The action-packed works of the English writer Eric Russell, included in the collection, combine all the advantages of a detective story and a science fiction novel. People take the first steps towards exploring the solar system, but all their attempts end tragically (“Altar of Fear”). Not one of the seventeen ships sent to Venus reaches the target; they all invariably die. The designer of the eighteenth rocket is trying to understand the reasons for the failures. But someone invisible is blocking his investigation. A top-secret scientific center is losing employees (“Brain Hackers”). When they quit or simply go on vacation, they disappear or die under very unusual circumstances. And a completely strange story happens to one scientist: he suddenly remembers that twenty years ago... he killed a girl. His memory obediently depicts to him all the details of what happened. Life turns into hell, everyone you meet now seems to be an FBI employee. Something wrong is happening with his consciousness, as if someone else had settled in his brain... Contents: Vl. Gakov. Revisiting Eric Russell (Foreword)Altar of Fear. (novel) Brain Hackers. (novel)