Recenzoj
Citaĵo
„ La vigla fantazio de la eminenta verkisto venkas la spacon, la tempon kaj flugigas nin per sia raketa aerŝipo sur Marson. La stilo estas senriproĉa. ”
— 1929, Julio Baghy, Hungara Heroldo, A. 2.
Citaĵo
„ Verko, tre alloga kiel la romanoj de Jules Verne kaj de Wells.
La novaj sciencaj kaj sociaj scioj influis sur ĝin. Tre diversaj homaj sentoj ekaperas pro la strangaj cirkonstancoj en kiuj troviĝas la personoj. Post la miriga heroaĵo de Gagarino oni certe kun plezure relegos Aelita, kies traduko estas laŭdinda. ”
— 1929(1965), Historio de Esperanto II, paĝo 686

Aelita nos cuenta la historia del ingeniero Loss y del revolucionario Gúsev, que se encuentran, durante su viaje a Marte, con una civilisación semi-desarollada, y su reina Aelita. Como historia de aventuras comparable con los clásicos de Julio Verne o Las minas del rey Salomón, la obra de Tolstói consigue mezclar supersticiones y teoría social, el viaje interplanetario, la Atlántida y la revolución.

???

Dette Stjerne-hæfte har desuden et afsnit af føljetonen: Fowler Wright: "Den anden Syndflod". ( )

I like the way Alexei Tolstoy gave the two main characters a backstory on the planet earth before they take off in a homemade rocket ship for Mars, and I was willing to suspend disbelief over the implausible aspects of the story. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough imagination here, and the quality of the writing is mediocre at best. Once the pair get to Mars it’s almost as if they’re in a separate country on the Earth, with both falling for blue-skinned Martian babes who fall completely under their spell. The histories of Mars and Earth are told in long-winded ways, ultimately leading to a worker revolt from the “comrade Martians” which the Earthlings assist in. I didn’t mind the propaganda in the slightest and in fact it was part of the appeal, to get this window into Soviet science fiction in the 1920’s, but the story is uninteresting and drags. On top of it, the edition I had from Fredonia books had several issues – a half a page of text missing, and several letters missing at the beginning of sentences on another page. It wasn’t enough to drop my review score, but enough to avoid publications from Fredonia books in the future. ( )

Content Note: sexism

Plot:
Engineer Mstislav Sergeyevich Los designed a new type of rocket that he is sure will be able to take him to Mars. He finds soldier Alexei Gusev for a travel companion and together they set off. They actually make it to Mars which they find inhabited. Los tries to learn about Martian society mostly through Aelita, the daughter of the Martian leader Toscoob. Meanwhile Gusev finds himself quickly involved in the local politics.

Aelita is mostly interesting to read from a historical perspective, I think – as a SciFi classic. For modern readers it is a little tough to read sometimes (the sexism, ugh), and sometimes involuntarily funny, but if you like the genre, it is definitely interesting to take a look at the beginnings of modern SciFi.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2019/12/11/aelita-aleksey-tolstoy/ ( )