhaps this sub-genre is not for me. This book gets two stars out of five because I just didn't enjoy my time.
August 25, 2021
These stories are astonishingly good. I originally purchased this book as a curiosity, thinking I may find one or two decent entertainments; but after some surprising twists in the first few tales (which I will not even hint at here, but suffice it to say you'll want to share it with someone) it became apparent that American science fiction will be all the richer for the addition of this volume. Most of the stories in this book were never translated into English, so each one is a real discovery. HIGHLY recommended.
Read
June 29, 2019An essential read for anyone who is into either science fiction or Russian literature, or both. So much Russian literature is unavailable for those who do not speak the language, so this is a nice anthology that gives its reader a glimpse into what they're missing. It's not perfect, though: there are quite a few typos, and I would have preferred more complete short stories than the few excerpts that are included in this collection; I'm guessing that those excerpts were deemed important enough or significant in the sense that they give the reader an understanding of Russian/Soviet science fiction at that particular period in time, which makes sense seeing as over the last century so much has happened in Russia. Still, the majority of the complete short stories here are worth reading and might just prove that, overall, no one does science fiction quite like a Russian writer.
January 8, 2023
I purchased my copy of this book on Amazon about a year ago and have just now gotten around to reading it. It is one of Amazon's "print on demand" titles, so it didn't exist in completed paper form until I'd ordered it (and paid for it of course), then it was produced at a "fulfillment center" in Columbia, SC by some kind of automated printing/binding machine. This bit of 21st century technological wizardry is perfect for a collection of science fiction stories...and what a collection! I love Soviet era Russian science fiction. In the past I have read English language translations of books by several of the authors whose stories are featured here - Alexander Belyaev, Ivan Yefremov, Vladmir Savchenko, Kir Bulychev, Sergei Lukyanenko, and of course my all-time favorites the incomparable Strugatsky brothers.
The publication of this book was financed by Kickstarter crowdsourcing in 2015. It contains 18 stories that were originally published in the years 1892 to 1992. The stories are grouped into three blocks representing three distinct eras of Russian history: "Red Star Rising" (1892 - 1915) representing pre-Soviet writings, "Red Star In Retrograde" (1926 - 1946) representing the Stalin era, and "Red Star Reforming" (1958 - 1992) representing the post-Stalin era through the breakup of the Soviet Union. I found the stories in the first block to be quaint with an HG Wells vibe but generally uninteresting. The stories in the second and third blocks were for the most part very good with a few of them positively mind blowing. Of particular interest to me was a short excerpt from "Those Burdened By Evil", the last book by the Strugatsky brothers, published in the Soviet Union in 1988. This work has frustratingly never been published in English. The brief excerpt, translated by Kevin Reese, is intriguing in the extreme. (Kevin Reese: if you are reading this, I would like to encourage you to finish your translation and find a way to let "Those Burdened By Evil" see the light of day in English. Try crowdsourcing or whatever. The Chicago Review Press is putting out a new translation of "The Waves Extinguish The Wind" later this year so there must still be a market for the Strugatskys' writing....). Five out of five stars
The publication of this book was financed by Kickstarter crowdsourcing in 2015. It contains 18 stories that were originally published in the years 1892 to 1992. The stories are grouped into three blocks representing three distinct eras of Russian history: "Red Star Rising" (1892 - 1915) representing pre-Soviet writings, "Red Star In Retrograde" (1926 - 1946) representing the Stalin era, and "Red Star Reforming" (1958 - 1992) representing the post-Stalin era through the breakup of the Soviet Union. I found the stories in the first block to be quaint with an HG Wells vibe but generally uninteresting. The stories in the second and third blocks were for the most part very good with a few of them positively mind blowing. Of particular interest to me was a short excerpt from "Those Burdened By Evil", the last book by the Strugatsky brothers, published in the Soviet Union in 1988. This work has frustratingly never been published in English. The brief excerpt, translated by Kevin Reese, is intriguing in the extreme. (Kevin Reese: if you are reading this, I would like to encourage you to finish your translation and find a way to let "Those Burdened By Evil" see the light of day in English. Try crowdsourcing or whatever. The Chicago Review Press is putting out a new translation of "The Waves Extinguish The Wind" later this year so there must still be a market for the Strugatskys' writing....). Five out of five stars
April 17, 2022
The compilation has as many wonderful bits of Russian sci-fi as it does stories that kind of stop you dead, and unfortunately the duller ones are much longer. Really the whole thing would have benefited from fewer excerpts and more full stories, as well as a bit of further detail at the start of each story on the reception of the work, the author's biography, and so on to better ground the politcal satires and analogies that are clearly extant in the works. Still very interesting to watch sci-fi writing grow from awed explanations of now baseline elements of the genre to explorations of the potential of mankind to grim examinations of dystopian states.
May 27, 2020
A mixture of interesting and tedious. Was tempted to give a score of two points but the introduction to me (apart from the Strugatsky brothers) of new sci-fi authors was worthy of the extra point. Worth obtaining, even if only to check out sci-fi from Russia.
Ray Smillie
Ray Smillie
May 7, 2021
Full disclosure that my Russian professor from college was the translator for this book, so it gets a little bonus. There are some cool stories here and some truly bizarre ones. The best thing about a book with short stories is that if you don’t like one, the next one will be coming soon.
November 30, 2024
A diverse and fun collection of Russian/Soviet sci-fi short stories. This book does a great job of embodying the development/devolving of the sci-fi genre in Russia during the 20th century.
November 5, 2020
Ratings:
'Jubilee-200' by Kir Bulychev - 4 stars.
'Spontaneous Reflex' by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - 3 stars.
'On the Moon' by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky - 3 stars.
'Professor Dowell's Head' by Alexander Belyaev - 3 stars.
'Jubilee-200' by Kir Bulychev - 4 stars.
'Spontaneous Reflex' by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - 3 stars.
'On the Moon' by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky - 3 stars.
'Professor Dowell's Head' by Alexander Belyaev - 3 stars.
February 3, 2016
An odd book this. Some of the tales were potentially very interesting, but ended abruptly. Or were they just exceprts?
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews