A bit of a mixed bag of a collection, featuring three stories that look at human intervention on alien worlds: the novellas "Escape Attempt" and "The Kid from Hell", and the short novel Space Mowgli. The first two, set in a common universe, offered a decided change of pace from the other works I've read from the Strugatsky brothers--both clearly reflecting the trauma of the Soviet experience of Nazi Germany's onslaught during World War II. I found these two examinations of elements of fascism to be at least moderately disappointing. The characters were largely one dimensional and the worlds fairly shallow. "The Kid from Hell" was also marred by odd transitions from first to third person which followed no rhyme or reason that I could discern.

Space Mowgli, on the other hand, was an excellent first contact story with an interesting twist (the title should provide a sufficient hint for you to guess the twist). A small group of scientists charged with preparing a portion of a supposedly uninhabited planet for the arrival of an alien refugee population begin to suspect that the planet isn't so uninhabited after all. This story offered good characters, good psychological insight, nicely drawn shades of gray, and some original ideas. This is in fact a first contact story in which we never actually see the aliens; their nature and goals can only be infered from the actions of an enigmatic intermediary.

Not the Strugatskys best work, but I still believe that every serious fan of science fiction should seek out anything and everything they can get their hands on from this very talented team. ( )