Hard To Be a God - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

The Gollancz SF Masterworks list includes only a few translated titles and most of them have been written by the Strugatsky brothers. For some reason people like Jules Verne or Stanislav Lem haven't made the list so far. It is yet another sign of how few titles make it in English translation in the genre. To make matters worse, quite a few of the older translations are not very good. Hard To Be a God (1964) for instance, was until recently only available as a double translation. In this case an English translation of the German translation of the Russian original. The Strugatsky brothers were not especially happy with the English translations of their work. Arkady worked as a translator in English (and Japanese), the double translation must have been an irritation to say the least. It doesn't help that censorship in the USSR meant that quite a few translations were based on texts that were not the version the authors preferred.

I read one other book by the Strugatsky brothers, Roadside Picnic (1972), also part of the SF Masterworks series. That edition was based on a translation considered imperfect. In 2012 an new translation appeared by Olena Bormashenko, a few months before the death of Boris, the last surviving brother. I haven't read that translation but from what I hear, it is superior to the earlier one. Unlike Roadside Picnic, which was reissued before the 2012 translation was available, Gollancz used a new translation for this edition of Hard To Be a God. It is copyrighted in 2014 and again credited to Olena Bormashenko. All of this makes me wonder what the story behind the translation of Monday Begins on Saturday (1965), the third Strugatsky title of the SF Masterworks list, is. But enough on translations, let's look at the novel.

An undercover agent has been positioned on a planted where society has regressed to a feudal system. His job is to observe only but he finds it ever harder to keep from interfering in the face of the brutality he encounters. With his more advanced knowledge of history and society, the injustice he witnesses is almost too much to bear. Interfering is not only strictly forbidden, it is also highly dangerous. Those who give in to the temptation put themselves and others in grave danger. It is, in other words, hard to be a god.

The introduction to this edition is written by Scottish author Ken MacLeod and I very much recommend you read it. MacLeod is no stranger to leftist themes in his own work and he manages to put the novel in a political context that many readers would have missed. The idea behind this novel is that society inevitably moves toward a situation where class, money and even control by a state are things of the past. An utopian vision that is not unlike the one encountered in Star Trek. Unsurprisingly, it goes back to the works of Karl Marx. This inevitability comes back a lot in the doctrines of communist states and parties and most of them don't react too well when political theory doesn't quite hold up in reality. A mismatch between theory and reality is what occurs in this novel though, making it a potentially very explosive work in 1960s Soviet society. The brothers had to cover their critique with an exciting adventure but once you have been made aware of the idea that is the foundation of the story, it is impossible to miss.

The story itself takes place in the Noon universe, a loosely related set of novels named after Noon, 22nd Century (1961), the first in the sequence. The brothers didn't really intend to develop a fictional universe so the book can be read independently. On the surface it is an adventure, which according to the afterword by Boris Strugatsky is what the brothers set out to write. They had something along the lines of The Three Musketeers in mind but drifted a bit from the original idea in the writing. Consequently, it is quite fast paced, with developments moving faster than the characters have time to keep up with.

Where theory predicts that society would move into an era of accelerating scientific and economic development and greater personal freedom, the story is one the increasing influence of a cult that looks at knowledge, cultural refinement and even reading as highly suspicious. Knowledge is dangerous and must be suppressed. The level of fanaticism, brutality, rigidity and sheer ignorance reminds me a bit of some of the more extreme Islamist movements that have been making a name for themselves in recent years. The novel draws a direct parallel with Nazi Germany though, the events of  Night of the Long Knives in particular.

Our observer watches all this and tries to subtly influence events by helping notable scientists and intellectuals to flee the country. A task made ever more hazardous by the increasing influence of the cult. It is a very stark contrast to the life our observer has been positioned in. the nobles of the nation are mostly portrayed as corrupt and decadent. Apart from a few exceptions, they don't seem to see the disaster barreling down on them. There would seem to be a parallel between the story and the Stalinist purging of the 1930s. Then again, something that brazen might not have slipped past the censors. Read it a bit differently and it could also be the Russian revolution or the revolution of 1905. There is no shortage of revolutionary events and uprisings in Russian history.

The main character is essentially torn between his experience and knowledge as an observer and growing attachment to the object of his studies. He finds it hard to keep his personal ethics and integrity in line with the assignment he's been given and becomes increasingly desperate over the course of the novel. The increasing strain on the main characters is very well done. It's almost a prediction of what would happen to the USSR when it couldn't bridge the gap between political and economic theory and reality.

The writing style, especially the vocabulary the translator (or the authors?) employs, takes a bit of getting used to. Part of that seems to be conscious choice by the authors to make the nobles in the story sound pompous. The dialogues between them are almost comical to read. The style is probably not something that would get past an American editor though, so for some readers it will be a bit of a rocky ride especially early on. I've seen a lot of comments questioning the translator but one should keep in mind that this book was written by two men from a different literary tradition. Part of it at least, is clearly the authors intent.

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.

Book Details
Title: Hard To Be a God
Author: Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 246
Year: 2015
Language: English
Translation: Olena Bormashenko
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-473-20829-2
First published: 1964

Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

A while ago I asked all of you what I should read for my 100th Random Comments review. Unfortunately most of you rather shy about commenting so Hans, who's taste leans towards classic science fiction, got his wish. He suggested several titles so I picked to one I would be least likely to pick up without prompting. Thus I ended up with Roadside Picnic by Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. I've never read anything by these two gentlemen, in fact the names didn't ring a bell when Hans proposed it. It was first published in English in 1977 so I was afraid it might be difficult to find a copy. Fortunately, Gollancz' SF Masterworks picked this book up as one of the later titles in that series (number 68 to be exact). As far as I know this novel is the only translated work in the selection. I guess Gollancz has some work left to do, you'd expect Jules Verne and Stanislav Lem in that company at least.

Years ago in an event known as the Visitation aliens visited six sites on Earth. They left just as quickly as the arrived but left a lasting legacy. The areas surrounding the landing sites turned into strange abandoned landscapes, places where remnants of the alien visitation turn the site into an incredibly dangerous environment, where the laws of physics don't seem to apply. One step in the wrong direction can be your last. The artefacts that can be found in these areas, the one described in the book is known as the Zone, are very useful and extremely valuable from both the scientific and monetary perspective. The Zones are closed off from the outside world by the authorities and the area is studied by an army of scientists. Men like Redrick Schuhart, Red for short, still find their way into the Zone to hunt for alien artefacts and sell them on the black market. The people making a living this way are known as Stalkers. It is a highly dangerous profession with a staggering mortality rate. Dangerous it may be, it is also highly profitable and the ultimate prize, an artefact known as the Golden Sphere rumored to be capable of granting wishes, is still out there to be taken.

This book is a translation from Russian of course. Although my vocabulary in that language does not exceed half a dozen words (two of which are out of fashion) I thought the text itself read very well. Alastair Reynolds once mentioned to be "...fascinated by the texture of translated prose, especially that cool, icy detachment that seems to hover around prose that's been translated from a genuinely foreign language..." It's something I've seen in some translations as well but not so much in this one. Naturally I was curious to find out who did the translation. Nowhere in this edition is the translator credited and that is something the publisher ought to be ashamed of. I found an earlier Gollancz edition translated by Antonina W. Bouis and if I were to venture a guess, they probably used that translation for the SF Masterworks edition.

At 145 pages in this edition Roadside Picnic is a fairly short novel and I thought it was pretty stripped down to the bare essentials. The mystery of the alien visitations stays just that. Throughout the books bits and pieces of what people think to have learnt about these aliens surface, none of them appear to be much more than theories. One of the more interesting ones, from a literary point of view is the comparison that gives the novel it's name. When asked what he thinks about the alien visitations Dr. Valentine Pillman replies as follows.

“My pleasure, imagine a picnic."
Noonan shuddered.
“What did you say?”
"A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. Cars drive off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, birds, and insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Old spark plugs and old filters strewn around... Rags, burnt-out bulbs, and a monkey wrench left behind... And of course, the usual mess - apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody’s handkerchief, somebody’s penknife, torn newspapers, coins, faded flowers picked in another meadow." The nervous animals in this analogy are the humans who venture forth after the Visitors left, discovering items and anomalies which are ordinary to those who discarded them, but incomprehensible or deadly to those who find them.”
“I see, a roadside picnic.”
“Precisely, a roadside picnic, on some road in the cosmos. And you ask if they will come back.”

Noonan isn’t convinced and neither was I but it sure is an interesting image.

Noonan and Pillman are not the core of the story however. Most of the novel focusses on Red and his illegal exploits in the Zone. The authors are very careful about what they choose to show us of Red’s activities. Right from the start it is impressed on the reader that the Zone is deadly but we don’t actually get to see much of it early on in the story. They authors build up to exposing the full horror of the place on the ultimate trip into the Zone Red takes. Early on in the book he’s much more occupied by taking care of his family and struggling with he authorities and their futile attempts at keeping the Zone closed off. The Strugatsky brothers didn’t seem to think an state-sponsored research facility would be up to the task of exploiting the zone to the benefit of all people. Sounds like a dangerous bit of criticism in the Brezhnev era Soviet Union.

There’s a huge contradiction between the way Red cares for his family and saves the life of a fellow stalker and his illegal activities and what he ultimately must do to survive his final trip into the Zone. It is easy to let yourself be distracted about all the seemingly impossible things that artefacts found in the Zone can do but the real mystery is that of Red’s motivations. Sometimes I think he is not even sure himself. His ethical framework certainly give the reader something to puzzle over as Red is pictured as caring, loving and concerned in one scene and ruthless, violent and criminal in the next. It’s a puzzle the authors leave to the reader to solve. To add to the confusion the ending does not provide any answers as to whether Red’s expedition was worth it. Throughout the book Red is hesitant to explore his own wishes and seems to fear that the wish the artefact will force him to admit about himself. Or at least that is one possible interpretation of it. I’m pretty sure this ambiguous ending will put more than a few readers of.

I thought Roadside Picnic is an intriguing read but not one for a lazy reader. With the story so stripped down and the authors being intentionally ambiguous about several aspects of the book, it forces the reader to carefully consider what has just been read. It’s a book that will most likely yield something new on every reread and I must admit that after one reading I feel there are things I missed. When I had just finished this book I wondered for a moment what Hans had gotten me into but upon reflection I feel he did me a favour by suggesting it. If you want to sample to non-anglophone science fiction you could do worse than Roadside Picnic.

Book Details
Title: Roadside Picnic
Author: Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 145
Year: 2007
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-575-07978-6
First published: 1972