About the book: 1968 / Zubkov B., Muslin E. Impostor Stump: Fantastic stories. / Artist. A. Brusilovsky. M.: Young Guard, 1968. - (Library of Soviet Science Fiction). - 288 pages, 33 kopecks, 100,000 copies. The only collection of stories by Boris Zubkov and Evgeny Muslin. Biographies: Zubkov graduated from the institute with a diploma in electrical engineering. Worked in the editorial office of the magazine “Knowledge is Power”. He began publishing in the 1950s. In addition to science fiction, he is known for his works of popular science and scientific fiction. Muslin graduated from the institute with a diploma in aircraft engineering and worked in the magazine “Inventor and Innovator.” In the 1970s he emigrated to the USA. Creativity: The first science fiction publications of the co-authors were the stories “The Green Button” and “The Flying Dog”. In 1968, the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house published a collection of stories by Zubkov and Muslin, “The Pretender Stump.” After his co-author emigrated, Zubkov wrote two more science fiction works - the story “The Paradox of Vlas Uvarov” (1973) and the story “The Mystery of the Centaurs” (1976, co-authored with A. Ershov). The fantastic work of the co-authors comes down mainly to pamphlet stories that expose and ridicule the negative consequences of the use of new inventions and discoveries in bourgeois society. Thus, the story “A Fragile, Fragile, Fragile World” (1966) describes a consumer society of the near future, in which it is forbidden to make durable, reliable things, which forces the inhabitants of this peculiar dystopia to buy at an ever-increasing pace.