A foundational work of early Soviet science fiction, first published in Russia in 1923 and later adapted into the landmark silent film of the same name. 

A Soviet engineer and a Red Army soldier travel to Mars where they encounter an advanced but decaying civilisation, and immediately become entangled in its political upheavals.

Part revolutionary fantasy, part planetary romance, what makes Aelita distinctive is this collision of genres and ideologies. There's speculative technology sits alongside utopian longing, class struggle, and romantic obsession. Sci-fi is a playground for these topics.

Tolstoi blends futurism with myth and propaganda with genuine imaginative ambition, producing a work that captures the ideological volatility of the early Soviet period as much as its optimism.

As the first English hardcover translation, this edition marks an important moment in the transmission of Soviet science fiction into the Anglophone world, predating the later Cold War canonisation of the genre. An absolute cult object.