Escape Attempt: Best Soviet SF

The first novel tells a story of two young men from Earth, Anton and Vadim, who decide to go for a trip to a planet Pandora, but are persuaded rather to travel to an uncharted planet by a mysterious man whom they know Saul Repnin. Their choice is an unnamed planet in EN-7031 system, because that's where Gorbovsky and Bader predicted that Wanderers' traces could be found. After landing successfully on the planet (which they named Saula after Repnin), the explorers soon discover a local human civilization, as well as the predicted Wanderers' traces. The latter appear as a phenomenon later called "everlasting machines" and largely influence the entire local population. Despite the fact that it is strictly forbidden for them to initiate a contact with any human or alien civilization without an authorization from COMCON, they try to do just this - and fail, having misinterpreted the situation. What Anton and Vadim see as catastrophic is just a routine life in an early feudalistic society of Saula.

The second novel tells the story of Gack, a boy from Giganda. Gack is a cadet commando in Fighting Cats: an elite army unit of the Alai Duchy. In the first chapter of the novel, Gack is mortally wounded in a dogfight with an attacking tank unit of the army of the Empire. Kornei Yashmaa, a progressor, finds him and takes him to Earth, where the doctors practically resurrect Gack. Yashmaa tries to help Gack adjust to life on Earth.

However, Gack does not want to cooperate, nor does he believe that Earth is real. At first, he thinks that everything Yashmaa and other Earthlings tell him is a part of his psychological training as an officer of the Alai Army. Even after Yashmaa proves to him that he is indeed on a different planet, Gack still thinks that he was sent to Earth with an unknown secret mission by the Alai military.

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Rafbók: 23 maj 2023