James Henry Schmitz is a science fiction writer, known in our country only to true connoisseurs of the genre (since his Russian publications were limited to a dozen stories and novellas), but in reality VERY popular - primarily thanks to the magnificent cycle of works about the Focus - an interplanetary federation, part of which includes ALL intelligent races of the Galaxy - works that cannot be denied either AMAZING fascination, masterful intrigue, or the SCALE and DETAILED DESCRIPTION of the world of the distant future. A world into which the reader literally plunges headlong.