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The Noon Universe #5
Безпокойство
Повестта „Безпокойство” поставя наболелия въпрос – възможно ли е човечеството да съзидава, без да разрушава, и доколко е възможен контакт между хуманоиден и нехуманоиден разум. Паралели с фантастичния свят на филма „Аватар” предизвикаха множество полемики и припомниха позабравената класика на братя Стругацки от 60-те години на миналия век. Планетата е Пандора – а земните хора там са просто туристи. Скучаят или ловуват из живата и загадъчна гора. Но какво се крие под лилавата мъгла, която се стеле под върха, избран за база на земляните. Сред дебрите на гората често изчезват и хора от Базата. Атос, учен от Земята, живее с Нава насред гората, в малко село, което трепетно очаква великото Обсебване. Никой вече не помни защо е нужно това Обсебване. Всички знаят само, че Гората някой ден ще настъпи и Водата ще ги залее. В усилието си да се върне при своите, Атос тръгва да търси стопаните на загадъчната планета. В допълнение към повестта „Безпокойство”, в сборника са включени и два разказа: „Забравеният експеримент” и „Частни предположения”.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
7 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Arkady Strugatsky
514 books1,880 followersThe 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.
Source: Wikipedia
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.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 6, 2025
„Безпокойство“ се оказа доста шантава, но също така интересна и въздействаща повест... Братя Стругацки са изградили заплетен научнофантастичен сюжет на планетата Пандора, който не успях напълно да разбера, обаче посланията им за контакт между различни форми на живот силно ме впечатлиха!
„В края на краищата нервите също трябва да се тренират — отбеляза Горбовски замислено. — Човек трябва да тренира способността си да възприема. Иначе става невъзприемчив, а това е скучно.“
„В края на краищата нервите също трябва да се тренират — отбеляза Горбовски замислено. — Човек трябва да тренира способността си да възприема. Иначе става невъзприемчив, а това е скучно.“
October 20, 2025
"Лъжата изобщо не съществува. Всичко, което е измислено, е възможно."
May 10, 2019
Не понял, о чём эта книга!
Ни начала тут нет, ни конца, но середина сюжета на "тройку" потянет. Хотя сюжет авторов не особо и интересует, главное тут что-то другое, а вот что именно, так до меня и не дошло!!!
Ни начала тут нет, ни конца, но середина сюжета на "тройку" потянет. Хотя сюжет авторов не особо и интересует, главное тут что-то другое, а вот что именно, так до меня и не дошло!!!
October 12, 2020
Поначалу книга шла тяжело. Уж очень странная вторая линия повествования. Но в целом, эта повесть у меня, как и другие из цикла про полдень 22 век, сначала шла тяжело, а потом пошла как по маслу. Теперь понятно, откуда Кемерон украл планету Пандору) Если бы по этой книге снял хороший голливудский режиссер, это был бы очень крутой фильм. Это крутая олдскульная фантастика про контакт с негуманоидной цивилизацией. Все так необычно, что от этих контактов выгорание наблюдается даже у самого Гробовского - героя многих других повестей из этой серии. С каждой книгой этой серии я все больше и больше вижу насколько крутая тут фантастика!
August 20, 2023
This is yet again another one of my favorite novels from my favorite sci-fi writing authors. As most of Strugatsky stories, there are many incredibly themes and philosophical, sociological questions to unpack, all happening on the backdrop of a strange mystery on a very unique planet. This one is also different in the sense that plotwise it is a version of the standalone 'Snail on a slope', which is also a favorite of mine. I feel like in a certain way, Беспокойство manages to both be a more clear retelling and yet keep the biggest questions I have had about this story unanswered. This is not my first re-read and it will definetly not be the last. 5/5 stars
December 22, 2010
"Безпокойство" представлява първата версия на "Охлюв по склона" и е доста по-лесна за четене и разбиране. Приятно четиво е, доста по-леко за четене от някои други техни неща.
(единственото нещо, което книгата има общо с "Avatar" е името на планетата)
Двата допълнителни разказа в сборника не са нещо особено, може да се каже даже, че са слаби.
(единственото нещо, което книгата има общо с "Avatar" е името на планетата)
Двата допълнителни разказа в сборника не са нещо особено, може да се каже даже, че са слаби.
August 26, 2014
My God, this book was boring!
April 2, 2020
На мой взгляд более понятная версия Улитки на склоне.
July 24, 2024
The first version - that is "Disquiet" is much better than the finished run-off-the-mill-absurdist-social-criticism-repeated-for-the-umpteenth-time "Snail on the Slope", if you have a choice between reading both - rather read "Disquiet" which is a unique work of Soviet eldritch horror, and raises actual science-fiction questions.
The evolution of Pandora, in the "Cycle of Noon/22nd Century", the planet where the action is set is as follows:
Book 1: planet Pandora a place with a wild forest and a free for all for any hunter from Earth to shoot and kill as they please (of which the real-world counterpart is the human attitudes of 1680-1920ies stage of adventurer-explorer towards nature)
Book 2: Pandora being more systematically studied (1860ies-1940ies systematisation stage)
Book 3: Any "tourist" not sufficiently prepared in special Pandoran "botanical gardens" is refused entry.
Book 4 : no mention, due to the entire book being set in the medieval society of non-Spanish Inquisition and the right to intervene vs. the Soviet version of the Prime Directive of Contact with less-developed civilisations.
Book 5: This book. Set on the planet in question. The Scientific Council is closing down the free access to the Planet and the free poaching on it - because that's what it seemed to be and what it was - poaching - which happened over the previous 50-60 years
The planet, for all intents and purposes seems to generates real-life beasties out of the people's imagination ... which is horrifying in suitable circumstances. After some time we understand that it's not only the planet, but our narrator who's under the influence of it, has become unreliable.
The book features white-knuckle scenes of biological and eldritch horror, comparable to Prometheus /the Alien trilogy, a considerable time before any of those were written. The protagonists are suitably clueless for a horror narration and don't die only because it's Soviet fiction (this trope of heroic plot armor, is subverted by Strugatsky's in the subsequent and much latter "Roadside picnic").
It contains the first version of a thought-out nonhuman biological civilisation, and a later-reused in the "Laputa:Castle in the Sky" concept of helpful, and frightening, "gardeners".
The book itself is an exploration of a concept of an unfriendly alien intelligence or sentience and the question of the existence of nonhuman intelligences can pose a problem where the moral, ethics and sympathy of humanity will be put to the test, and if the planet's forest is SENTIENT and it's "at war" with sentient, humanoid beings, then what may seem as the correct answer in the dilemma of helping sentients - in our sympathies as a humanoid species, can never be ascertained and our protagonist says it out loud:
> You still don't see that they all play as children do? Don't you want to put a protective barrier next to the abyss on the border of which they are all playing? here, for example - he pointed downwards - You were so afraid for me when I was sitting here and throwing little stones, for little old me, when I was sitting, but all 20 billions of them are sitting on the side of the abyss, poking each other, joking about falling down, and throwing little stones down there, and each one of them is trying to throw the heaviest stone. And the abyss is covered with impenetrable fog. And they don't care WHO or WHAT they will wake up in this fog, they just don't care, they feel good when they throw stones, they feel good to exercise their *musculus gluteus*, but I love them all and I cannot imagine ...
> I would really hate it to be there, when the forest starts talking and starts asking questions
upon this phrase, very uncharacteristic for Strugatskys, the book ends.
The only minor downside was making an antagonistic matriarchal culture as the intermediary for the alien "antagonists" or rather paragonists, as there's really no confrontation between the human star-bound civilisation and a planetbound biological one, as their goals are fundamentally different, the antagonism only appears when humans settle or interfere with the native flora fauna.
3.5-4 stars out of 5
The evolution of Pandora, in the "Cycle of Noon/22nd Century", the planet where the action is set is as follows:
Book 1: planet Pandora a place with a wild forest and a free for all for any hunter from Earth to shoot and kill as they please (of which the real-world counterpart is the human attitudes of 1680-1920ies stage of adventurer-explorer towards nature)
Book 2: Pandora being more systematically studied (1860ies-1940ies systematisation stage)
Book 3: Any "tourist" not sufficiently prepared in special Pandoran "botanical gardens" is refused entry.
Book 4 : no mention, due to the entire book being set in the medieval society of non-Spanish Inquisition and the right to intervene vs. the Soviet version of the Prime Directive of Contact with less-developed civilisations.
Book 5: This book. Set on the planet in question. The Scientific Council is closing down the free access to the Planet and the free poaching on it - because that's what it seemed to be and what it was - poaching - which happened over the previous 50-60 years
The planet, for all intents and purposes seems to generates real-life beasties out of the people's imagination ... which is horrifying in suitable circumstances. After some time we understand that it's not only the planet, but our narrator who's under the influence of it, has become unreliable.
The book features white-knuckle scenes of biological and eldritch horror, comparable to Prometheus /the Alien trilogy, a considerable time before any of those were written. The protagonists are suitably clueless for a horror narration and don't die only because it's Soviet fiction (this trope of heroic plot armor, is subverted by Strugatsky's in the subsequent and much latter "Roadside picnic").
It contains the first version of a thought-out nonhuman biological civilisation, and a later-reused in the "Laputa:Castle in the Sky" concept of helpful, and frightening, "gardeners".
The book itself is an exploration of a concept of an unfriendly alien intelligence or sentience and the question of the existence of nonhuman intelligences can pose a problem where the moral, ethics and sympathy of humanity will be put to the test, and if the planet's forest is SENTIENT and it's "at war" with sentient, humanoid beings, then what may seem as the correct answer in the dilemma of helping sentients - in our sympathies as a humanoid species, can never be ascertained and our protagonist says it out loud:
> You still don't see that they all play as children do? Don't you want to put a protective barrier next to the abyss on the border of which they are all playing? here, for example - he pointed downwards - You were so afraid for me when I was sitting here and throwing little stones, for little old me, when I was sitting, but all 20 billions of them are sitting on the side of the abyss, poking each other, joking about falling down, and throwing little stones down there, and each one of them is trying to throw the heaviest stone. And the abyss is covered with impenetrable fog. And they don't care WHO or WHAT they will wake up in this fog, they just don't care, they feel good when they throw stones, they feel good to exercise their *musculus gluteus*, but I love them all and I cannot imagine ...
> I would really hate it to be there, when the forest starts talking and starts asking questions
upon this phrase, very uncharacteristic for Strugatskys, the book ends.
The only minor downside was making an antagonistic matriarchal culture as the intermediary for the alien "antagonists" or rather paragonists, as there's really no confrontation between the human star-bound civilisation and a planetbound biological one, as their goals are fundamentally different, the antagonism only appears when humans settle or interfere with the native flora fauna.
3.5-4 stars out of 5
December 3, 2023
W kilku słowach: to co reżim radziecki był w stanie wytworzyć w ludzkich duszach zachwyca wciąż na nowo i na nowo, te historie są tak odmienne od zachodnich i przepełnione przedziwnym klimatem, może to co czuję czytając jest jedynie wynikiem mojej świadomości pochodzenia autorów, a może rzeczywiście bije z nich jakaś pustka, trwoga i ból spowodowany brakiem wyjścia z sytuacji, sytuacji: lasu, sytuacji: umysłu, sytuacji: cywilizacji. Obraz kobiet w tej książce jest rażący ale nabiera to sensu po przeczytaniu posłowia od jednego z autorów, więc jestem w stanie wybaczyć takie a nie inne ukazanie płci pięknej, zwłaszcza ze to jedna z ważniejszych części tekstu
April 28, 2024
Ничего не понятно.. хоть и герои знакомые 🫣
June 9, 2016
Повесть очень увлекательная!
В частности мне была интересна одна маленькая деталь: речь примитивных аборигенов: говорят они много, повторяя одну и ту же мысль несколько раз. Есть такое свойство у не очень умных людей - словоблудие. Они испытывают зудящую потребность постоянно говорить, неважно - что. И очень нервничают в отсутствие разговора... Такие монологи представлены в книге весьма любопытно, не без иронии. Но это, впрочем, мелочь. А книгу нужно прочитать. Она захватывает с первых страниц и не отпускает до самого конца.
В частности мне была интересна одна маленькая деталь: речь примитивных аборигенов: говорят они много, повторяя одну и ту же мысль несколько раз. Есть такое свойство у не очень умных людей - словоблудие. Они испытывают зудящую потребность постоянно говорить, неважно - что. И очень нервничают в отсутствие разговора... Такие монологи представлены в книге весьма любопытно, не без иронии. Но это, впрочем, мелочь. А книгу нужно прочитать. Она захватывает с первых страниц и не отпускает до самого конца.
September 10, 2016
I have reread the book recently and was a bit dissappointed. I like the idea and loved every damn bit of the book but it falls short only because it is short. I would love to see the expansion of the ideas this book contains but the were never expanded, this is the same this as with "Малыш", the books ends on the exact place when we catch a glimpse of the lore and world which seems so vibrant and interesting. Mixed feelings all the way.
December 23, 2010
Отличен избор, любими автори.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews