Noon Universe - Novels

Novels

These novels by the Strugatsky brothers are set in the Noon Universe (listed chronologically):

• Noon: 22nd Century (Полдень. XXII век)
• Escape Attempt (Попытка к бегству)
• Far Rainbow (Далекая Радуга)
• Hard to Be a God (Трудно быть богом)
• Disquiet (Беспокойство) - the initial variant of the Snail on the Slope (Улитка на склоне)
• Prisoners of Power (Обитаемый остров)
• Space Mowgli (Малыш)
• The Kid from Hell (Парень из преисподней)
• Beetle in the Anthill (Жук в муравейнике)
• The Time Wanderers (Волны гасят ветер)

There are loose connections of early stories The Land of Crimson Clouds ("Страна багровых туч"), The Way to Amalthea ("Путь на Амальтею"), Space Apprentice ("Стажеры"), The Final Circle of Paradise (through Ivan Zhilin), Ispytanie SKIBR, Chastnye predpolozheniya, mainly through Bykov's family.

In the early 1990s, the Strugatsky brothers began writing what they intended to be a final Noon Universe novel. It would have tied up some of the plot threads that were left unresolved in previous novels. However, following the death of Arkady Strugatsky, the surviving brother, Boris, felt that he could not bring himself to finish the novel. The book should have been named White Ferz (Russian: "Белый Ферзь"). "Ferz" or "Vizier" is the Russian term for a Queen in chess. Strugatsky brothers planned the book to be direct sequel of Prisoners of Power and follow the story of infiltration of the progressor Maxim Kammerer into the elite of the Island Empire.

In the late 1990s, a collection of fiction by notable Russian scifi writers, titled The Time of the Apprentices, was published in Russia (with an endorsement of Boris Strugatsky). The pieces in the collection build upon Strugatskys' ideas and works, and many of them are set in the Noon Universe. The same period saw the re-release of all Noon Universe novels as part of the Worlds of Strugasky Brothers series. This re-release is notable for introductory articles written by literary critics from the perspective of Noon Universe historians who were looking back on the events of the said novels several decades later.