![]() ![]() ![]() The City exists outside of the normal space and time of Earth. The Doomed City, however, is really their masterwork: a dense and meticulous commentary on society through the lens of a supernatural city. It is no surprise that The Doomed City is a magnificent novel, considering its authors also wrote the incredible science fiction story Roadside Picnic, of which I’ve blogged before. It is an intricate, elegant, and haunting combination of allegory, science fiction, and horror that will stay with you long after finishing. Such is the mixture of surreality and absurdity that characterizes The Doomed City, the brilliant 1972 novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, only published in English for the first time this year. What can be done about them? Very little, apparently: after attempts to kill or capture them fails, the government institutes a policy of “adopting” a baboon and caring for it. They appear without warning at the garbage dump by the hundreds, rapidly fanning out through the rest of the city and wreaking havoc wherever they go. The first indication that something is seriously wrong in the city is the arrival of the baboons. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |