"The Heart of the Serpent" (originally in la, Cor Serpentis, russian: Сердце Змеи) is a

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov. 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 First contact may refer to: *First contact (astronomy), the moment in astronomical transit when the apparent positions of the two bodies first touch *First contact (anthropology), the first meeting of two cultures previously unaware of one another ...

", 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 Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drummin ...

band

Solaris Solaris may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Solaris'' (1972 film), directed by ...

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 Crowell-Collier Publishing Company was an American publisher that owned the popular magazines '' Collier's'', ''Woman's Home Companion'' and ''The American Magazine''. Crowell's subsidiary, P.F. Collier and Son, published ''Collier's Encyclopedia, ...

, 1962, 190 pp. * ''The Heart of the Serpent''. NL: Fredonia Books, 4 September 2002, 272 pp. . * ''A kígyó szíve'' (transl. Imre Makai), in: ''

Galaktika ''Galaktika'' was a science fiction magazine of Hungary, published between 1972 and 1995. At its peak 94,000 copies were printed in Hungary. For comparison, ''Analog (magazine), Analog'' magazine printed 120,000 copies in the United States. A ne ...

'', 2: 73-109. Budapest: Móra, 1972.

External links

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''Cor Serpentis''
Short stories by Ivan Yefremov 1958 short stories Science fiction short stories {{1950s-sf-story-stub