Hard to Be a God

April 21, 2014
Bormashenko’s rewarding new translation of this slim 1964 novel makes available a regrettably obscure Cold War–era hybrid of SF and satire. Anton is disguised as aristocratic Don Rumata and sent to the archaic planet Arkanar by enlightened Communist historians from the future. Anton is instructed to only observe and not intervene (“like a god”) as cruel Don Reba, First Minister to the King, orders the murder of intellectuals and artists whose individuality threatens state authority. This dark allegory of unrestrained governmental power lauds the pens that battle swords. Communism is unsubtly attacked beneath a veneer of escapism. While some overly adolescent humor minimizes emotional intensity, themes of culpability and responsibility remain effective. The Strugatsky brothers (Roadside Picnic) use Anton’s struggle between impartiality and interfering as the emotional bridge connecting time travel whimsy with mature soul-searching. The unadorned prose cloaks rich ideas, illustrating the ability of imaginative literature to probe troubling moral questions. This edition includes an informative introduction by Hari Kunzru and an afterword by Boris Strugatsky.

June 15, 2014

Observers from a future Earth are embedded on an alien planet to observe the development of the local civilization, which is currently in a feudal stage. Anton, known on assignment as Don Rumata, pits himself against the king's adviser, Don Reba, who holds immense power and has turned the realm into a fascist state, arresting artists and scientists and brutally repressing any dissent. Although Rumata tries to help Reba's victims, he is often frustrated by the strictures of the society in which he operates. While Rumata's technology could make him a god, he is still hampered by his own human nature. VERDICT This is a crisp, new translation of a highly influential 1964 Russian sf novel by the Strugatsky brothers. And while the book is densely written and slightly confusing at the start, the story and themes will resonate as much with modern audiences as they did with readers in the mid-1960s.

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