The Unman / Kovrigin's Chronicles by Vadim Shefner - 1980

New York: Macmillan & Co.. New York, Macmillan & Co., 1980. First Edition. First Impression. Russian writer and poem Vadim Shefner, by way of introduction by Sturgeon, provides us with two short novels in this volume. The first, Unman, is translated from the Russian by Alice Stone Nakhimovsky and Alexander Nakhimovsky. The second, Kovrigin's Chronicles is translated by Antonina W. Bouis who also translated the Strugatsky brothers' Roadside Picnic. Shefner wrote one further, longer novel, A Debtor's Hovel [Clute, p1099]. The present volume contributed to Macmillan's Best of Soviet Science Fiction series, which also saw publication of The Friar of Chikola and A Provincial's Wing in New Soviet Science Fiction (Macmillan, 1979). Another short, A Modest Genius, was published in the US in 1969 and 1974. Near fine, price-clipped with some gum residue from a price-sticker, light shelfwear. Not uncommon, but a valuable addition to an often under-represented area of SF collecting. ISFDB has the original stories as having been written in 1964 and 1967 respectively, though Suvin's Bibliography covering 1956-1970 shows neither (though does show 'Happy Loser' 1965, and 'Belated Shooter' 1968). Cover art by Richard Powers [5960, Hyraxia Books]. . Near Fine. Hardback. 1st Edition. 1980.