Liussia stood up and laughed as she looked at herself in the mirror.
‘Come on, Sergei, let’s go for a walk—maybe to Yelagin Island.’
Sergei picked up his bundle of skates, took Liussia’s arm, and went
down the stairs into the street with her. They rode the streetcar to
Cultural Park where they strolled about for a long time, rode the
merry-go-round, and ate two meals in a restaurant.
When the still white night had descended and the park was
deserted, they went to the sea shore. The sea was completely calm,
without even the smallest wave, and in the distance, near Volny
Island, the sails of the yachts hung motionless in the moonlight.
‘Just the right kind of weather’, said Sergei as he unwrapped the
water skates. He helped Liussia tie hers and then put his own on.
Liussia ran on to the water and skated lightly across it; Sergei
followed. They came to the yachts, whose owners were waiting for a
breeze, waved to them, and skated on past Volny Island to the open
sea. They glided over the water for a long time, then Sergei suddenly
slowed down; Liussia stopped and skated back to him.
A Modest Genius
247
‘Liussia, do you know what I’d like to say to you?’, Sergei began,
somewhat unsure of himself.
’I know’, Liussia replied, ‘and I love you too. From now on we’ll
stay together for good.’
They embraced and kissed, then turned back to the shore. Mean-
while the wind had risen and was forming waves. It was becoming
difficult to skate.
‘Suppose I stumble and fall down into the water?’, said Liussia.
‘I’ll take precautions right now so that we won’t drown’, answered
Sergei with a laugh. He took the atomizer and bottle of MSST from his
pocket and sprayed his and Liussia’s clothing with the liquid.
‘Now we can even ride the waves’, he said to her.
They sat down, close together, on a wave, as though it were a
crystal bench, and the wave carried them back to the shore.
translated by MATTHEW J. O’CONNELL
Notes on the Authors
LINO ALDANI
Lino Aldani (born 1926), is best known as the author of the urban
dystopia Quando le Radici (1977). His short stories have been collected
in the volume Quarta Dimensione (1964). A professor of mathematics
by profession, Aldani was one of the editors of the short-lived SF
magazine Futuro (1963–1964) and the Interplanet anthologies. His
short stories have been translated into French, German, Japanese,
Spanish and Russian; the story ‘Buonanotte Sofia’ was adapted for
French television (Theáˆtre de l’e´trange, Paris, 1966). The TV version
of his story ‘L’Altra River’ won first prize at the Festival of the
Fantastic Film in Trieste in 1970. Aldani has also written some fantasy
and is the author of a book on SF, La Fantascienza (1962).
JEAN-PIERRE ANDREVON
Andrevon was born on 19 September 1937. Educated at the Ećole des
Arts Dećoratifs de Grenoble, he received the Diploˆme National des
Beaux-Arts in 1965. From 1961 to 1969 he was a professor of art, and
he has had a number of exhibitions of his paintings. Andrevon has
published fiction and SF criticism in many French periodicals, includ-
ing Fiction, Horizon du fantastique and L’Ećran fantastique. His many
books include the novels Les Hommes-machines contre Gandahar (1969),
Le Deśert du monde (1977), and Le Travail du Furet à l’inteŕieur du
Poulailler (1984), and the short story collections Aujourd’hui, demain et après (1970), Cela se produira bientoˆt (1971) and Le Livre d’or de Jean-Pierre Andrevon (1983). Andrevon is considered one of the most
innovative French SF writers.
HERBERT W. FRANKE
Herbert W. Franke, born 14 May 1927 in Vienna, studied physics,
mathematics, chemistry, psychology, and philosophy at the University
of Vienna from 1945 to 1950. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics.
Franke worked for a time as an assistant college professor and later for
the Siemens company in Germany. Since 1957 he has been a freelance
writer, with many books of a scientific or popular scientific nature to
his credit. He has done pioneering work in the field of computer art
and is an enthusiastic spelunker. Books on both subjects have been
Notes on the Authors
249
translated into English. As an SF writer, Franke has developed a
laconic, unadorned style that is in keeping with his bleak subjects of
anti-utopian manipulation and rule. Long before cyperpunk, virtual
worlds were a prominent feature of his fiction. Three of Franke’s SF
novels have been translated into English: The Mind Net (New York:
DAW Books, 1974, translation by Christine Priest of Das Gedankennetz,
1961), The Orchid Cage (New York: DAW Books, 1973, translation by
Christine Priest of Der Orchideenka¨fig, 1961), and Zone Null (New York:
The Seabury Press, 1974, translation by Chris Herriman of Zone Null,
1970). Franke’s other science fiction includes the novels Die Glasfalle
(1962), Die Stahlwu¨ste (1962), Der Elfenbeinturm (1965), Ypsilon minus
(1976), Sirius Transit (1979), Schule fu¨r U¨bermenschen (1980), Tod eines Unsterblichen (1982), Transpluto (1982), Die Ka¨lte des Weltraums (1984), Endzeit (1985), Zentrum der Milchstraße (1990), and the short story
collections Der gru¨ne Komet (1960), Einsteins Erben (1972), Zarathustra
kehrt zuru¨ck (1977), Paradies 3000 (1981), Keine Spur von Leben (1982,
radio dramas), Der Atem der Sonne (1986) and Spiegel der Gedanken
(1990), most of them Suhrkamp. Franke was also scientific consultant
with Goldmann SF (since 1960), co-editor of Heyne SF (1974–1979),
and 1979–1982 again a Goldmann consultant.
SEVER FELIKSOVICH GANSOVSKY
Gansovsky was born in Kiev in 1918, and worked as a sailor, a stoker
and electrical engineer in Leningrad. He died in 1990. In the Second
World War he was severely wounded when he volunteered for service
in the Red Army to fight against the Germans. Later he worked in
Kasakhstan on a horse-farm. When still a student, Gansovsky started
publishing stories in newspapers and periodicals and wrote several
volumes for children before he turned in the 1960s to science fiction.
His time-travel novella Vinsent Van-Gog (1971), was filmed in the
German Democratic Republic. Gansovsky’s SF stories have been col-
lected in the volumes Shagi v neizvestnoe (1963), Shest’ geniev (1965), Tri shaga k opasnosti (1969), Idyot chelovek (1971), and Chelovek, kotoryi sdelal Baltiskoie More (1981). A collection of tales in English translation was
published in Russia: The Day of Wrath (1989, translated by Alexander
Repyev). The title story of that collection was also included in the
anthology of Soviet SF Path Into the Unknown (London: MacGibbon and
Kee, 1966; New York: Delacorte Press, 1968, paperback, Dell, 1968).
Further stories were translated in the anthologies World’s Spring, ed.
Vladimir Gakov (New York: Macmillan, 1981) and Earth and Elsewhere,
ed. Roger DeGaris (New York: Macmillan, 1985, ‘A Part of the World’).
250
Notes on the Authors
VSEVOLOD
VIACHESLAVOVICH IVANOV
Ivanov (1895–1963) was no genre writer but an important figure of
Russian literature. After an adventurous life in Siberia as a clerk, fakir, clown, member of the Red Guards, political agitator and school
director he moved to Leningrad where he became a member of the
‘Serapion’s Brothers’ circle of writers which fought for the indepen-
dence of art. His first story, published in 1916, caught the attention of Gorky who sponsored him. Many of his stories, beginning with
Partizanskie povesti (1921–1922) told of the fight of the Communist
partisans against the Kolchak Army. His stories and dramas are
remarkable for their imagery and unusual situations and motifs; his
early work combines realism with romanticism. The story ‘Sisyphus,
the Son of Aeolus’ first appeared posthumously in the periodical Nash
sovremnik No. 12 (1964).
WOLFGANG JESCHKE
Wolfgang Jeschke (born 1936) was first a tool-maker and mechanical
engineer; later he studied German and English literature and philo-
sophy and worked as an editor for a German reference work publish-
er. He is best known as an editor of SF. In 1969–1971 he edited an SF
series of quality paperbacks for Lichtenberg, in 1973 he became co-
editor (with Herbert W. Franke) of Heyne SF, the most successful SF
line in Germany, which he has edited as sole editor since 1977. He has
put together more than 100 SF anthologies. His own work is small but
of excellent quality, remarkable foremost for its stylistic quality. Both of his SF novels have appeared in English translation: The Last Day of
Creation (London: Century, 1982; New York: St Martin’s Press, 1984,
translation by Gertrud Mander of Der letzte Tag der Scho¨pfung, 1981),
and Midas (Sevenoaks, Kent: New English Library, 1990, translation
of Midas, 1987). His long post-doomsday novella ‘The Land of Osiris’,
translated by Sally Schiller, first appeared in English in Isaac Asimov’s SF Magazine, March 1985. Jeschke’s stories were collected in Der Zeiter
(1970, greatly expanded paperback 1978) and Schlechte Nachrichten aus
dem Vatikan (1993, includes also many radio dramas). The best of
Jeschke’s early stories is a baroque tale of time travel paradox, ‘Der
Ko¨nig und der Puppenmacher’, translated as ‘The King and the
Dollmaker’ in The Best from the Rest of the World: European Science
Fiction, ed. Donald A. Wollheim (New York: Doubleday, 1976).
Jeschke’s latest work is a picturesque cosmic tale of genetic manip-
ulation, ‘Meamones Auge’ (1994). Another story in English is ‘A Little
Notes on the Authors
251
More than Twelve Minutes’ in New Writings in SF, ed. Kenneth
Bulmer (1975).
GE
ŔARD KLEIN
Born 27 May 1937, Geŕard Klein has studied economics and
psychology, in which he holds advanced degrees, and has written
books; by profession he is an economic consultant. He started writing
at the age of ten and broke into print with ‘Une place au balcon’
(1955) in Galaxie, the French edition of Galaxy. Between 1956 and
1962 he wrote some 40 elegant, carefully crafted and poetic stories
that often show the influence of Ray Bradbury, and some 200
eloquent critical essays on SF ranging in length from a few pages
to one hundred. For his space operas he used a number of
pseudonyms: Marc Starr, Franc¸ois Pagery, R. Garance and Gilles
d’Argyre. Of the five novels written under the Gilles D’Argyre
pseudonym for the Fleuve Noir series, one, Les tueurs du temps
(1965) was translated by C. J. Richards as The Mote in Time’s Eye
(New York: DAW Books, 1975) and published under Klein’s name.
The others were Chirurgiens d’une planète (1960), Les voiliers du soleil
(1961), Le long voyage (1964), and Le sceptre du hasard (1966). The
first book under Klein’s own name was the collection Les perles du
temps (1958). Other short story collections are Un chant de pierre
(1966), La loi du talion (1973), Histoires comme si (1975) and Le livre
d’or du Geŕard Klein (1979). Klein’s first SF novel was Gambit des
e´toiles (1958) in Hachette’s SF series ‘Le rayon fantastique’, translated by C. J. Richards as Starmaster’s Gambit (New York: DAW Books,
1973). The novel Le Temps n’a pas d’odeur (1963) appeared in English
as The Day Before Tomorrow, translated by P. J. Sokolowski (New
York: DAW Books, 1972). Klein’s best SF novel Les seigneurs de la
guerre (1971) was translated by John Brunner as The Overlords of War
(New York: Doubleday, 1973). In the last decades Geŕard Klein has
written very little, but he shaped the French SF field as an editor.
Since 1969 he has edited the SF series ‘Ailleurs et Demain’ for
publisher Robert Laffont, in which he not only published the crop of
Anglo-Saxon SF writers (Philip Jose´ Farmer, Philip K. Dick, Frank
Herbert, Robert A. Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel R. Delany,
Norman Spinrad, Gregory Benford and many more), but also
encouraged French SF writers (Stefan Wul, Michel Jeury, AndreŔuellan, Philippe Curval). Klein also edited a representative three-volume set of the best of French SF, Anthologie de la science-fiction
franc¸aise (1975, 1976, 1977).
252
Notes on the Authors
STANISL
/
AW LEM
Born 12 September 1921 in Lvow (now Ukraina), Lem is without
doubt the leading SF writer on the continent of Europe. He studied
medicine in Lvov (1939–1941, and again 1944–1946), and Cracow
(1946–1948), without taking a degree. After the German attack on
the Soviet Union he worked as a mechanic for the German Wehr-
macht. His first story was written during that time purely as a
diversion and published in 1946 in the dime novel series Nowy s´wiat
przygo´d (‘New World of Adventure’): ‘Czl/owiek z Marsa’ (The Man
from Mars). His first SF books were Astronauci (1951) and Obl/ok
Magellana (1955) in which he envisioned a bright socialist future,
but his first novel was the contemporary Szpital przemienienia, pub-
lished as part 1 of the trilogy Czas nieutracony (1955, ‘Time Not Lost’;
only the first novel was translated by William Brand as Hospital of the
Transfiguration (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988). Lem
also wrote philosophical discourses on cybernetics (Dialogi, 1957) and
futurology (Summa technologiae, 1964), a meandering tome on the
theory of literature (Filozofia przypadku, 1968), a highly theoretical
tome on SF (Fantaskyka i futurologia, 1970), and an autobiographical
novel on his youth in Lvov (Wysoki Zamek, 1968, translated by
Michael Kandel as Highcastle, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995).
With translations into some 36 languages and a world circulation of
more than 20 million copies, Lem is the most successful author in
modern Polish fiction; nevertheless his commercial success in the
world is limited, and the bulk of his large editions was due to the
special publishing conditions in the Communist countries: Poland, the
Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic. Only in West
Germany was Lem really a critical and a commercial success
, but in all
other countries his sales are very modest, and in recent years interest
in him has waned. But he is the only writer of European SF of whom
most books have been translated into English, and, despite poor sales,
been kept in print in the USA. Lem’s critical success in English is due
mostly to the excellent translations of Michael Kandel, who, even
when he was not named as a translator, re-wrote most of Lem’s
translations from scratch, except those of Louis Iribarne. Lem’s SF
novels in English are, all published by Harcourt Brace, except the
earliest: The Chain of Chance (1978, translation by Louis Iribarne of
Katar, 1976); Eden (1989, translation by Marc E. Heine of Eden, 1959),
Fiasco (1987, translation by Michael Kandel of Fiasko, Poland, 1987,
first published in German translation 1986); The Futurological Congress
(New York: The Seabury Press, 1974, translation by Michael Kandel of
Notes on the Authors
253
Kongres futurologiczny, 1971—published as part of Bezsennosć´), His
Master’s Voice (1983, translation by Michael Kandel of Gl/os Pana,
1968), The Investigation (New York: The Seabury Press, 1974, transla-
tion by Adele Milch of Sĺedztwo, 1959), The Invincible (New York: The
Seabury Press, 1973, translation by Wendayne Ackerman of the
German edition of Niezwycie(z˙ony, 1964), Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
(New York: The Seabury Press, 1973, translation by Michael Kandel
(only the introduction) and Christine Rose of Pamie(tnik znaleziony w
wannie, 1961), Peace on Earth (1994, translation by Michael Kandel
and Elinor Ford of Poko´j na ziemi, Poland, 1987, but published in
Swedish, French and German 1986), Return from the Stars (1980,
translation by Barbara Marszal and Frank Simpson of Powro´t z
gwiazd, 1961), Solaris (New York, Walker & Co., 1970; London:
Faber and Faber, 1970, translation by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve
Cox of the French translation of Solaris, Poland, 1961)—filmed by
Andrei Tarkovsky in a masterful author’s film.
Short story collections, mostly cycles of stories, are: The Cosmic
Carnival of Stanisl/aw Lem (New York: A Continuum Book, 1981), a
reader selected by Michael Kandel; The Cyberiad: Fables for the
Cybernetic Age (New York: The Seabury Press, 1974, translation by
Michael Kandel of Cyberiada, 1965); The Star Diaries (New York: The
View from Another Shore : European Science Fiction Page 40