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Worlds Without End Blog

Ex Libris WWEnd: The Beetle in the Anthill and The Waves Extinguish the Wind by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky Posted at 1:23 PM by Dave Post

Dave Post

Today, Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are counted among the best science fiction writers of the twentieth century.

In their Noon Universe novels, they imagined twenty-second-century Earth as a space-faring communist utopia, devoted to guiding the progress of civilization on alien worlds. But as the authors became increasingly disillusioned with life in the Soviet Union, their Noon Universe stories grew darker and more complex as well.


The Beetle in the AnthillThe Beetle in the Anthill reintroduces Maxim Kammerer, the main character of their novel The Inhabited Island. Once an intrepid young space explorer, Kammerer is now an investigator with COMCON-2, the covert agency in charge of countering threats to the homeworld. He is tasked with tracking “progressor” Lev Abalkin, who has returned to Earth after a routine mission went tragically wrong. Do the secrets of Abalkin’s past pose a grave danger to humanity–or is he an innocent caught up in a deadly misunderstanding?

This new edition by lauded translator Olena Bormashenko continues the ever-deepening saga of the Noon Universe.

Chicago Review Press (Apr 2023)

 

 


The Waves Extinguish the WindThe Waves Extinguish the Wind provides the epic conclusion to the Noon Universe saga, as eighty-nine-year-old Maxim Kammerer looks back at his most earth-shattering investigation, which brought an entire era of human civilization to an end. Searching for evidence that the mysterious alien Wanderers were interfering in Earth’s development, Kammerer and his young trainee Toivo Glumov discovered a deeper and more disturbing secret within humanity itself.

This new translation by Daniels Umanovskis brings the saga of the Noon Universe to its fitting end: a search for truth and answers in a universe that provides only questions.

Chicago Review Press (Apr 2023)

 

 


Boris Strugatsky Arkady Strugatsky Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are probably the best-known and most influential Soviet sci-fi writers. They started the most enduring trends in Russian sci-fi and many Russian sci-fi writers were heavily influenced by their work.

Their later books were very philosophical and subversive: many were heavily censored, others were banned. The banned books were printed unofficially and passed from hand to hand as subversive material. These books were read by people of all ages, inspired generations of idealists and are cited as an influence by prominent Russian intellectuals.

1 Comment

Sunscour   |   28 Apr 2023 @ 08:04

I just started Lame Fate / Ugly Swans and it is hands down fantastic, enjoying it so much. Might be better than Roadside Picnic.

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