The Settlement

Kira Bulychev is the second most significant figure in domestic science fiction of the 20th century after the Strugatsky brothers. Several generations of readers have grown up on his books, and first reader's love is enduring and does not cool over the years. The founder of the Great Guslyar, the godfather of Alice Selezneva, a girl from the future of Earth, a chronicler of the labor and days of Doctor Pavlysh and his friends from the crew of the interplanetary starship "Segozha", a pilot on the river Chronos, connecting different shores of Russia in time, — Kira Bulychev is multidimensional, like life itself. In his literary universe, there is room for both humorous pranks and biting, ruthless irony, as well as the wisdom of a scholar and seer. The novel "The Settlement", apart from its thrilling plot — the genre of "space Robinsonade" to which the book belongs already presupposes heightened reader interest — carries within it deeper shades and meanings. The difficult adaptation of shipwreck survivors in space to the life of an alien planet for Earthlings is yet another reason to talk about humanity as such, about its inner existence, about humanity and inhumanity. That is to say, these are not just adventures and fantasy. This is literature.