The Heart of the Serpent

"The Heart of the Serpent" (originally in Latin: Cor Serpentis, Russian: Сердце Змеи) is a 1958 science fiction short story by the Soviet writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov.

The Heart of the Serpent
Cover of the 2002 Fredonia Books edition
AuthorIvan Yefremov
Original titleCor Serpentis
Сердце Змеи
TranslatorRoza Prokofieva
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian
SeriesThe Great Circle
GenreScience fiction
PublisherForeign Languages (1st edition)
Collier Books (1st U.S. edition)
Publication date
1958
Published in English
1961 in USSR
1962 in USA
Media typePrint (Paperback)
ISBN1-4101-0041-3
Preceded byAndromeda 
Followed byThe Bull's Hour 

The crew of a spaceship encounters an alien ship in deep space. Speculation ensues about whether the other crew might be hostile. Comparisons are made to American SF writer Murray Leinster's story "First Contact", in which an elaborate protocol is developed to prevent the aliens from following the Terrans home and destroying them, or vice versa. The premise of Leinster's story is debunked, in part by pointing out that in order for a planet's civilization to become space-faring, they would need to be at peace among themselves and presumably have organized themselves into a planet-wide classless communist society, a point Yefremov had made earlier in his novel Andromeda. Thus the aliens must necessarily be peaceful.

This story takes place within the rubric of Yefremov's Great Circle, a confederation of galactic civilizations that communicate between each other, which also appears in the Andromeda novel.

Influences

The Hungarian space rock band Solaris has a track named after the story on their album 1990.

Bibliography

  • The Heart of the Serpent compilation of the Soviet SF translated by Roza Prokofieva. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, 267 pp.
  • More Soviet Science Fiction. New York: Collier Books, 1962, 190 pp. OCLC 297464
  • The Heart of the Serpent. NL: Fredonia Books, 4 September 2002, 272 pp. ISBN 1-4101-0041-3.
  • A kígyó szíve (transl. Imre Makai), in: Galaktika, 2: 73-109. Budapest: Móra, 1972.


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