Mysterious Mask

An extraordinary envoy, Al Yrad, returns to his home planet from deep space. He finds Earth in ruins, and humanity has moved to a ring located in geostationary orbit. Its inhabitants have long forgotten what their makeshift world looks like, believing they live in a tube with two ends that no one has ever seen. Al is dangerous to the cruel rulers here, yet they need him to handle an exceptionally risky mission. Josef Pecinovský (1946), one of the most popular authors of Czech fantasy in the 1980s, has returned to the literary scene in recent years. His work is primarily based on grim, action-packed dystopian stories, the most significant of which are the short story 'Házím ti laso, kamaráde' (1990) and the novel 'Plástev jedu' (1990), a new edition of which was recently published in the Edice Pevnost series. 'Záhadná kukla' (1993) is the third book in the 'Kroniky nové Země' tetralogy, the final part of which is still awaiting its first publication.