The Crowned Kreg. Della Wella

The Leningrad school of science fiction gave the genre many glorious names: Georgy Martynov, Ilya Varshavsky, Vadim Shefner, Alexander Shalimov… But one of these names truly stands apart—not because its bearer is a woman. In the mid-sixties, Olga Larionova suddenly lit up on the fantastic horizon so brightly that she instantly gained a huge circle of admirers. “The Leopard from the Top of Kilimanjaro,” we talk about it—about the novel which, according to online experts, is “not just considered one of Larionova’s best books—perhaps it can safely be added to the treasury of world science fiction.” If the writer had been American, the “Hugo” or “Nebula” awards (and maybe both) would surely have been hers. It wasn’t published often, but almost every one of the works released in those sparse science-fiction times (the sixties through the eighties) hit the mark directly—that is, in the hearts of readers. Olga Larionova’s novella “Della Wella” is philosophical science fiction about a robot created in the image of a human being. The main heroine, the android Della, begins to recognize herself as an individual and searches for the meaning of her existence. The story raises questions about consciousness, free will, and the boundaries of humanity.