I really appreciate the almost academic flavour you bring to critiquing the SF genre. If other SF channels are the rebellious student then you're the professor!
Thanks Paul. I have to say that I think most of the other SF youtubers are the conservative students while I'm the professorial rebel! It takes a long time and a lot of reading to approach expertise and the most important factors are a sense of context and history, which many SF YTers simply do not have- they're either too young, too little read an still learning their way (which is fine, good for them) and not steeped enough (yet) in the genre (the over-use of 'Sci-Fi' is in itself an indicator of this, I feel. Appreciate your comments.
Pleasure. Few people get beyond the obvious Strgatsky Bros books and film, but this is gradually changing. One of my more recent videos -from earlier this year takes a critical look at 'Monday Begins On Saturday'....
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Will check that out. The only danger knowing you & Bookpilled (I appreciate him for his eloquent personal take, and feel for prose, you for in-depth knowledge) on YT is that it distracts from time reading! But appreciate having compass and map …
@@darklingeraeld-ridge7946 I think Matt and I have different favourites, perhaps and I think Matt is yet to read a number of the more obscure books such as 'Lame Fate'/'Ugly Swans', but we have a lot of overlapping tastes.
There's a lot of very interesting SF films coming out of Russia. A few years ago I got the DVD of one, 'Heroes', about a group of genetically engineered superheroes fighting an evil supervillain trying to take over Russia and the world as part of a suppressed KGB plot. It's very like western superhero movies, with the exception that the final battle is in Moscow, rather than New York or Los Angeles.
Watched this this morning, went out book shopping and found Roadside Picnic at a library sale. Been on the look for it for over a year. Funny how this works.
Great video! Packed with valuable information. 'Day of the Oprichnik' by Vladimir Sorokin is sort of SF too, but is almost prophetic in its descriptions of what post-Communist Russia would look like. Brutal book in many ways. Well worth reading.
Wonderful video, as always. As a Strugatsky enthusiast I have a SFBC edition that has both Hard To Be A God and Roadside Picnic in one volume. Recently I was able to get a copy of Lame Fate/Ugly Swans, the same edition you showed, and I was able to acquire a copy of Best of Soviet SF/ Noon: 22nd Century for about $50, which my limit for a good used book. It seems to be a fix up of short stories put together as a novel, and appears to be the Strugatsky brothers take on space opera. Also thanks for the movie tie-in tips. I didn't know that there was another earlier film of HTBAG or the Ugly Swan film. I definitely will check those out. See you in the Zone.
Great stuff as usual, Stephen! I finished Roadside Picnic yesterday and absolutely loved it, struggled to put it down and one of the best books I've read for ages. I wish I'd discovered the brothers back in the 90's when I was reading Lem. I finally caught up with Stalker a year or two ago and was much impressed, but not having done my homework I didn't realise there was a book. I now have a pile of Strugatsky books on the TBR pile now. There's something about the strange, weird, unknowable and implacable toxicity of alien contact that is really interesting and terrifying. Lovecraft's Colour out of Space really disturbed me with the knowledge that the effects continue, and creep on and can't be stopped. I thought the same of the film Monsters, and in its own way, Kubrick/Clarke's monolith (who asked for enlightenment?). You can put the walls up, but the walls won't hold. Our world is slowly turning into theirs. We've all been changed, whether we know it or not and will never been the same again. Cosmic horror!
The Strugatskys are pretty special, though my feeling is there are some uneven translations. 'Hard To Be A God', 'Prisoners of Power' (aka 'The Inhabited Island'), 'The Final Circle of Paradise' and 'Lame Fate/Ugly Swans' are my favourites.
Great stuff Stephen! I asked you a while back about foreign authors such as Lem / the Strugatskys and how previously I've struggled with some of their work but you have inspired me to give them another go!!
Really enjoyed this video, I've read Roadside Pinic and have added a few more books to my TBR, the Lord Darcy books sound really interesting as well, not heard of them before so thanks for the heads up.
Cheers Nick - the Darcy stories are very different to the Strugatsky works, but the meshing of SF & Crime elements in what are essentially Fantasy is elegant and interesting.
Great video. I had recently re-read Roadside Picnic (the new translation by Olena Bormashenko, Chicago Review Press) and loved it. My Collier Best of Soviet SF collection sorely lacks many of your featured books, so it looks like a trip to the bookshop is in order.
Love the Strugatskys. Wondering if you got around to the 'One Billion Years' one - I love those new Penguin SF covers - they strike me as supremely iconic and the choices are really interesting as well. Any others in that series you might recommend? I have read a few but they are some damn pretty, I may need to get extra copies.
Yes, a lovely series. I've read the Strugatsky one under another title, I think it was 'Definitely Maybe' (ironically), some years ago. 'Ice' by Kavan is a must have, but there are nicer editions out there (Peter Owen hardcover, USA Penguin black classic, UK Penguin Modern Classic- see my 'Top 10 SF to Read In Winter' video. The Kobo Abe one is essential as he could write anything and is brilliant- he wrote the first full length SF novel published in Japan, arguably. The Sheckley ones are must haves. 'Hair Carpet Weavers' is wild and 'Trafalgar' is good too. ...and the Stapledon.
I have no idea how Google does it but I just finished Hard to be a God,l only 5 minutes ago and this is the top of my recommended! I swear I haven’t said the name of this book out loud! ….. The book was great btw I loved it.
I do like Tarkovsky's adaptation of 'Solaris', but I never got on with his adaptation of 'Stalker'. I felt it really needed a few special effects to show that the dangers they were facing in the Zone were real. As it was, it reminded me a little too much of playing games as a child fighting imaginary monsters. I feel it needs a remake that's closer to the book and makes it a bit more like Blade Runner as an outlaw hero in a ruined landscape. Regarding 'Hard To Be A God', this doesn't appeal to me because I fundamentally disagree with its interpretation of the Middle Ages. It's very much based on the myth that we all grew up with that the Roman Catholic church suppressed science and learning in the Middle Ages. Except no historian of science actually believes it. Yes, there are instances of strain, but there have been a plethora of books by historians of science showing that, on the contrary, the Middle Ages were a time of scientific and technological exploration. See book's such as 'The Medieval Machine, A.C. Crombie's two volume work, 'Science in the Middle Ages', and James Hannan's 'God's Philosophers'. Some historians are even talking about a medieval 'Scientific Revolution'. 'Hard To Be A God' is pretty much the image of the Middle Ages stifled by religion as it would be presented in Soviet Museums of Atheism. Which I guess would have been the required line from every Soviet author writing about such things at the time.
I’ve read Roadside Picnic (many years after seeing Stalker), Hard to be a God and Monday Starts on Saturday. I really enjoyed the first two but the third didn’t appeal to me as much-too episodic maybe-but fantastic cover art. I’ve put off reading their other work but maybe I’ll reconsider based on your recommendations.
Excellent video, and as always it makes me want to read more! I read and liked Roadside Picnic years ago but didn't go any further. At the time I don't know if there were any other Strugatsky books in print; the SF Masterworks editions of their other novels came later. I bought a well-browned but very cheap 1980s paperback of The Time Wanderers a few months ago - that one doesn't seem to have received any recent reprints.
Time Wanderers was recently reissued by Chicago Review Press in a new translation as The Waves Extinguish the Wind. Beetle in the Anthill was reissued at the same time.
From what I recall, yes- I haven't read it in decades. I actually have a copy of the slipcased limited edition coming in the post to me courtesy of Kerosina main man Jim Goddard, so I'll be rereading it at some point and there'll be a brief Kerosina followup clip...
Great video .Many subversive literature has been slipped in under the radar as fantasy , children stories ( Lewis Carol ) . Much to take in .So much to read , watch and enjoy...so little time . I have Road side and "Snail on the Slope " The Zones are like the alliens garbage dump . A big big fan of The Lord Darcy books . Ok no argument from me it is SF 😏👍. Thank you . Ps love the start of the vid where you comes out of tunnel out of the light...eyes ( shades ) glowing red...😉 . Ps Time for some LeGuin . Love her fantasy . And the sf The lathe of haven . Dont like " 5th element "? Ok you are forgiven . Lol .
I've only read Roadside Picnic, but have owned Hard to Be a God in a Daw paperback for many years and been unable to get through it. I think it is because of the translation which I have heard is not as good as later editions. I have been buying Masterworks editions of Stugatski books recently but have not yet started them, and you have prompted me to do so.
I had a stack of Strugatsky books signed by them when they attended to Worldcon in Brighton, my own copies of the American Macmillan hardcover editions which had been widely available in the London remainder shops. I eventually sold them. That was a mistake. Over the last couple of years I've been putting a set together again. I was selling books there, did you buy anything from me? Doris Lessjng looked after my tables for about forty minutes, she was glad to get out of the crowd and sit down for a while.
The newer film of Hard to be a God should come with some kind of warning. It's not for people who don't like body fluids. It's incredible, but I agree, the older version despite looking a bit dated in places is more fun, it reminds me of the conan movie. I loved Sputnik. Glad you didn't find a meat grinder on your explorations :-) Just read The Doomed City and really liked it.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I really enjoyed Dr Adder btw. Never would have discovered that without your recommendation so Thank You and keep up the good work! 😃
@@CMZPICTURES -My pleasure- 'Dr Adder' certainly is a unique reading experience, highlighting directly to me how the work of William Burroughs fed back into SF after he himself drew material from it.
That's interesting - I've read 'Definitely Maybe' but not made the connection for as I said, not read that Penguin yet, so I'll take a closer look at it now...thanx for the headsup!
I really appreciate the almost academic flavour you bring to critiquing the SF genre. If other SF channels are the rebellious student then you're the professor!
Thanks Paul. I have to say that I think most of the other SF youtubers are the conservative students while I'm the professorial rebel! It takes a long time and a lot of reading to approach expertise and the most important factors are a sense of context and history, which many SF YTers simply do not have- they're either too young, too little read an still learning their way (which is fine, good for them) and not steeped enough (yet) in the genre (the over-use of 'Sci-Fi' is in itself an indicator of this, I feel. Appreciate your comments.
Excellent, very helpful vid, only just found. Many thanks.
Pleasure. Few people get beyond the obvious Strgatsky Bros books and film, but this is gradually changing. One of my more recent videos -from earlier this year takes a critical look at 'Monday Begins On Saturday'....
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Will check that out. The only danger knowing you & Bookpilled (I appreciate him for his eloquent personal take, and feel for prose, you for in-depth knowledge) on YT is that it distracts from time reading! But appreciate having compass and map …
@@darklingeraeld-ridge7946 I think Matt and I have different favourites, perhaps and I think Matt is yet to read a number of the more obscure books such as 'Lame Fate'/'Ugly Swans', but we have a lot of overlapping tastes.
There's a lot of very interesting SF films coming out of Russia. A few years ago I got the DVD of one, 'Heroes', about a group of genetically engineered superheroes fighting an evil supervillain trying to take over Russia and the world as part of a suppressed KGB plot. It's very like western superhero movies, with the exception that the final battle is in Moscow, rather than New York or Los Angeles.
Watched this this morning, went out book shopping and found Roadside Picnic at a library sale. Been on the look for it for over a year. Funny how this works.
Yep, it goes that way sometimes, right? Be interested to see what you think of it in future, Matt- have a good day, man.
I think that when you finish it, you will, kind of, get the glimpse of the answer for why it happened just now.
Great video! Packed with valuable information.
'Day of the Oprichnik' by Vladimir Sorokin is sort of SF too, but is almost prophetic in its descriptions of what post-Communist Russia would look like. Brutal book in many ways. Well worth reading.
Yes, know it. Penguin Modern Classic.
M John Harrison's Nova Swing, the second volume of the Light trilogy, is inspired in part by Roadside Picnic.
Wonderful video, as always. As a Strugatsky enthusiast I have a SFBC edition that has both Hard To Be A God and Roadside Picnic in one volume. Recently I was able to get a copy of Lame Fate/Ugly Swans, the same edition you showed, and I was able to acquire a copy of Best of Soviet SF/ Noon: 22nd Century for about $50, which my limit for a good used book. It seems to be a fix up of short stories put together as a novel, and appears to be the Strugatsky brothers take on space opera. Also thanks for the movie tie-in tips. I didn't know that there was another earlier film of HTBAG or the Ugly Swan film. I definitely will check those out. See you in the Zone.
Thanks Daniel....just watch out for those magnetic anomalies!
Great stuff as usual, Stephen! I finished Roadside Picnic yesterday and absolutely loved it, struggled to put it down and one of the best books I've read for ages. I wish I'd discovered the brothers back in the 90's when I was reading Lem. I finally caught up with Stalker a year or two ago and was much impressed, but not having done my homework I didn't realise there was a book. I now have a pile of Strugatsky books on the TBR pile now. There's something about the strange, weird, unknowable and implacable toxicity of alien contact that is really interesting and terrifying. Lovecraft's Colour out of Space really disturbed me with the knowledge that the effects continue, and creep on and can't be stopped. I thought the same of the film Monsters, and in its own way, Kubrick/Clarke's monolith (who asked for enlightenment?). You can put the walls up, but the walls won't hold. Our world is slowly turning into theirs. We've all been changed, whether we know it or not and will never been the same again. Cosmic horror!
The Strugatskys are pretty special, though my feeling is there are some uneven translations. 'Hard To Be A God', 'Prisoners of Power' (aka 'The Inhabited Island'), 'The Final Circle of Paradise' and 'Lame Fate/Ugly Swans' are my favourites.
Great stuff Stephen! I asked you a while back about foreign authors such as Lem / the Strugatskys and how previously I've struggled with some of their work but you have inspired me to give them another go!!
Really enjoyed this video, I've read Roadside Pinic and have added a few more books to my TBR, the Lord Darcy books sound really interesting as well, not heard of them before so thanks for the heads up.
Cheers Nick - the Darcy stories are very different to the Strugatsky works, but the meshing of SF & Crime elements in what are essentially Fantasy is elegant and interesting.
Great video. I had recently re-read Roadside Picnic (the new translation by Olena Bormashenko, Chicago Review Press) and loved it. My Collier Best of Soviet SF collection sorely lacks many of your featured books, so it looks like a trip to the bookshop is in order.
I need to read the new translation, actually, good excuse to buy the book again...
Love the Strugatskys. Wondering if you got around to the 'One Billion Years' one - I love those new Penguin SF covers - they strike me as supremely iconic and the choices are really interesting as well. Any others in that series you might recommend? I have read a few but they are some damn pretty, I may need to get extra copies.
Yes, a lovely series. I've read the Strugatsky one under another title, I think it was 'Definitely Maybe' (ironically), some years ago. 'Ice' by Kavan is a must have, but there are nicer editions out there (Peter Owen hardcover, USA Penguin black classic, UK Penguin Modern Classic- see my 'Top 10 SF to Read In Winter' video. The Kobo Abe one is essential as he could write anything and is brilliant- he wrote the first full length SF novel published in Japan, arguably. The Sheckley ones are must haves. 'Hair Carpet Weavers' is wild and 'Trafalgar' is good too. ...and the Stapledon.
I hope the test ain't on that black swan book....that was confusing!!😂 I have Roadside Picnic winging its way to me now.....
Make sure you tackle 'Hard To Be A God'- the Strugaskys are in danger of there being an over-emphasis on 'Roadside', good as it is.
I have no idea how Google does it but I just finished Hard to be a God,l only 5 minutes ago and this is the top of my recommended! I swear I haven’t said the name of this book out loud! ….. The book was great btw I loved it.
Yes, it's a cracker and underrated compared to 'Roadside Picnic', I feel. Glad you liked it.
I do like Tarkovsky's adaptation of 'Solaris', but I never got on with his adaptation of 'Stalker'. I felt it really needed a few special effects to show that the dangers they were facing in the Zone were real. As it was, it reminded me a little too much of playing games as a child fighting imaginary monsters. I feel it needs a remake that's closer to the book and makes it a bit more like Blade Runner as an outlaw hero in a ruined landscape.
Regarding 'Hard To Be A God', this doesn't appeal to me because I fundamentally disagree with its interpretation of the Middle Ages. It's very much based on the myth that we all grew up with that the Roman Catholic church suppressed science and learning in the Middle Ages. Except no historian of science actually believes it. Yes, there are instances of strain, but there have been a plethora of books by historians of science showing that, on the contrary, the Middle Ages were a time of scientific and technological exploration. See book's such as 'The Medieval Machine, A.C.
Crombie's two volume work, 'Science in the Middle Ages', and James Hannan's 'God's Philosophers'. Some historians are even talking about a medieval 'Scientific Revolution'. 'Hard To Be A God' is pretty much the image of the Middle Ages stifled by religion as it would be presented in Soviet Museums of Atheism. Which I guess would have been the required line from every Soviet author writing about such things at the time.
There’s a movie adaptation of The Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel/Inn from 1979, as well.
Yes, I'm aware of it but not seen it. Something I must remedy...
I’ve read Roadside Picnic (many years after seeing Stalker), Hard to be a God and Monday Starts on Saturday. I really enjoyed the first two but the third didn’t appeal to me as much-too episodic maybe-but fantastic cover art. I’ve put off reading their other work but maybe I’ll reconsider based on your recommendations.
It's not one of my faves, I agree. I prefer their more straight-ahead work. The Fabular stuff I find more self-indulgent and less accomplished.
Excellent video, and as always it makes me want to read more! I read and liked Roadside Picnic years ago but didn't go any further. At the time I don't know if there were any other Strugatsky books in print; the SF Masterworks editions of their other novels came later. I bought a well-browned but very cheap 1980s paperback of The Time Wanderers a few months ago - that one doesn't seem to have received any recent reprints.
Yep, that's a scarce one - good score!
Time Wanderers was recently reissued by Chicago Review Press in a new translation as The Waves Extinguish the Wind. Beetle in the Anthill was reissued at the same time.
Wasn't Cracken at Critical a couple of novellas embedded in a framing device to create a totally new novel?
From what I recall, yes- I haven't read it in decades. I actually have a copy of the slipcased limited edition coming in the post to me courtesy of Kerosina main man Jim Goddard, so I'll be rereading it at some point and there'll be a brief Kerosina followup clip...
Great video .Many subversive literature has been slipped in under the radar as fantasy , children stories ( Lewis Carol ) . Much to take in .So much to read , watch and enjoy...so little time . I have Road side and "Snail on the Slope " The Zones are like the alliens garbage dump . A big big fan of The Lord Darcy books . Ok no argument from me it is SF 😏👍. Thank you . Ps love the start of the vid where you comes out of tunnel out of the light...eyes ( shades ) glowing red...😉 . Ps Time for some LeGuin . Love her fantasy . And the sf The lathe of haven . Dont like " 5th element "? Ok you are forgiven . Lol .
Thanks Sylvan!
I've only read Roadside Picnic, but have owned Hard to Be a God in a Daw paperback for many years and been unable to get through it. I think it is because of the translation which I have heard is not as good as later editions. I have been buying Masterworks editions of Stugatski books recently but have not yet started them, and you have prompted me to do so.
Well as I say, there a mixed bunch, but HTBAG and 'Inhabited Island' are my faves, hope you like them in Masterworks!
I had a stack of Strugatsky books signed by them when they attended to Worldcon in Brighton, my own copies of the American Macmillan hardcover editions which had been widely available in the London remainder shops. I eventually sold them. That was a mistake. Over the last couple of years I've been putting a set together again.
I was selling books there, did you buy anything from me? Doris Lessjng looked after my tables for about forty minutes, she was glad to get out of the crowd and sit down for a while.
I bought quite a bit there, so it's very possible I bought something from you, Jim!
The newer film of Hard to be a God should come with some kind of warning. It's not for people who don't like body fluids. It's incredible, but I agree, the older version despite looking a bit dated in places is more fun, it reminds me of the conan movie. I loved Sputnik. Glad you didn't find a meat grinder on your explorations :-) Just read The Doomed City and really liked it.
Agreed. It's a bit hard to take at times...yep, 'Sputnik' is fab, isn't it?
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I really enjoyed Dr Adder btw. Never would have discovered that without your recommendation so Thank You and keep up the good work! 😃
@@CMZPICTURES -My pleasure- 'Dr Adder' certainly is a unique reading experience, highlighting directly to me how the work of William Burroughs fed back into SF after he himself drew material from it.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I've not read any Burroughs. I feel like I should address that, I've no idea where to start though :-)
@@CMZPICTURES -check this out: ruclips.net/video/RDeGSeJ4QO4/видео.html
My copy of One Billion Years to the End of the World claims to be a repackaging of 1978's Definitely Maybe on the copyright page.
That's interesting - I've read 'Definitely Maybe' but not made the connection for as I said, not read that Penguin yet, so I'll take a closer look at it now...thanx for the headsup!