The Last War

Kir Bulychev is the second most significant figure in domestic science fiction of the 20th century after the Strugatsky brothers. Several generations of readers grew up on his books, and a first literary love is lasting and does not fade over the years. The founder of the Great Guslyar (a kind of northern analogue of the Solovetsky town with its famous NIICHAVO and its employees), the godfather of Alice Selezneva, a girl from the future of Earth, the chronicler of the labors and days of Doctor Pavlysh and his friends from the crew of the interplanetary starship "Segezh"; a pilot on the river Chronos that connects different shores of Russia through time—Kir Bulychev is multidimensional, like life itself. In his literary universe, there is room for playful pranks, bitter, merciless irony, and the wisdom of a scholar and prophet. It contains everything except boredom. The starship "Segezh" was making a regular flight to Titan with a cargo of mining equipment when a radiogram arrived from the Galactic Center: urgently interrupt the flight, take aboard passengers from an alien ship and a special cargo. Then set a course for one of the star systems to a planet where, according to data from an unmanned reconnaissance ship, a nuclear war has broken out. Why were Earthlings sent there? Because, judging by the discovered images of the inhabitants of the dead planet, they resemble humans externally. And the special cargo is a device created by the Crown race to restore a dead body. In the novel "The Settlement," the ship "Polus" suffers an accident and lands on an uninhabited planet. The crew is forced to abandon the ship due to high radiation from a reactor explosion. The deadly trek through the icy snowy mountains to what seemed to be a safe forest is endured by very few. The survivors establish a settlement in the forest... For almost two decades, its inhabitants struggle against an aggressive nature, and a new generation is born and grows, for whom memories of Earth are no more than a beautiful fairy tale told at night by adults. This collection includes the complete cycle of works about the star doctor Pavlysh. The book is illustrated with works by artist Viktor Mineev.