Customer Reviews

Prisoners of Power (Best of Soviet Science Fiction)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
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I recommend this book to everyone. I only want to say that the other reviews here give away some things from the book that you really ought to discover on your own, at the time that the authors planned for you to do. If you can, just take my word for it and read this book, read only the next review by a reader from Nashville, the others disclose too much. Of the great many sides of this excellent book is its enigma, it is a great detective story in a way where you're on the mission, along with the central character, to understand what's going on there. So it has action in it, it has philosophy, it deals with morals, freedom, responsibility. And it's full of imagination and unique perspective. After you've read the book, you can come back here and read the reviews, they're very good.

An excellent book for all times, cultures, and societies, "Prisoners of Power" (the original is called "The Inhabited Island") is about every person's right to be free and about the responsibilities that come with freedom. A hero from Utopian society finds himself in the world where he is nearly a Superman, but in this world he doesn't know the difference between good and evil, and a mistake in judgement can cost him more than his own life. This is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately, the English translation misses some finer points of the book. I can only hope that with the new version of the book, where the authors restored the changes made (I should say inflicted) by the Soviet censorship, English-speaking readers will get a translation that's closer to the spirit of the original.

I was Strugatsky reader since I was 9. And as a child, I discovered an interesting thing: authors use a fantastic factor to describe a fenomenon present in the everyday environment. Being marooned on the "Inhabited Island"(original title), like the chief character of this marvelous book, I can state under oath that an "irradiation" they invented in the contemporary society is rather irrelevant: people turn into robots all by themselves. Read this book and look around,- you won't regret it.

This book is the best one by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky I've read so far. It's both funny and exciting, and the natives idea of the world was especially worth considering. It wasn't really, really great though. I don't know why, but I didn't get stuck with it as I sometimes get with other books, so that I can stay up all night and read it for hours. Anyway, other than that it was nice.

Brother's Strugatsky's language is as pure as a spring water, so if you ever get chance to read anything by these authors you will open for yourself a completely 'NEW WORLD' , a world where you would never refuse to live in ! World of Space Exploration , World with so called 'progressors' people who traveled around the universe ...discovering , searching and helping other planets and civilizations out there in space.

So this book is one of these amazing, astonishing and just great book , it is a book about a world which was thought to be by its inhabitants 'turned upside down' ... (on earth if you watch a boat travel you will soon discover that it is disappearing into horizon , because our planet is spheroid ...but there on the planet where the story takes place the boat went up , and not down ) that it a story which you will always remember !!!! READ IT AND YOU WILL NEVER REGRET IT !

Hi, comming from former East-Germany I first read the Book there in a German Translation. The Title (a translation of the original title in russian) was "Inhabited Island". Like much of Soviet SF this Book concerns itself not with huge Space-Battles and the usual (quite enjoyable) fare we get these Day's. Here we find a Young man, an Explorer in a very unusal situation. Stranded (like Robinson Cruso - but his Island is inhabited) he find's himself in a strange society. He, a product of a idealised society which may be democratic, truely communist or just plainly just, find himself in what could have been the middle or latter part of the 20th Century. However, most of the people in this society are brainwashed by propaganda AND the use of electromagnetic waves have lost their ability to think critically. Maxim Kammerer (our hero) is drawn into the events. A force to be reconed with. We see him struggle to come to terms with old tolstoian dilemma - does your cause justify any kind of action? And just as all seems clear and as he knows the enemy and strikes hard for the freedom of these people to decide themselfes, he finds that sometimes you do not know who your enemies are and who are your friends. For the rest you have to read yourself. I rate this book at 9. But then I NEVER give 10 out of 10. There where two further books in which Maxim Kammerer plays a major part. I do not know the english titles, but search them out. And if you have read "Prisoners of Power/The Inhabited Island" read again 1984 from Orwell.

A young planetary explorer crash-lands on a planet whose atmosphere has such a high index of refraction that they cannot see the stars at all, and have no idea there is anything beyond their world. Therefore, the youing herop cannot explain where he's from without being considered either mad or a spy. So he must "do as the Romans." The endless war on this planet is perpetuated by the government's relentless behavorial control technique, using alternating broadcasts of radiation frequencies which instill either abject terror or mindless agression. This creates a pliable population and a responsive army, but what kin of life is it? Considering that this was written under Soviet rule, and the suggestion of governmental brainwashing was tantamount to treason, indeed, written while the Soviet government was busily (but secretly) beaming radiation at the American embassy, it is surprising that it was published at all. Perhaps the Soviet authorities were mollified by the book's ultimate irony, that when the young hero escapes these ruthless and brutal people to join the other side, he finds that the enemy is even worse! The Strugatskys (two brothers, a physicist and an economist by trades) offer a compellingly detailed and convincing picture of life in the future, yet avoid all the pitfalls of techno-babble, and create a work of fiction that can hold its own in any company. Great reading, and not strictly for the Science Fiction aficianadoes.

In this Strugatsky book, Maxim Kammerer is a 19-year-old explorer from a 23rd century idealic Earth who finds himself on a planet with quasi-20th century technology, but no democracy of freedom. Imagine a planet Earth in which only Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, and Communist China exist. That's where he lands.

This book is kind of an Aesop's fable in that the author's criticize their government without mentioning it by name, or, better yet, by making it look like they're criticizing other governments.

Good adventure, solid writing and characters, and an altogether interesting sci-fi story. The translation is kind of weak. This is the first book of the Progressor series, in which humans try to accelerate alien societies through their trial and tribulation times, into the utopian society humans have developed.

-- JJ Timmins

This might be not the best book Strugatzky wrote (The Picnic, 1000 years till the end of the world, Monday starts in Saturday...), but it is the beginning of thye "progessors" saga, the best thing Sci-fi. I've read Zelazny, Azimov, Simak, Lem, Windam... But maybe only Zelazny is a step close to Strugazky. It is not only the fantazsy they have... it's the way they describe the mankind, they way it goes, the mistakes we make. Look around, you will see how sad and small and how great we could be... It is not great to be powerful and good, the great is being the weaker and still be good... If you can find the book- read it and you will need more.

good communication about product, shipped quickly and book as described. Would buy from them again.