The Adventures of Alice II: Prisoners of the Asteroid

The roots of modern science fiction go back not only to the Middle Ages but even further—to antiquity. As an independent genre, science fiction emerged only in the 19th century mainly thanks to Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Later, a branch of science fiction appeared on the fruitful tree of children's literature. One of the pioneers on this new path was our compatriot—the orientalist Igor Vsevolodovich Mojeiko. He is better known to readers by his pseudonym—Kir Bulychev. In the 1950s, Stanisław Lem sent his hero Ijon Tichy into space, where this newly minted Baron Munchausen had many adventures. About ten years later, Mojeiko's invented heroine—a girl from the future, Alice Selezneva—also began to travel through cosmic vastness. This turn of events turned out to be successful and fruitful. As a result, a vast "Aliceiana" emerged. This edition includes stories and tales about Alice written by Mojeiko from 1984 to 1987. Readers can expect encounters with monsters, space pirates, warlike Lilliputians, and mysterious inhabitants of the underwater world. Unlike Jules Verne, Mojeiko does not describe the technology of the future and does not make futuristic predictions like Wells. His stories about Alice are solid children's literature, and this is the secret of their success.

The illustrations in this second book about Alice's adventures in the BML series were created by Evgeny Tikhonovich Migunov. In 1965, his illustrations accompanied the Strugatsky brothers' novella "Monday Starts on Saturday." In style and technique, they closely resemble his drawings for Bulychev's stories. Their main distinguishing feature is dynamism. Migunov almost always depicts Bulychev's heroes in motion, and this is no coincidence, as Evgeny Tikhonovich worked for many years in animated cinema. In 1939, he enrolled in the art faculty of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography, where he began studying in the workshop of the famous Ivanov-Vano. Upon graduating from VGIK, Migunov did not become an ordinary animator; he became a true innovator in animated and puppet cinema. His creative developments played an important role in the formation of the modern school of Russian animation. Migunov invented new techniques, patented inventions that helped "bring to life" puppets, and proposed new directing approaches. Since 1961, Evgeny Tikhonovich began collaborating with magazines such as "Murzilka," "Fun Pictures," "Pioneer," and "Crocodile," creating numerous illustrations for them. The master's hand is recognizable at first glance.