About the book: 2002 / Pete Palmer, having fought in Korea, was captured and decided to stay in Red China. A few years later, he changed his mind and returned to his homeland, to the town of Cassonsville (having previously served time in prison). However, there, meeting with classmates and old acquaintances, Pete is forced to take a fresh look at his life... “The Changeling” became the first truly “Wolfe” story: an unreliable narrator; a hero who doesn't understand what's happening; multiple interpretation options; attention to details (sometimes hidden) that the reader must track or find on his own; names with meaning... These elements had been found in Wolfe's short prose before, but it was here that he used them in such a way that even fifty years after writing, his authorship is undeniable. With all this, “The Changeling” succeeds in something that its other brothers, released from Wolfe’s typewriter, do not always achieve: the story “works” even at a basic level, and a reader unfamiliar with all the author’s intricacies can simply read it and get pleasure. This does not mean that the reader will turn the last page and close the book, feeling warm and satisfied inside. Rather, it will be a feeling of vague anxiety, an itch that will not go away even if you scratch it. Perhaps it will even intensify. Perhaps this means it's worth re-reading The Changeling again. *** Editor's Introduction to a story in the Orbit 3 anthology: Like the late Harold Ross of The New Yorker and most other editors, I am reluctant to print stories I don't understand. However, The Changeling is still published in this anthology. In my book of critical essays, In Search of Wonder, I separated stories that make sense from stories that mean something. I am not able to “make sense” of this story (to neatly put all the terms together and arrive at a clear sum), but I have a strong feeling that it means something, just like Kafka’s “The Trial” or Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. This one disturbing story - Gene Wolfe's second story for Orbit; his first was "Trip, Trap" in Orbit 2. Damon Knight Abstract in the magazine “If”: We must fight for a place in the sun... About the new edition In Russian, “The Changeling” was published in the June issue of the magazine “If” for 2002. This edition of the story corrects translation errors and brings its style closer to the author’s (those who want to get acquainted with what was wrong in the magazine version will need to look at Errata). Notes and several articles have been added to assist the reader. Contents • Changeling (actually, the story itself translated by Tatyana Pertseva, unauthorized edition of mtvietnam) • Personalia (outdated certificate about the author from the magazine “If”) • Additional materials to help the reader (translation where required, mtvietnam):— Editor's notes ( approximately the same length as the story itself)— Articles and theories by Wolfe fans (including Michael Andre-Driussi and Mark Aramini) and their discussion— Errata (for those who want to know what the difference is between the new edition and the previous one)