Arkadi und Boris Strugatzki zählen zu den bedeutendsten Autoren der osteuropäischen Science Fiction. Einst in Russland verboten, sind ihre Texte heute in mehr als 30 Sprachen übersetzt und haben eine Millionenauflage erreicht. Mit ihren atemberaubenden Romanen haben die Brüder Strugatzki die Science-Fiction-Literatur weit über die Grenzen Russlands hinaus nachhaltig beeinflusst. Der fünfte Band der großen Werkausgabe beinhaltet sieben Romane und Erzählungen aus der Welt des Mittags: Der Weg zur Amalthea, Die gierigen Dinge des Jahrhunderts, Die Erprobung des SKYBEK, Das vergessene Experiment, Mittag, 22. Jahrhundert und Der ferne Regenbogen.
The brothers Arkady Strugatsky [Russian: Аркадий Стругацкий] and Boris Strugatsky [Russian: Борис Стругацкий] were Soviet-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated through most of their careers.
Arkady Strugatsky was born 25 August 1925 in Batumi; the family later moved to Leningrad. In January 1942, Arkady and his father were evacuated from the Siege of Leningrad, but Arkady was the only survivor in his train car; his father died upon reaching Vologda. Arkady was drafted into the Soviet army in 1943. He trained first at the artillery school in Aktyubinsk and later at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow, from which he graduated in 1949 as an interpreter of English and Japanese. He worked as a teacher and interpreter for the military until 1955. In 1955, he began working as an editor and writer.
In 1958, he began collaborating with his brother Boris, a collaboration that lasted until Arkady's death on 12 October 1991. Arkady Strugatsky became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1964. In addition to his own writing, he translated Japanese language short stories and novels, as well as some English works with his brother.