EMTSEV, Mikhail (Tikhonovich)

(1930-)

   Russian scientist and writer whose most significant work has been accomplished in collaboration with Eremei PARNOV, also a trained scientist. They began their career with HARD-SF stories in 1961, publishing titles like Uravneniie s Blednogo Neptuna (coll 1964; title story trans Helen Saltz Jacobson as "The Pale Neptune Equation" in New Soviet Sf, anth 1979 US), Padeniie Sverkhnovoi ("The Fall of the Supernova") (1964), Zelenaia Krevetka ("The Green Shrimp") (1965), Tri Kvarka ("Three Quarks") (1969) and others. "'Vozvratite Liubov'!" (1966; trans Arthur Shkarovsky as "Bring Back Love" in Everything but Love anth 1973 Russia) was a remarkable first (and accurate) prediction of the neutron bomb. In More Diraka ("The Dirac Sea") (1967) the scientist's moral responsibility is discussed, while Dusha Mira (1964; trans Antonina W. Bouis as World Soul 1978 US) combines Frankensteinian horrors with detailed speculation on the collective consciousness. Their most sophisticated novel, Klotchia T'my Na Igle Vremeni ("Turfs of Darkness on the Needle of Time") (1970), is a TIME-TRAVEL fantasy with, as protagonist, a historian engaged in the study of all "reincarnations" of fascism through the ages. EP and Parnov discontinued their partnership in 1970.

   VG

   See also: HIVE-MINDS.