This was an OK read--it probably would've been rated a lot lower if it were of a more substantial length. As it stands, it is more of a novella.

I don't know if there were things I didn't understand due to it being Russian literature, or if perhaps the translation was a bit weird, but there seemed to be a lot about this novel that just didn't really click. There were little comments and what seemed like jokes, but I sincerely didn't understand them or think they were funny.

I do appreciate that this was probably a radical novel in the context of Soviet Russia. I enjoyed the setting and a lot of the writing was beautiful, even if it was about fairly disturbing scenes.

Overall, I'm glad that I read it because there are some solid ideas explored, but it wasn't something I would necessarily recommend. ( )

I'd read two other novels by the Strugatsky brothers before [b:Hard to Be a God|759517|Hard to Be a God|Arkady Strugatsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1425850190l/759517._SX50_.jpg|41364467] and have observed a theme: they're a real downer. I still want to read more of them, though, as their ideas are ingenious. It's interesting to note from the afterword that [b:Hard to Be a God|759517|Hard to Be a God|Arkady Strugatsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1425850190l/759517._SX50_.jpg|41364467] was originally intended as a fun adventure romp when the brothers began. During the writing process, it gradually became darker and more allegorical. The setting is an alien planet, inhabited by what appear to be humans at a feudalistic stage of development. The protagonist Anton is a communist from Earth, there with a small group of others to observe the planet's social development without intervening. Obviously he and the others cannot fully resist meddling, although they try to stay undercover. As the book goes on, Anton and his comrades find it increasingly difficult to reconcile what they observe with 'Basic Theory' (i.e Soviet Marxist historiography). The country where Anton lives slides into proto-fascism while retaining a monarchy, then seems set for theocracy. There is no sign of a socialist movement or technological changes that might catalyse social upheaval; the arts and sciences are brutally suppressed.

The reader can detect hints of the original adventure-romp in the aristocrats who swagger about feasting, drinking, and getting into swordfights. Somehow the contrasting braggadocio of these Dumas-esque figures accentuates the cruel systematic repression of ordinary people. Anton is disgusted by the aristocratic Don Rumata persona he wears and fears that the brutal environment has made him brutish:

He heard the storm trooper stomping indecisively behind him and suddenly caught himself thinking that insulting words and careless gestures now came naturally to him, that he was no longer playing the role of a highborn boor but had largely become one. He imagined himself like this on Earth and felt disgusted and ashamed. Why? What has happened to me? Where did it go, my nurtured-since-childhood respect and trust in my own kind, in man - the amazing creature called man? Nothing can help me now, he thought in horror. Because I sincerely hate and despise them. Not pity them, no - only hate and despise. I can justify the stupidity and brutality of the kid I just passed all I want - the social conditions, the appalling upbringing, anything at all - but now I see that he's my enemy, the enemy of all that I love, the enemy of my friends, the enemy of what I hold most sacred. And I don't hate him theoretically, as a 'typical specimen', but as himself, him as an individual.

The afterword recounts a period of artistic and literary repression in the USSR during the early 1960s. It's not hard to link the Strugatsky brothers' disgust at Soviet anti-intellectual witch hunts to passages like this:

No country can develop without science - it will be destroyed by its neighbours. Without arts and general culture, the country loses its capacity for self-criticism, begins to encourage faulty tendencies, starts to constantly spawn hypocrites and scum, develops consumerism and conceit in its citizens, and eventually becomes a victim of its more sensible neighbours. Persecute bookworms all you like, prohibit science, and destroy art, but sooner or later you'll be forced to think better of it, and with much gnashing of teeth open the way for everything that is so hated by the power-hungry dullards and blockheads.

The above quote forms only part of an extended polemic passage two-thirds of the way through, which expounds the whole thesis of the book. Such monologues addressed directly to the reader sit slightly awkwardly alongside action sequences in which Rumata rescues his friends from imprisonment and torture. Then again, that in itself conveys the disjunctions of his role: as an impassive distant observer who is nonetheless enmeshed in events. The people indigenous to the planet have a much more fatalistic perspective.

"The essence of man," Budach said, chewing slowly, "lies in his astonishing ability to get used to anything. There's nothing in nature that man could not learn to live with. Neither horse nor dog nor mouse has this property. Probably God, as he was creating man, guessed the torments he was condemning him to and gave him an enormous reserve of strength and patience. It is difficult to say whether this is good or bad. If man didn't have such patience and endurance, all good people would have long since perished, and only the wicked and soulless would be left in this world. On the other hand, the habit of enduring and adapting turns people into dumb beasts, who differ from the animals in nothing except anatomy, and who only exceed them in helplessness. And each new day gives rise to a new horror of evil and violence."

I experienced [b:Hard to Be a God|759517|Hard to Be a God|Arkady Strugatsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1425850190l/759517._SX50_.jpg|41364467] primarily as a historically interesting critique of the 1960s USSR. It was compelling to read, despite being bleak and not as inventive as [b:Roadside Picnic|331256|Roadside Picnic|Arkady Strugatsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1173812259l/331256._SY75_.jpg|1243896] or [b:The Doomed City|27219742|The Doomed City|Arkady Strugatsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1460505874l/27219742._SY75_.jpg|1560368]. ( )

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6460003595

I felt worried as I read the prologue, not knowing where this was going or what was going on. In the end, I'm still not sure what the prologue and epilogue are doing, but I liked everything in between them.

The first 1/3rd is pretty slow, but as things start to ratchet up, the story and discussions become much more interesting. I was not expecting a translated piece of Soviet-era science fiction to be quite so funny, but I was frequently chuckling at Don Rumata's bristling against people. There's a scene around page 190 where he comes up against some bureaucracy and calls the bureaucrat a "blockhead," which gave me quite a giggle. He does that a lot.

I feel like the satire or speculation, which sort of simmers throughout the first 2/3rds, shows itself plainly in the final third and does so quite well. I particularly enjoyed some of Rumata and Reba's back-and-forth. I think if this were summarized at all, the best selection of pages to communicate the core ideas are probably pages 214-218, the conversation between Rumata and another character where the book's title shows itself and those ideas are explored.

I think I would benefit from a re-read somewhere down the line, as I'm sure the pro/epilogues have significance, but I'm not sure what it is. ( )

I picked this up in bookstore because I was intrigued by the cover. And I have to admit this was very interesting SF story that reads like blend of Time Patrol and Foundation. We follow agents from very advanced humanity civilization from planet Earth (years in the future from now) as they try to subtly guide the humans living on distant planet (this seems to be a colony that is completely cutoff from Earth and is not aware of its very existence). Goal is to direct that society from existing medieval-like state towards the advancements in science and society in general so they can prosper and develop into enlightened society that can (re)establish links with Earth.

Authors excellently portray the dilemma these agents have on how to properly direct this society when one has access to advanced technology and knowledge (they are gods in this society for all the means and purposes) but needs to remain in shadows and must not use full powers overtly. All the agents are very emphatic and first and foremost they are humans, meaning they cannot live outside their surroundings and they get touched by all the violence and hard-living conditions of the locals. When they see how society slowly starts to degrade and spiral into reminiscent of Earth's [very] dark age (all caused by unknown variable that popped up unexpectedly - person very similar to Mule from Foundation series) they have to chose whether to continue their undercover guidance from the shadows, trying to save as many people with skills and knowledge as possible, or take active role. And they know that taking active role in leading the society (organizing peasants, fighting wars and revolutions) while that same society can be easily influenced, swayed and forced on the wrong path is something that will only bring more conflict and wont solve anything in the long run.

While they try to guard the civilization they are aware that single-mindedness, superstition and complete social inflexibility cannot be so easily overcome. How does one communicate with non-compromising people that are used to violence and living under the iron ruthless rule of aristocracy. How can people that are kept under very bad conditions of life, constantly on the lookout for ruler's spies and snitches, chased because of knowledge or because of thinking that contradicts the established dogma .... how can one expect people to approach the life from different perspective. Once tyranny puts people into the ground it takes generations to create free thinking society back again.

In all honesty I did not expect the book to be so contemporary. But again considering that authors come from Russia they are more than aware how society can be easily degraded and how difficult it is to recover.

Excellent novel, translation was so good it was pure joy to read the story.

Highly recommended to all fans of SF and especially SF readers that enjoy social aspects of the story. ( )

The outline of the story is pretty much a TNG episode; advanced human civilization observing life on another colony stuck at an earlier stage of development. On a deeper level, it's directly attacking Beria (almost by name, as the afterword suggests) and the faults of the soviet union, which while interesting from a nonfictional context doesn't make that good a story in itself. You can follow how they've tried to walk a line with what they can say without running afoul of censors, so as polemic it's also hamstrung.
Roadside Picnic remains their best so far. ( )

This is my third Strugatsky work (The Dead Mountaineer's Inn and Roadside Picnic) and likely not the last. The premise is the future (violence and political turmoil are a thing of the past) with space travel and concern to help prevail. Having come across a planet so earth-like as to be virtually identical (homo sapiens top of the food chain) but mired in medieval chaos, 'historians' are sent to 'observe' and where possible tweak things in the direction of enlightenment. The soviet way has prevailed in this future world, and the initial story was meant to be apolitical and fun--except in the USSR of the early 1960's (when the book was written)--that was not an option. The protagonist/hero, Don Rumata (Anton) has been in this world for three years, posing as a powerful and wealthy aristocrat in a very class/caste oriented society, top dog. He isn't a god, but he might as well be with his unlimited gold and impervious armour. Rumata has been trying to save anyone who shows any spark but even the best are not ready to progress beyond their own personal situation/salvation. He feels increasingly hopeless, intuiting a situation beyond anything that ever happened on earth, that any of their "Basis Theory" of history encompasses. The man behind this, Don Reba (oddly resonant with Beria) has seized control of the area Rumata is observing, but Rumata cannot figure him out--no motivation or purpose is perceivable, just ever increasing violence and chaos which moreover Reba doesn't even, really, seem to relish but is compelled to keep on with even to his own downfall. Knowing great violence will erupt the next day, Rumata ponders: "Two hundred thousand people! To a visitor from Earth they all had something in common. It was probably the fact that almost without exception, they were not yet humans in the modern sense of the word, but blanks, unfinished pieces, which only the bloody centuries of history could one day fashion into true men, proud and free." This passage, on p 145 of my copy, lies at the heart of where the story, meant once to be light-hearted adventure, turned into an exploration of the constant tension between pure self-interest and working for the benefit of the aggregate. Kind of timely. Or perhaps always timely. Not an SF light read. As with like Roadside Picnic a book with so much in it, humor, imagination, heart and soul and seriousness. The greatest flaw is that, apparently, in the future, women don't play much of a part in the big affairs. The Strugatskys' were men of their time in that regard after all. **** ( )

My second book by the Strugatsky brothers, and while I didn't really love Roadside Picnic I felt it was good enough to try another before I decided whether to avoid them in future or not. I can safely say this will be my last.

Hard to be a God has a storyline that I really thought would interest me. An agent from an Earth set in the future travels back through time to another world to see how they are developing. He is not allowed to intervene (think Star Trek Prime Directive) no matter how much he may disagree or dislike what he sees around him. Can he continue to keep his origins a secret and not pollute the timeline?

Firstly the positives, I fully appreciate this was a book written under an Iron soviet rule and the plot is a veiled representation of the regime people had to live under. Therefore they were restricted in what they could write to get past the censors and also needed to make the criticisms fairly identifiable but without being too obvious. The plot idea was original for the time written and surely would have created an interest as the world starts to look to the skies and the unknown of space etc.

For some reason, and I fully appreciate I am in the minority as there are many reviews shouting the praises of Hard to be a God, I just hated it. I found the plot irregular, far too many characters and pages and pages of babble. This was one of the rare occasions when I could actually read a full page and be none the wiser about what I had just read. It literally bored me to tears. Confession time, I read around 2 thirds and then cast it aside, so maybe there was some sort of epiphany moment in the last 80 pages, but I will never find out, and if I am honest I pretty much doubt it. ( )

The more I think about this book the better it gets.

It starts rather abruptly with a prologue that shows three youngsters wandering around a wilderness to no real purpose. The real function of this prologue isn't clear until the epilogue...

Then suddenly everyone has grown up and we're on a different planet which is remarkably like Earth (same ecology, humans live in a feudal society with mediaeval technology) a bizarre coincidence that is never addressed. We also learn that back home on Earth a genuinely Communist society has taken root globally and technology has advanced greatly - interstellar travel is practised, after all. The visitors from Earth are historical observers - they are supposed to be collecting data to support the prevaling theory of history which dictates that there is only one eventual result of human history - the Communist State of course. But things seem to be going wrong - an alarming individual, a minister to the King, seems to be trying to eliminate all centres of learning and all literate individuals. Is it a bid to establish a Totalitarian State? That shouldn't happen according to the accepted theory of history.

The observers from Earth are not supposed to interfere, but it's hard to be a god and remain aloof when surrounded by misery, disease, ignorance, brutality and persecution. What's the right thing to do?

It's a thematically complex novel that nevertheless could be read by a young person simply as a kind of adventure tale. Unsurprisingly many of the themes are political; censorship and suppression of learning, Totalitarianism and will to power, Communist theory, religious oppression, but some are as much ethical: is interference in an attempt to improve the lot of the masses justified or not? And (perhaps the most interesting and unexpected to me) if you take a person from an ideal society, Utopian, safe, stable, moral, with fair and equal distribution of resources and put him in the antithetical situation, largely isolated from his peers, what happens? Does he maintain the moral code of home, or does the society around him eventually corrupt him? What exactly happens at the end is left a little ambiguous but the implication is clear. The impact is made clear in the epilogue, back on Earth, with the three friends from the prologue re-united.

There's an afterword to this translation which appears to date back to 1997, by the surviving Strugatsky brother. It's as fascinating as the book itself, setting a context for its writing that is very illuminating. Initially a straight-forward SF adventure story in the vein of Dumas' Musketeers novels was the sole aim, but it was the early 1960s and the political situation in Russia inevitably reared its ugly head. A furore arose regarding whether the SF community's younger elements' satirical and critical attacks on the status quo of political oppression, ever changing approved political doctrine, hypocrisy were allowable. Older writers, government shills, were loudly complaining. The regime was visibly critical of much of the new art, visual, literary or even musical. Was there going to be a crack-down?

Well, the Strugatskies decided to risk it and turned their prospective piece of pure escapism into an attack on those in power, Communist theory, Totalitarianism in general and the will to power of individuals. The crack-down never came and the book was not treated severely by the censors, though their editor persuaded the authors to change the name of the villain from Rebia (anagram of Beria, a prominent politician of the time) to the marginally more subtle Reba.

The other thing the afterword establishes is that there was a thriving market for SF in Soviet era Russia, big enough to have a society specifically for SF authors, a fact that it would be hard to believe given only the evidence of what has been published in English translation. Another observation is that just as social and political concerns are frequently explored in English language SF, so they were in the Russian SF of that time, with the same somewhat reduced level of scrutiny by dismissive people in power. (Compare with Solzhenitsyn, who published One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in 1962, the same year Hard to be a God was being written).

I'll certainly be looking for the other Strugatsky books with editions in English but I'm also interested in picking up any other Russian SF available in translation to further compare and contrast the trends and themes of Russian and Anglo-American SF. ( )

Wonderful premise, which never really develops into anything worthwhile. The idea of the moral struggle of a powerful alien in a barbrous medieval hell is rich with possibilities, from the philosophical contradictions of 'the prime directive', to the wretched temptations and corruptions of visceral decadence. This isn't the book to flesh any of those out. Barely an allegory, merely the thinest examination of it's premise, constantly undermined by cheap drama, wish fulfillment and deus et machina. ( )

This novel was really slow-starting, since there was a LOT of world-building. Most of the world-building was fun after you got over the initial confusion, however. I felt like it balanced itself out by the end, so I'm giving it 4 stars barring a re-read that changes my mind.

The novel centres on Don Rumata (or Anton), an undercover operative on a planet with mediaeval-level of technology from a future Earth. There's also mediaeval-level sanitation, so the authors spend quite a bit of time illustrating the innate disgust that a modern person would need to overcome were he or she actually a resident of a mediaeval town. And the psychological conditioning such a person would need just to be able to eat the food.

I'm not sure I buy the assumption of the inevitability of civilization that is presented, although I'm not certain that the arguments for it were sincere. They seemed to be countered by arguments against giving the god-like Earth technology to the mediaevals. Actually, in retrospect, I'm not sure whether Rumata's mission was to prove their historical theories or enforce them. He mostly spends his time rescuing intellectuals (when he's not maintaining his cover), and the bulk of the plot centres on rescuing a man called Budach whom other agents have mislaid. I'm just not sure what this achieves. [This is where a reread may help.]

I do like the description of Rumata as a god in human form, and not just because of his sword skills and battle tactics. A modern human would have so much broader of a perspective of the world that god-like seems apt. In fact, Anton as Rumata has to keep reminding himself that the people around him are human, or at least, will be human (since they are so petty and narrow-minded). It's a nice touch.

---
Update (2015-02-11): The reread didn't change my mind about the rating, although I was tempted to bump it up half a star. The reread also clarified things a lot from the beginning. I may even read it a third time, eventually. I do still feel that those two dialogues near the end are a bit of a weakness because the book relies on them so heavily, but they're also fun to read. ( )

Agents from a future Soviet Union are embedded on a planet with a medieval government as observers. They can produce infinite wealth and have access to high-tech equipment, but they are forbidden to intervene in the affairs of state. They can only watch helplessly as intrigues slide the state into barbarism. ( )

Hard to be a God by the Strugatsky brothers was first published in 1964, and my previous copy, read many years ago, was an early 1970s translation from Wendayne and Forrest Ackermann, no less. However, that edition was actually a secondary translation from a German (probably East German) edition; what was more, it was sourced from the published novel, and so had been through the hands of the Soviet censors. This review is based on a more recent translation by Olena Bormashenko, made in 2014 from the original manuscript and published (in the UK) in Gollancz's SF Masterworks series, which deserves major credit for keeping back-list sf in circulation. It has an introduction by Ken Macleod, which gives some perspective as to the political environment that the book was first published in; and an afterword by Boris Strugatsky which recounts in more detail the political events within the Soviet writing community at the time.

Originally conceived as a somewhat baroque Three Musketeers-style adventure, what we have is a story of human observers on a late-Medieval stage planet. They are placed for long periods in the target society, and their movements are recorded and transmitted back to Earth. We follow Anton, in his assumed persona of Don Rumata, a well-placed nobleman. Although there is no cast-iron Prime Directive in the novel, Don Rumata and his colleagues are aware of their duty. They are there to observe, not to intervene - at least, not in any sort of significant way. Obviously, by just being in the society and living within it, they do affect that society in some way; and when they see the society turning towards a repressive regime, they take surreptitious steps to alleviate the condition of some of the oppressed - people who they have identified as key individuals in the development of society in terms of arts, literature and science, spiriting them away to another country on the same world.

This is what distinguishes this novel from a similar plot line in a Western novel. The Strugatskys were brought up within the Soviet system and its underlying Marxist philosophy, that societies pass through various stages - feudal, capitalistic and so on - on the way to the perfected end state, socialism. Marxism taught that this progression was inevitable merely through the progress of human development; therefore, by making comparatively minor interventions, Don Rumata and his colleagues are merely maintaining the overall progress of the alien society towards its inevitable conclusion.

That's not to say that this novel is some sort of Communistic tract; far from it. There's a perfectly good adventure story sitting front and centre and the reader is completely caught up in the derring-do, especially as Don Rumata is a fine swordsman - though he was taught all the techniques of swordsmanship known to Earth, and so displays skill that is way beyond his opponents. But this does not make him invulnerable. Neither does he possess secret trappings of super-science; apart from a secret stash of medicines, a stab vest superior to the local chainmail and a hidden transmutation machine so he can create gold coins to pay his way, he is required to survive by his wits. His humanistic traits are dismissed by the locals as merely the acceptable eccentricities of a member of the nobility, and Don Rumata plays them perfectly straight, and is quite capable of playing the feudal lord when it suits him. And there is no mother-ship waiting to yank him out of trouble; we find that plenty of observers have been caught out and killed in the history of alien observation; but the observers know and accept the risks.

Along the way, Anton/Don Rumata has cause to question what he and his colleagues are doing, and why; some of these ruminations are those that were toned down for the original Soviet publication. The overall effect is of a very human character, in a very realistic setting. That setting certainly isn't an identikit MedievalWorld (TM) one; other lives are appropriately nasty, brutish and short.

I have made a brief comparison between this text and the earlier translation. The language in the earlier version is far less polished and quite awkward at times. The newer translation is a far more fluent production, and indeed manages to convey a wry sense of humour at times. Anyone who already possesses a copy of the earlier version should acquire this new edition and find out what they have been missing, as the new text does make the story spring off the page. ( )

Fascinating and important work. Published in 1964, I feel that it may have been an influence on, or at least a precursor to, many of my favorite books. I saw thematic similarities with some of Iain Banks’ Culture novels, especially Inversions, and Kage Baker’s Company series.
The story deals with a ‘deep’ agent from an advanced civilization, who is supposed to observe and record the feudal society he’s been planted in, without interfering. However, the society he’s working in is on the verge of a shift from feudalism to fascism. Purges of intellectuals are increasing, and the agent finds it harder and harder to maintain any kind of objectivity. Meanwhile, he also battles the tendency to lose sight of his identity; he finds himself becoming more and more like the callous, boorish aristocrat he is impersonating. But he also finds himself truly caring for his native lover…
There’s a lot going on in the relatively brief book. Anton, while maintaining his cover identity as Don Rumata, tries to balance his ethics against the demands of his job. His attempts to rescue the scientists and artists that he sees as the lights of hope in a dark and ignorant world make for an exciting story. But it’s also very philosophical, exploring the ramifications of a non-interference policy, the tendency toward abuse of power, and the nature of humanity.
It’s very interesting to see science-fiction themes which I’ve seen explored from American and European perspectives many times from the point of view of Russian authors. Here, the advanced, peaceful and free society which the researchers are from is, of course, one where the ideals of communism have come to full fruition. I wished I could see more of that world – and may have to seek out some of the Strugatsky brothers’ other books to explore further. However, their vision is not all starry-eyed: the world of Arkanar and its Inquisitorial brutalities are very clearly parallel to abuses and purges from Russia’s history.
Highly recommended – both as a great reading experience, and for anyone interested in the various facets of science fiction as a genre.

Copy provided by NetGalley - thanks for bringing this book to my attention! As always, my opinion is purely my own. ( )

I, like many people probably, read Roadside Picnic as my first Strugatsky brothers book. Like that work, Hard to Be a God has a great central premise. Members of a highly developed culture (a future Communist utopia) are on an alien world where civilization has only developed to the level of the middle ages. What should they do with their vastly more advanced technology and understanding of both the material world and the human condition? What can they do, even with that power? It's an intriguing situation, still interesting despite having been explored by many sci-fi books and TV shows like Star Trek and its ilk since the book's original publication. Unlike Roadside Picnic, however, the premise of Hard to Be a God does not lead to a great setting and a plot centered on exploring that setting. Instead, Hard to Be a God gives us a setting that is an amalgam of feudal history and fantasy genre tropes that isn't bad, but isn't particularly memorable either. There are still interesting ideas here, explored to a slightly greater depth than most science-fiction goes, but by the end of the book those ideas are being delivered rather bluntly, and the book delivers no revelation or satisfying insight about them.

Ultimately, what most held the book back for me was that the stance taken by these advanced observers was unsatisfying and stripped away what could have been fun about this premise. Don Rumata and his fellow Communards split the baby in their approach to the planet, not remaining pure observers but not conducting any significant intervention either. Instead they operate in the shadows, an alien illuminati attempting to slowly manipulate things for the better. I don't remember it ever being explained why the observers fully revealing themselves would have been a bad thing- one observer discusses how the modest technological advancements he's introduced have been warped to nefarious ends, but the only reasons we get for why there isn't larger-scale intervention are nebulous explanations about not wanting to be worshipped as gods, not wanting to breed helplessness, and not wanting to usurp the world's development. The usurpation point is belied by the fact that the observers are intervening at all, I never found the helplessness point convincing, and there's no justification for why the observers telling the truth wouldn't be worth a try. The Prime Directive of Star Trek stems from the belief that imposing your own views on less developed civilizations is unjustifiable- here, where Communism is presented and believed by the characters to be the best and inevitable ending state of civilization, such reasoning no longer holds.

Even with the (what I would call) muddled approach that the characters of Hard to Be a God take, the premise still has the possibility for some fun, but the Strugatsky brothers steadfastly deny us the type of enjoyable scenes that the book could have given us- there's no scene where the brutish soldiers tasked with lynching literates attack Don Rumata and find their swords bouncing uselessly off his forcefield, there's no scene where Don Rumata calls down his helicopters to the amazement of the city's populace, there's no scene where Don Rumata blasts holes the walls of the Merry Tower to save his friend from torture. Even when the antagonist reveals that he believes Don Rumata has made a deal with demons for his wealth and fighting prowess, Rumata does nothing fun with it. Instead, the Strugatsky brothers maintain the bleak tone throughout, apparently believing that having any fun with the premise would detract from this book being serious literature. Perhaps they were right, but they do make this a terribly dull read in the process. The Zone's tension and mystery made reading Roadside picnic a pleasure, and Hard to Be a God gives us nothing comparable. If they didn't want to make it pulpier, the Strugatsky brothers had to give us something else, and the observations that even with god-like power it's hard to make people behave how you want them to just doesn't cut it.

Hard to Be a God does not have a premise that can carry a story like The Zone did in Roadside Picnic, and unfortunately the Strugatsky brothers are middling when it comes to prose and ability to craft interesting characters. If the intriguing premise has hooked you, give it a try (it's a quick read), but I'd recommend that you temper your expectations: it's a solid piece of science fiction, but to me it rises no higher than that, I can already tell that soon I'll barely remember it. ( )

Please read my full review here: http://realbooks4ever.tumblr.com/post/79825867987 ( )

Please read my full review here: http://realbooks4ever.tumblr.com/post/79825867987 ( )

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Don Rumata has been sent from Earth to the medieval kingdom of Arkanar with instructions to observe and to save what he can. Masquerading as an arrogant nobleman, a dueler, and a brawler, he is never defeated, but yet he can never kill. With his doubt and compassion, and his deep love for a local girl named Kira, Rumata wants to save the kingdom from the machinations of Don Reba, the first minister to the king. But given his orders, what role can he play? This long overdue translation will reintroduce one of the most profound Soviet-era novels to an eager audience.

My Review: It's hard to review a world-famous classic. I have to think the translation is faithful because it captures a voice that lesser translators more often than not miss entirely. The standard adventure plot is fun. In common with a lot of SF written in that era, we don't get a lot of well-drawn characters; in this case only one, Don Rumata himself.

What makes this a classic, then? It would raise few eyebrows today, if it was a new publication. That it is 52 years old makes all the difference; that it is an excellent example of its niche solidifies the place History has given it.

But anyone not already caught in the tentacles of the SF Cthulhu monster might want to pass by without slowing down too much.

There is some nice action and intrigue in the plot, and some deep social commentary.

You may find the references to the utopian communist Earth disturbing at first glance, but actually the book contains harsh critique of some dark sides of the society and political system in the USSR. In order to get that published in 1964, the authors had to attribute those to some more "western" style regime, and pay some lip service to communism. ( )

....The Strugatsky brothers approach science fiction in a very different way than western authors would and that alone makes it a shame that many of their books are out of print. They make a case for more attention to translations if my opinion. There are many more ways to look at science fiction that what the English-speaking world has to offer. Hard To Be a God is, a book that hides a lot under the fast paced surface of the story. Roadside Picnic remains their best known work but I don't think there is much between that book and Hard To Be a God to be honest. It is a work of science fiction that certainly deserves its place in the Masterworks list.

Full Random Comments review ( )

A matter of morals

Hard to Be a God by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, translated by Olena Bormashenko, with a foreward by Hari Kunzru (Chicago Review Press, $16.95).

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were Russian brothers, collaborators on what was widely considered the greatest science fiction to come from the former Soviet Union. In fact, they were fantastic literary novelists who wrote speculative fiction as a way to address topics that would have gotten them sent to a gulag had they not been writing science fiction.

This new translation by Olena Bormashenko makes Hard to Be a God widely available and follows her outstanding translation of Roadside Picnic.

The protagonist, Anton, is from Earth but undercover on a planet only as developed as our medieval period. As Don Rumata, his alias, he is so far advanced as to be god-like, but he is bound not to interfere with their natural progression—easily understandable to American readers as a variation of Star Trek’s “prime directive.”

But when one of the natives decides to persecute scientists, poets and artists, Don Rumata’s personal ethics demand he attempt to help the intellectual and cultural capital of the culture escape; instead of being rewarded by his superiors, he’s chastised for interfering.

The parallels with Soviet oppression are clear, and the story makes fantastic science fiction.

Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com ( )

What an amazing book. I think you'd need to go back to Orwell and H.G. Wells to find anything even close to having the depth and sharp, critical focus of HARD TO BE A GOD.

HARD TO BE A GOD was written in the 1960's by Russian authors, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. It began as a happy adventure story. But as the brothers worked on it their heritage showed itself. They began to imbue the tale with politics and their experience as Soviet citizens. But in adding all of these other layers, the scifi nature of the book was never completely stifled.

What you should know before you begin this book is that HARD TO BE A GOD reads like a play. There is very little description of place and character. Helicopter and transmitter, armor and sword are mentioned, but almost as an after thought. This story is told almost entirely through dialog.

[This left me a little confused at points. I didn't, for example, entirely understand the first chapter, but this may have been due to the fact that I was reading an ebook review copy where the formatting wasn't entirely finished.]

The story itself is about agents sent from our advanced, thoroughly civilized earth to an alien planet of humans living in the middle ages. Anton, Don Rumata as he is called on the target planet, and his friends are to observe and to save what good things they can in the tumultuous times in which they live in. And this task generates terrible dilemmas for them as they try to walk that fine 'Star Trek/Captain Kirk' non-interference line.

As the violence and brutality escalates, Anton/Don Rumata becomes outraged. He pushes and nudges here and there, trying to save the academics and the little bit of good that that has managed to evolve out of this retched feudal system. But mostly he fails. His colleagues argue that he is loosing his objectivity but this only brings up the question of whether inaction is truly the civilized thing to do. What is the 'right' of allowing hundreds, if not thousands, if not entire populations to be tortured and starved when it might be otherwise.

HARD TO BE A GOD is a nuanced story. There is a scifi element, but it plays second fiddle to the philosophical questions that are discussed. I very much enjoyed this book. And I can tell you that I must read it again, because there is no way that I 'got' everything that Arkady and Boris meant for me to get out of this book.

Chicago Review Press will be making this book available June 1st, 2014.

Note:
Before you begin Don Rumata's adventure, do read the preface by Hari Kunzru. I thought it was brilliant. I don't know about you, but I had never considered Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in terms of the rural literary tradition. And the conflict within Hogwarts as the conflict between Anglo-Saxon Potters and Weasleys versus the effete Normal-French Malfoys. I may never be the same. ( )

This is not the edition I read. I read the paperback from DAW, published in 1974.
This book is one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. A rather simple sci-fi adventure tale on the surface, has so many layers it is absolutely mesmerizing. The story is about a planet whose social evolution is carefully monitored and guided by people from Earth, that have to keep their real identities secret, so to just gently direct, but not pressure the locals to a more "advanced" stage.
But history has a way to surprise even the smartest and wisest (and well intentioned to boot). And how long can you remain an spectator if all your values are being trampled?
In this era of "pushing democracy", I really think our leaders should read a history some human as this. ( )

It's incomprehensible to me that english translations of the work of the Strugatsky brothers remain almost completely out of print. Currently amazon.com has two used copies of this classic available (presumably the DAW paperback), the cheapest one priced at $75.99!

Every serious reader if science fiction should know the work of the brothers Strugatsky. Hard to be a God may well be their best known work (although many seem to think that Roadside Picnic is their best). While this book was published two years before the debut of the original Star Trek television series, it deals directly with the concept of and issues around Roddenberry's "prime directive." Scientists from an elightened future Soviet Union are observers on a planet with a medieval socio-economic society. They are supposed to observe the brutal, amoral society, and gently nudge it towards a more enlightened future. The story follows one of these agents, Don Rumata, as he tries and ultimately fails to maintain a dispassionate, disinterested distance from the locals. ( )

This is a version of "Hard to be a God" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky adapted for beginning learners of Russian. I had high hopes for this book because of the other wonderful graded readers from this publisher, like "Читаем без проблем". I haven't read the original, but I'd like to think that might actually be a good story if written with the entire Russian language. Unfortunately, with access to only 750 words, this adaptation is rather confusing, lapsing into downright incoherence. Definitely go with another of the Златоуст readers if you don't want to have a lot of explaining to do to your students.

(Q) ( )