Alisa Selezneva


Alisa Selezneva or Seleznyova is the main character of the series of children's science fiction books by Russian writer Kir Bulychev. The series, unofficially referred to as "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 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 humans.
Alisa is a teenage Russian schoolgirl with deep interest in biology and a number of hobbies. 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, Alisa, her friends, and occasionally her father, travel in space and time, explore distant planets, deal with aliens, fight space pirates and make scientific discoveries.
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 Bulychev himself and his wife, however, according to the author, the main character shares only the name of his daughter but not her look at the similar age or her temper:
The most famous illustrations in the books of the series were made by the graphic artist Evgeni Migunov.

Selected bibliography

Only full-length novels are listed.