Chronicles of the Relict: Unforeseen Encounters. The Coming. The Return of the Prodigal Constructor

«Chronicles of the Relict» — a grand epic by the outstanding Soviet and Russian science fiction writer Vasily Golovachev. A true hymn to the human mind, spirit, and heart. A gripping cosmic narrative that exceeds the scale and drama of many contemporary works on space travel and contacts with extraterrestrial intelligence. The first book in the series includes the following works: «Unforeseen Encounters» — a novella first published in 1979, also published under the title «Compressed Spring»; «The Coming» — a novella from 1982 first published under the title «Relict»; «The Return of the Prodigal Constructor» — a novel from 1991 also published under the title «The Big Shot». A distant future. An extremely aggressive object — a spore of a relict life form — has been discovered in space. The object, a kilometer-long ellipsoid, is delivered for study on Mars. Despite warnings from an ancient galactic race about the dangers of experimenting with the Relict, research on the spore continues until it begins to germinate. The resulting monster, which consumed a third of Mars, brings humanity to horror and leaves the Solar System…