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A review by acaskoftroutwine
The Doomed City by Boris Strugatsky, Arkady Strugatsky, Andrew Bromfield, Dmitry Glukhovsky
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I have constantly heard this book referred to as the Strugatsky brother's masterpiece, but of the books that I have read by the brother's I have found this one to be my least favorite.
The Doomed City is about people in relation to society, and how a civilization based on nebulous ideals eventually falls victim to authoritarianism. Taking place in a city that exists in an unknown location, either an alien world or some kind of pocket dimension, with a bottomless void on one side and a impossibly high wall on the other, The Doomed City follows several characters who have been plucked from history who have been gathered for an unknown 'Experiment'.
While the novel starts off interesting enough, I don't find that any of it's conclusions about morality and human nature are all that deep. Despite the ability of the two authors, I feel that the book doesn't really have much new that its trying to say. While it makes sense that the brothers would hide this book for so many years, given the critical view that they cast on the development of the Soviet Union after WWII, I feel that the subject might have been too close for the brothers. The characters lack depth, and the 'shocking' comparisons and political commentary feel almost quaint reading it in 2023. The novel lacks the compassion and humanism that I found in Roadside Picnic and Hard to be a God, both of which cover similar subjects with more nuance and compassion for the human condition.
While those novels confront the struggles that we all deal with and the failures of society or ideology to protect us, and questions the ethics of inaction or the moral cost of surviving, The Doomed City creates a moral void for the character and treats it as maturation when he gives up any moral framework he might have had. He is presented at his most foolish when he is fully dedicated to a communist frame of mind, being both incredibly judgemental of others morality or intelligence as well as foolishly naive about the cities material conditions and leadership, and the novel follows him as he gradually falls further and further into authoritarian and reactionary thinking, until eventually finding himself believing in nothing more than the perpetuation of human culture and belief above all else, which is treated as the more enlightened view.
Nobody in this book has any real level of depth to them, or any real self awareness. They exist as caricatures of different modes of political or philosophical thought, but in a way that feels too didactic to really provoke much thought. I don't find any of the situations that they find themselves in or their responses to be engaging.
I'm going to read their other books, obviously, even if this one left me cold.
2 or 3 out of 10.
The Doomed City is about people in relation to society, and how a civilization based on nebulous ideals eventually falls victim to authoritarianism. Taking place in a city that exists in an unknown location, either an alien world or some kind of pocket dimension, with a bottomless void on one side and a impossibly high wall on the other, The Doomed City follows several characters who have been plucked from history who have been gathered for an unknown 'Experiment'.
While the novel starts off interesting enough, I don't find that any of it's conclusions about morality and human nature are all that deep. Despite the ability of the two authors, I feel that the book doesn't really have much new that its trying to say. While it makes sense that the brothers would hide this book for so many years, given the critical view that they cast on the development of the Soviet Union after WWII, I feel that the subject might have been too close for the brothers. The characters lack depth, and the 'shocking' comparisons and political commentary feel almost quaint reading it in 2023. The novel lacks the compassion and humanism that I found in Roadside Picnic and Hard to be a God, both of which cover similar subjects with more nuance and compassion for the human condition.
While those novels confront the struggles that we all deal with and the failures of society or ideology to protect us, and questions the ethics of inaction or the moral cost of surviving, The Doomed City creates a moral void for the character and treats it as maturation when he gives up any moral framework he might have had. He is presented at his most foolish when he is fully dedicated to a communist frame of mind, being both incredibly judgemental of others morality or intelligence as well as foolishly naive about the cities material conditions and leadership, and the novel follows him as he gradually falls further and further into authoritarian and reactionary thinking, until eventually finding himself believing in nothing more than the perpetuation of human culture and belief above all else, which is treated as the more enlightened view.
Nobody in this book has any real level of depth to them, or any real self awareness. They exist as caricatures of different modes of political or philosophical thought, but in a way that feels too didactic to really provoke much thought. I don't find any of the situations that they find themselves in or their responses to be engaging.
I'm going to read their other books, obviously, even if this one left me cold.
2 or 3 out of 10.