Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale [Hardcover]

Ivan Antonovich Yefremov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1980

Ivan Yefremov (1907-1972) was a well-known Soviet scientist, a professor of paleontology and a talented writer of science fiction. "No writer did as much as Yefremov for science," wrote one reader, "and no scientist did as much as Yefremov for literature." Andromeda is a novel about the future of mankind. It depicts with truly fantastic scope the unparalleled bloom of science and technology and the rise of a new social order, and portrays the Universe in the so-called Era of the Great Circle, when Earth will have constant communication with space. Written in 1956, on the eve of the first attempts at space exploration - when the word "cosmonaut" still belonged exclusively to the domain of science fiction - the novel has long since become widely known throughout the world. It is symbolic that, on the day of the launching of the first Earth satellite, readers congratulated Yefremov on the dawning of the Era of the Great Circle.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Ivan Yefremov (1907-1972) was a well-known Soviet scientist, a professor of paleontology and a talented writer of science fiction. "No writer did as much as Yefremov for science," wrote one reader, "and no scientist did as much as Yefremov for literature." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Imported Pubn (December 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0828518564
• ISBN-13: 978-0828518567
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,415,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cummunist Utopia in the stars, May 5, 2009

By 

Jari Aalto (Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale (Paperback)

In the Galaxy, there exists so called Great Circle whose members exchange and relay scientific and cultural information. Earth has just joined it by being able to tune in to the receiving channel. It has also started broadcasting information about its civilization achievements to others, hundreds, thousands light years away. Accross these vast distances, everyone acknowledges that they can never meet in person. One broadcast from Epsilon Tucanae, 90 parsecs away, showed perfect human like figures; summoning up the perfection of all the ideals of humanity. Scout ships have been sent to explore the space within radius of tens of parsecs (3.3 LY, light years). One of the ships ship wreck on a iron star and encounter abandoned alien flying saucer and electrical life forms which damage two of their crew. Back in the Earth humanity endeavour in science to work out the mathematical knots to untie problem if time and distance; instant travel to the locations of the Great Circle and beyond; even to other galaxies.

This is classic example of Soviet Utopia. No faster-than-light exists, but scientific and cultural information progresses in dialectic harmony to strive for the great ideal; humanity being perfected both in hard science, art and human sciences. The is plenty of work for everyone in the planet. The book transgresses science fiction by blending in a lecture on the history of the Earth civilization and its communistic progress ideal into a historic context. The Epsilon Tucanae is lifted on a stand for the ultimate goal, where humans must put all the effort; the atom energy of the whole earth is harnessed to prove in Tibetan Observatory that, according to bipolar mathematics, by obtain an anti-gravitational shadow vector, points of singularity disappear. Instant travel; in no time. The language symbolizes allegorical glory of the heroes, the appearing scientists, in the plot line.

Three (3) stars. Written in 1957 the book gives a rare glimpse on Soviet Union at SF angle. The reader needs to be versed with Marxism and communist due to the "dialectic" concept farmed everywhere in the storyline. The prose is fascinating woof of splendour, high ideals, braveness of humankind, illustrative - yet very readable and mostly scientifically oriented. At the same time the pathos of drought is to be expected. The book is more about philosophical ideas than the appearing people who are only brought in as devices to enlighten the perfection of the society. The average science fiction reader will most likely find the plot dry and wobbling. Regardless, it would be hard to find SF book more nostalgic than this.