Menetrend szerinti űrjáratok? Elhiszem, akár holnaptól. Vákuumhegesztők a Jupiteren? Miért is ne, van az a pénz. Hajtóvadászat óriáspiócák után a Marson? Nem zárhatjuk ki, lehet, a dögök eddig végig a szondák háta mögött bujkáltak. De hogy a nemzetközi űrállomáson a kapitalista kocsmában van pia, a szocialista kocsmában meg csupa absztinens ül – hát ne etess, Sztrugackij testvér…

Amúgy hangulatos könyv ez a kozmosz pionírjairól, akik vérrel és verejtékkel fizetnek azért, hogy feltérképezzék a jövőnek a Naprendszert. (Ennél tovább nem mert akkor még szárnyalni a fantázia.) Akad benne jó pár megfejtetlen titok (megfejtetlenek is maradnak, de ez nekem speciel tetszett), és egy mesteri végkifejlet. Tulajdonképpen két alapkonfliktusra lebontható az egész regény: 1.) jaj, mi régi úttörők hogy megöregedtünk… basszus, lassan át kell adni helyünk a fiatalságnak… 2.) azt a fránya kapitalizmust annyira megfertőzte már az individualizmus meg a pénzsóvárság, hogy már csak az alkoholizmusban találnak vigaszt – bezzeg a szocializmusban a munka részegít! Sajnos túl gyakran bele is feledkeznek mindenféle ideológiai vitába a szocialista munkamorálról – ami szerintem amúgy is olyan, mint az unikornis vagy a kereszténydemokrata szavazó: szoktak ugyan hivatkozni rá, de én nem vagyok biztos a létezésében. Értem én, ez társadalombírálat akar lenni, de szerintem az nem társadalombírálat, amikor a másik rendszert ekézzük – az sokkal inkább pártpropaganda. Ráadásul ettől a sok dumától olyan érzésem volt, mintha az Űrgammák* sorozat valamelyik részét látnám: ülnek a srácok az irányítótoronyban, és kommentálják, miképpen robbant fel az aszteroida, hogyan lógtak meg az űrkalózoktól, satöbbi, a néző meg bízza magát a képzeletére. Félreértés ne essék, ez a kisköltségvetés-feeling tud nagyon jól állni egy műnek (pont Sztrugackijék maxolták ki a műfajt a Piknik az árokparton-nal, ami a sejtetés magasiskolája), de ebben az esetben elég sutának éreztem. Szóval Sztrugackijék tudnak ennél jobbat is.

* Emlékszik erre a méltán megboldogult sorozatra valaki? Tekinthető még a magyar kulturális közkincs részének? Rémlik Szulák Andrea, a magyar televíziózás egyik legdémonibb főgonosza, ahogy Maria Callasba oltott Darth Vaderként elénekli az ikonikus főcímdalt? ( )

review of
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky's Space Apprentice
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 4, 2015

I've often stated that my personal canon of Science Fiction writers is (in alphabetical order by last name:

Ballard, J. G.
Delany, Samuel R.
Dick, Philip K.
Jeury, Michel
Lem, Stanislav
Savchenko, Vladimir
Strugatsky Brothers

but that list is problematic b/c I've only found & read one thing each by Jeury & Savchenko. Then there're people whose work I've read more recently than those folks who almost make it to the list who may've made it to the list if I'd read their work earlier &/or in a different mood:

Bear, Greg
Brunner, John
Eagan, Greg
Kornbluth, C. M.
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Pohl, Frederik
Slonzewski, Joan
Tiptree, Jr, James (Sheldon, Alice)

but the whole thing's misleading b/c I don't necessarily like every work I've read by the above-listed authors & there're many authors some of whose works I like as much as some of the works of the authors listed above. In other words, forget about canonization, even my own.

& that brings me to Arkady & Boris Strugatsky's Space Apprentice. This is the 1st bk I've read by them that I didn't think was totally great. In the Introduction, written by Theodore Sturgeon in 1980, it's written:

"There are, naturally, cavils, if one looks for nits to pick. During the recent Voyager encounter with Saturn, it took nearly 90 minutes for commands to reach the vehicle, and the same interval for its pictures to return, a limitation which the authors overlook at their own convenience, presenting us with instantaneous communication to anywhere from anywhere." - p x

Another little cavil that Sturgeon didn't point out for the simple reason that he wrote 20 yrs before the 21st century is: "Do you know how many people there are on Earth, Yura? Four billion!" (p 72) Alas, the population's supposedly reached 7 billion as of this writing &, nah, we're still not sending people into outer space. Oopsie!

Sturgeon partially defends them by adding: "One must be quick to add, however, that for the time it was written, this book's conjectures are truly remarkable, especially the description of a close inspection of the Saturnian ring system." (p x) One might conclude from that that the bk was written in 1744 or some-such but it was 1st published in Russia in 1962 so I'm not really impressed.

Given the name, Space Apprentice, & it's subject matter, I hereby compare it to Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet (my review's here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3220256-space-cadet ). Space Apprentice has a bit of a Soviet ideological bone to pick, as I'll touch upon later, & it's interesting to see how Heinlein fares as their American 'ideological counterpart'. For one thing, Space Cadet was published in 1948, 14 yrs earlier than Space Apprentice, & it seems to me that it's a little more successful on the hard science end. For another thing, Heinlein is actually anti-racist & diplomatic. I quote from my review:

""Matt noticed two boys with swarthy, thin features who were wearing high, tight turbans, although dressed otherwise much like himself. Further down the walk he glimpsed a tall, handsome youth whose impassive face was shiny black." - p 7

"These are the Space Cadets. Heinlein recognizes that astronauts must be judged on merit alone if the promise of the future is to bear fruit."

Unfortunately, the country Heinlein 'represents' was far from Heinlein's future depiction of it at the time he was writing & has STILL got a long way to go. In the Strugatsky Brothers's future, communism was 'won out'. An American named Sam in a space colony is playing chess w/ a Russian & having an ideological debate. Sam is speaking 1st:

"["]Yes, yes, communism as an economic system is winning, that's obvious. Where are they now, the famous empires of the Morgans, Rockefellers, Krupps, and Mitsui, and Mitsubishi? They all went broke and they're all forgotten. There are just a few remnants left, like out Space Pearl, a solid establishment producing luxurious mattresses for an elite clientele...and even they must mask themselves in slogans of general social consciousness. Check again. And several million stubborn hotel owners, real estate agents, and grim craftsmen, they're all doomed too. They're surviving only because both Americas still have currency. But here you are at a dead end. There is a power that even you cannot overcome—I mean philistinism, the obliqueness of the petty person. The middle-class type cannot be conquered with might because it would have to be exterminated physically to do so. And it can't be conquered by ideas, because the bourgeoisie is organically incapable of absorbing ideas." ""Have you ever been in any communist states, Sam?"

""I was, and I saw philistines there."

""You're right, Sam. We still have them, too, for now, and you've noticed them. But you didn't notice that we have many fewer than you do, and that they have a low profile. We don't have rampant philistinism, Sam. In a generation or two, they'll be gone completely.""

[..]

""You say in two generations? How about in twenty thousand generations? Take off your rose-colored glasses, Bela! They're all around you, these petty people.["]"

[..]

"["]Man is cattle by nature. Give him a filled food trough, no worse than his neighbor's, let him stuff his belly, and give him the opportunity to laugh once a day over some simple-minded show. You're going to say, 'We can offer him more.' But what does he need more for? He'll reply, 'Mind your own business.' A petty, small-minded, indifferent head of cattle."" - pp 135-136

Unfortunately, I'm more in agreement w/ the cynical capitalist than I am w/ the hopeful communist here. In my personal experience, all-too-many people think no further than their own personal comfort, most people aren't visionaries. Even more unfortunately, the people who are visionaries aren't necessarily envisioning something that's ultimately good for humanity-in-general. Dictators throughout the ages have been visionaries, or, at least, their kissin' cousins, megalomaniacs, & their 'visions' usually involve genocide somewhere along the way. In the Strugatsky novel, tho, Sam is an undercover agent, a saboteur of sorts:

""I'm the inspector general from IACC," he said. "The name is Yurkovsky."

"Bela rose. The engineer also stood up respectfully. A huge tanned man in a baggy jumpsuit came in behind Yurkovsky. His glance skimmed Bela and rested on the engineer.

""Please excuse me," the engineer said and left. The door shut behind him. After taking a few steps down the corridor, the engineer stopped and whistled thoughtfully. Then he took out a cigarette and lit it. So, he thought, the ideological battle on Bamberga is entering a new phase. We'll have to take measures immediately." - pp 138-139

The visiting inspector tries to talk some sense into the capitalism-ensnared workers:

"["]Using the demands for these stones, the company is getting rich."

""And so are we," someone shouted from the crowd.

""And so are you," Yurkovsky agreed. "But here's the point, in the eight years that the company has existed on Bamberga, close to two thousand men have completed three-year work contracts. Do you know how many of the ones who returned are still alive? less than five hundred. The average life span of a returned worker is under two years.["]" - p 147

Even tho I don't think this is one of the Strugatsky Brothers's best bks, they still address subjects like the above a bit more than many others. Then there's this exchange between a retired astronaut & his ex-wife:

"["]You've worked your whole life. You've developed your intelligence all your life, bypassing simple earthly pleasures."

""I never bypassed earthly pleasures," Dauge said. "I enjoyed them too much, I fear."

""Let's not argue," she said. "From my point of view, you did. And I spent my life extinguishing my intelligence. I spent my whole life nurturing my base instincts. And which of us is happier now?"

"I am, of course," Dauge said.

"She looked him over frankly and laughed. "No," she said. "I am! At best we are both equally unhappy.["]" - p 9

Vision vs hedonism are certainly NOT mutually exclusive in my bk. I like that there's so much class consciousness, it becomes Soviet humor:

""Yes, monsieur," the administrator said, folding her hands on the desk.

"Yura laughed. "You see, I'm not a monsieur," he said. "I'm a plain Soviet comrade."

"The administrator also laughed. "To tell the truht, I thought so. But I didn't want to risk it. We get foreigners here who get very upset when they're called comrades."

""Weirdos," Yura said." - p 16

"Weirdos"! That's funny. It's touches like that & the following that 'saved' this bk for me:

"Zhilin didn't reply. He stood Yura in front of him, stepped back one step, and asked in a horrible voice, "Do you drink vodka?"

""No," Yura replied in fright.

""Do you believe in God?"

""No."

""A true interplanetary soul!" Zhilin said in satisfaction. "When we get on the Takhmasib I'll let you kiss the starter key.""

Those were the days. Wd Pussy Riot have been arrested then? Yeah, probably.. but it wd've been for some other stupid reason. Yep, those were the days — the attitude toward radiation was, perhaps, a bit 'lax'? Well, maybe not 'lax' but maybe in a somewhat infantile stage:

""I'm asking you, what is this?" Yurkovsky said.

""Gamma-radiophage," Kostya explained. He turned to Yura. "Eat up, young man," he said. "You just received four roentgens, and you have to do something about it."

""Yes," Yurkovsky said, "that's true."" - p 122

"Well, what can I do with him, Bela thought. Convince him that drinking is bad for him? He knows that himself. When he gets up, he'll stay in the mine fourteen hours a day to make up his losses, and when he gets back to Earth, he'll have black radiation paralysis and he'll never have children, or if he does, they'll be deformed." - p 134

I'm reminded of having recently witnessed filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow's K-19, The Widowmaker supposedly based on a real Soviet nuclear sub in 1961 (just the yr before this bk) that was rushed thru in its production b/s of a threat from US nuclear subs. The result being a nuclear accident in wch the crew suffered horribly & many died young. I'm further reminded of Frederik Pohl's bk Chernobyl w/ its attribution of disaster cause being the rushing thru of bad concrete to meet quota. Then again, let's not forget 3 Mile Island: https://youtu.be/WFnEj9c35fE .

Arkady Strugatsky was a specialist in Japanese literature who translated such works into Russian. Hence, I speculate that this is his touch:

"Mikhail Antonovich, just off duty, climbed into Bykov's chair with a sigh to read The Tale of Genji" - p 165

"He was picturing, of course, the distant hero in strange garb and strange coif, with an unneeded sword in his belt, slender and mocking, a Japanese Don Juan—just as he had appeared from the pen of the woman genius—in a luxurious and filthy Japanese palace, setting out to travel invisibly across the world until translators of genius would be found for him. And Mikhail Antonovich sees him now as though there was no gap of nine centuries and a billion and one-half kilometers between them" - p 166

Now, if The Tale of Genji was written in the early years of the 11th century & this story is taking place 9 centuries later that wd put it in the early yrs of the 20th century & NOT the 21st century as I think was intended. Whatever.

The Strugatskys don't spare us depictions of human nastiness, regardless of how positivist their politics sometimes are:

""Who are you?" the blond man asked.

""I..." Yura said, "I'm from the Takhmasib."

""Ah," the man said with disgust. "Another favorite?"" - p 179

"["]Yes, disgusting. I didn't expect this of you young people. How easy it was to make you revert to your prehistoric condition, to put you on all fours—three years, one glory-hungry maniac, and one provincial intriguer. And you bent over, turned into animals, lost your human image. Young, merry, honest people...you should be ashamed of yourselves!"" - p 190

Why are animals always getting such a bad rep? As far as I know there aren't "glory-hungry maniac"s OR "provincial intriguer"s among any animals other than humans. All in all, a good read, but I have to wonder whether it's the Soviet answer to Heinlein's Space Cadet w/ both 'suffering' a bit from oversimplifying the respective nationalistic dreams. ( )

I'd have to say that this is not one of the Strugatskys strongest novels. It is set in a reasonably near future in which mankind has established a limited number of scientific and commercial stations in the solar system. It follows a young man who at the last minute is added to the crew of the inspector general's ship, as it begins a tour of these stations, checking on the progress and management of each.

This is definitely more of a book about the psychology and social implications of space development, as opposed to action (although there is one fairly memorable action sequence during their stop on Mars). At this point much of the description of our solar system seems dated, but as I said, the book is more about the daunting psychological challenges faced by the individuals, and how they interact with each other. One chapter, a fairly heavy handed depiction of ugly capitalism run amok, might be problematic for readers who think that communism is inherently evil and capitalism is inherently good.

Even in what may be a lesser work, the Brothers Strugatsky once again provide plenty to think about. ( )