Hard to be a God Author:Arkadi Strugatski, Boris Strugatski Theodore Sturgeon writes of HARD TO BE A GOD in the New York Times: — "This is an enjoyable, exciting and gratifying novel. My personal penchant in s-f is more its fiction than its science. The story the Strugatski brothers have to tell is profligate and wildly generous. Beginning with a rather Marxist premise (that history must follow a course t... more »hrough feudalism to some sort of democracy before the brown-shirt, black-shirt, Red Guard phenomenon can occur) we have a situation in which the bad guys turn up at the wrong time--in the feudal stage. What to do, if you are an observer sent from a distant Earth to observe, to save what is worth saving, but not to interfere?
"Lord Rumata is the masquerading Earthman, a most noble nobleman, a dueler, a brawler if necessary, who is never defeated but never kills. Rumata is a man full of doubts and passions and compassions, and you'll remember him for a long, long time."« less