Professor Ivan Yefremov (born 1907) is well known both as a tireless fossil hunter and a talented science-fiction writer. His fantasy ranges between the mysteries of times long bygone and the distant future. His novels include The Land of Foam, where the scene is set in ancient Egypt and Greece, and the world-renowned Andromeda, in which his fantasy roams two thousand years ahead. The Heart of the Serpent, given in this volume, was written in 1959. Its subject is related to that of Andromeda. Anatoly Dnieprov (born 1919), the author of Siema, which he wrote in 1958, is a distinguished...