Space Mowgli

The amazing novella "The Small One" (1973) is included in the famous Dayworld cycle—bright, cloudless future—but it’s very unlike all the author’s previous works. The story of the “space Mowgli” begins tense and dynamic, like a thriller; at the climax it soars up into the dizzying heights of cosmic problems, into the idea of “vertical progress”; and it ends softly, lyrically, with humor… Not by chance did one of the critics of that era call this novella poetic science fiction. It is here that the Strugatskys reached true perfection of style.