Pevnost bílých mravenců / Ďáblův prsten / Železo přichází z hvězd – Souček Ludvík (2015)

For several years now, we have had to wait for the next installment in the now-famous series of the "Collected Works" of Doctor Ludvík Souček, a significant author of Czech science fiction literature of the 20th century, published since 2007. The mentioned collection is now supplemented by the Akcent publishing house with a trio of key stories from the author's most prolific period (1968–1972), additionally featuring texts evidently influenced by a certain free-thinking spirit from the time before the Soviet tanks invaded Czechoslovakia and before many things changed. The story "The Fortress of White Ants" was first published in book form in 1971, alongside the quirky tale "The Devil's Ring," a very charming, humorous, and above all, "narrative" novella with excellent dialogues (it is also based on Souček's successful theatrical sci-fi play "The Mystery with M" from 1970), psychologically sensitive and with an appropriate ethical depth in its final message to the reader. Both of these stories are built on solid sci-fi foundations, although the contemporary reality here is traditionally Souček's all-encompassing confusion. Certainly in the sense of evoking "pure" authenticity. The rather strange story "Iron Comes from the Stars" was never completed by Souček, perhaps also because it contains so many authentic elements – consequently...