In the universe of Vladislav Krapivin, where the heroes of his works live, work and fight, love and hate, die and perform great feats, miracle and fantasy act on equal terms. Long-range reconnaissance space supercruisers coexist here with boys flying over the world like breezes, witches get along with robots, and schoolchildren choose a very smart robotic boy as their friend. Krapivin’s universe itself is not just a vast space with starry galaxies-seas and planet-islands in them is an immense crystal, the number of faces of which is infinite, and on each face there is its own world, similar to the neighboring one and dissimilar. On one face is the Earth on which you and I live. On the neighboring edge is a planet practically indistinguishable from ours, only everything here is turned inside out. Because those who command - creatures of an incomprehensible nature, who do not even have their own shell, but inhabit mannequins and statues - have subjugated it to themselves for the sake of some insane goal. “When people become indifferent, lazy or too well-fed, when they don’t care about their planet, those who command appear. And some people don’t mind: it’s calmer and simpler…” says one of his heroes in the novel “Dovecote on the Yellow Glade.” And, it seems, this simple truth will not lose its meaning for a long time, neither in the twin world from the novel, nor in our world. The cycle about the Great Crystal occupies a special place in the work of Vladislav Krapivin. The works included in the cycle, written at different times, but connected by a single thought, are not just prose, they are a philosophy of achievement. This is a philosophy of life, the way it should be. Fantastic, and nothing else. Contents: On the night of the big tide (story) Dovecote on a yellow meadow (novel) Orange portrait with specks (story) Stomping of chess horses (novel)