Air Seller. Underwater Farmers. Leap into Nothingness. Miraculous Eye. Celestial Guest

The collection of one of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature Alexander Romanovich Belyaev includes the novels "The Air Seller", "Underwater Farmers", "Heavenly Guest, dedicated to K. E. Tsiolkovsky novel "Jump into Nothingness", a new translation into Russian of the novel "Miraculous Eye", which was written by Belyaev in Ukrainian, as well as nine short stories of the writer. The texts are printed from the first newspaper, magazine, and book editions, along with illustrations published there by twelve national artists.The novel The Air Seller by A. R. Belyaev began publication in 1929 in the magazine Around the World. Subscribers eagerly awaited the release of new issues to learn about the causes of dramatic climate change on Earth, the mysteries of the spurs of the Verkhoyanskiy Range and the fantastic, at first glance, the idea of literally trading air. In the novel, Alexander Romanovich ingeniously played with the desire of capitalism to seize any resources that are not already the private property of individuals or companies. Why not, in such a case, make air an object of purchase and sale? It sounds incredible, but in 1980, California resident Dennis Hope declared himself the owner of all space objects in the solar system except the Earth and the Sun, and in 2020, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order to commercialize the Moon, effectively refusing to consider it the property of all mankind. Like many talented sci-fi writers, Belyaev was a futurist - he had a knack for looking into the future, correctly charting its tantalizing or frightening prospects. The first electronic television, suitable for practical use, was created at the end of 1936, and a year before this event Belyaev in the novel "The Wonderful Eye" has already described exciting pictures of the application of television in many different areas of life. Alexander Romanovich carefully studied the works of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky and foresaw the rapid development of cosmonautics. Rich imagination of the writer unfolded whole pictures of flights to the moon and interplanetary travel, although before the launch of the first space satellite of the Earth was still two decades. The story "Jump into Nothingness" - about a trip to Venus - Belyaev sent Tsiolkovsky, and then corresponded with him until the end of his life.Like the novel "The Air Seller", other works by Belyaev, included in this collection, first published in periodicals. In the twenties of the XX century, Alexander Romanovich cooperated with the magazines "World Pathfinder", "The Struggle of the Worlds" and "Around the World". Published in them novels and novellas were printed as separate books later. In this edition, all the texts of the writer's works are given in the original magazine versions. As illustrations for the book used drawings from the first magazine publications of novels and stories of the writer. In this respect, this edition is unique - it allows fans of Belyaev's fiction to feel the same emotions and impressions that the first readers of his novelizations in periodicals received.