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A review by ankatz
The Doomed City by Boris Strugatsky, Arkady Strugatsky, Andrew Bromfield, Dmitry Glukhovsky
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The finest sci-fi book I have ever read, and one of my favourite novels.
Charting the trajectory of a young man's evolving political and existential ideas, The Doomed City asks the question "Why do our beliefs change, is there anything worth believing in, and is there anything worth dying for?" It responds with dialogues between Hitlerite fascists, staunch pro-communist idealists, capitalists, nihilists, military-industrialists, populists, and working class perspectives; all inserted into the backdrop of a highly metaphorical sci-fi landscape. Few mysteries are solved, few plot points are satisfactorily addressed, and important events either occur far away or are skimmed over entirely. It offers no concrete solutions, and many of the ultimate conclusions it draws are - on the surface - trite and platitudinous.
There are noted flaws. The female characters are unilaterally presented as crude sex objects, characterization often gives way to caricature and racist stereotype, and the book is frequently crass. I suggest that, whilst not all of this is intentional on the part of the Strugatskys, it is effective. The main subject of the novel, Andrei Voronin, is a cautionary figure; and we ought not view women, or Koreans, or Jews, or any human, as he learns to.
Despite all the uncertainty, strange crudity, violent imagery, and notable lack of any real conclusion or closing clarity; I stayed up all night finishing it. And the following morning, waiting for my bus into work, I felt a strange kind of peace. As though I too had traversed a great distance, and learned something about living.
Charting the trajectory of a young man's evolving political and existential ideas, The Doomed City asks the question "Why do our beliefs change, is there anything worth believing in, and is there anything worth dying for?" It responds with dialogues between Hitlerite fascists, staunch pro-communist idealists, capitalists, nihilists, military-industrialists, populists, and working class perspectives; all inserted into the backdrop of a highly metaphorical sci-fi landscape. Few mysteries are solved, few plot points are satisfactorily addressed, and important events either occur far away or are skimmed over entirely. It offers no concrete solutions, and many of the ultimate conclusions it draws are - on the surface - trite and platitudinous.
There are noted flaws. The female characters are unilaterally presented as crude sex objects, characterization often gives way to caricature and racist stereotype, and the book is frequently crass. I suggest that, whilst not all of this is intentional on the part of the Strugatskys, it is effective. The main subject of the novel, Andrei Voronin, is a cautionary figure; and we ought not view women, or Koreans, or Jews, or any human, as he learns to.
Despite all the uncertainty, strange crudity, violent imagery, and notable lack of any real conclusion or closing clarity; I stayed up all night finishing it. And the following morning, waiting for my bus into work, I felt a strange kind of peace. As though I too had traversed a great distance, and learned something about living.