Alisa Selezneva

Alisa (Alice) Selezneva or Seleznyova (in Russian: Алиса Селезнёва) is the main character of the series of children's science fiction books by Russian writer Kir Bulychov. The series, unofficially referred to as "Priklyuchenia Alisy" ("Приключения Алисы", Russian for "Alisa's Adventures") was started in 1965 and comprises more than 50 novellas and short stories, of which many were adapted to film, television, comics and video game. Alisa franchise is a Russian pop culture phenomenon with popularity not fading for nearly half a century.

Summary

The series is set in a stereotypical space opera world of the late 21st century. In Alisa's time people learned how to travel in space faster than light. Robots and aliens are common. Time travel is possible, but reserved only for scientific purposes. The society in most of books is shown as a communist utopia: there's no need for money, environment is strictly protected and everything is done for the benefit of men (some later books of the series contradict with this model at least regarding money).

Alisa is a teenage Russian schoolgirl with deep interest in biology and a number of hobbies (such as violin playing, "bubble racing" etc.). Her father, Professor Seleznev, is a space biologist and director of Moscow CosmoZoo. The heroine is a curious fidget, she's interested in any sort of mystery, either scientistic or detective. In the stories, Alice, her friends, and occasionally her father, travel in space and time, explore distant planets, deal with aliens, fight space pirates and make scientistic discoveries.

The stories are aimed at children and often feature fairy-tale elements, such as magic and fairies, along with science fiction setting consisting of aliens, robots and spaceships. Nevertheless, many stories are based on serious ethic conflicts or have a subtext. Alisa books not only popularize science for children, but also slightly propagate pacifism, environmentalism, racial and religious toleracy. Those books that were written in the late Soviet era also feature some remnants of communist ideology, but the later books lack them.

Alisa's family is formally modelled after that of the author: he actually had a daughter named Alisa, and the heroine's parents are named after real names of Bulychov himself (Igor Vsevolodovich Mozheyko) and his wife (Kira Soshinskaya; the respective character, though mostly absent in stories, also has the same profession – architect), however according to the author the main character shares only the name of his daughter but not her looks at similar age or her temper:

"Why have you decided that my Alisa Seleznyova is connected with my daughter Alisa? They are not even similar. [My] Alisa haven't even read all books "about herself", she prefers higher class of literature."[1]

The most familiar illustrations in the books of the series were made by graphic artist Yevgeni Migunov (however many of the earlier illustrations are by Bulychev's wife).

Literary significance and reception

Larry Chamberlain was critical of Alice, Girl of the Future in his review for School Library Journal saying "this books best audience will be colleagues of the author, a historian in the U.S.S.R.",[2] Don D'Ammassa in his review for Chronicle magazine said this about this collection of stories "they're filled with quirky humor, absurd situations, grotesque creatures, and a good natured view of the universe at large."[3]

Selected bibliography

Only full-length novels are listed.

Adaptations

There have been numerous television and movie adaptations of Alisa books.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Кир Булычев: После меня останутся Алиса и Громозека… — Interview of Kir Bulychev to Komsomolskaya Pravda
  2. ↑ Chamberlain, Larry (April 1977). "Alice (Book Review)". School Library Journal. 23 (8): 62.
  3. ↑ D'Ammassa, Don (1 November 2002). "Alice: The Girl from Earth". Chronicle: 30. ISSN 0195-5365.
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