Worlds Apart: An Anthology of Russian Science Fiction and Fantasy

Several slim anthologies of recent Russian SF have appeared in English over the years, but Levitsky, a professor of Slavic languages at Brown University, takes a more retrospective and scholarly tack with this weighty tome. The included stories, poems and novel excerpts date from the 1700s to the 1950s, with only a short final chapter reviewing the last half-century of the genre, though a companion volume of post-1957 literature may be in the works. Oft-translated authors such as Pushkin and Dostoevsky are in the minority, and most Western readers will be glad of Levitsky's dense introductory essays, which carefully place each section in historical and political context. Despite the significant differences in culture, some story lines are familiar, as with ""The Fatal Eggs,"" a tale of scientific exploration gone awry that could easily have come from the pen of H.G. Wells. This necessary volume is perhaps too scholarly for the lay reader, and more of a reference book than light entertainment.