Soviet Science Fiction

Published in 1962, this collection is surprisingly light on blatant political commentary. Only one story mentions the present Soviet system, and then as a model system. Overall, the stories were OK. All had a strong emphasis on describing the science behind whatever endeavor the story was about.

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"Hoity-Toity" was the least interesting story, in my opinion. It tells of a man, whose brain is transposed into an elephant's and his experience of being an elephant, both in Africa and then in a circus after he was captured.
The Strugatsky brothers' story "Spontaneous Reflex" is about a robot who is designed to learn and adapt. When it does, it goes amok. The next two stories are really one story by Kazantsev. A group of scientists from various fields go on a mission. During the long voyage, one scientist tells his theory about what had really happened in Siberia in 1908, which he believes was not a meteor hitting the earth, but a Martian vessel landing. In the second story, a different scientist tells the group of a man he met, whom he believes to be a survivor of that same Martian vessel "Infra Draconis" by Gurevich is about the crew of a 30 year voyage to deep space, and the last story, "Professor Bern's Awakening" by Savchenko, is a scientific Rip Van Winkle story.

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