Arkadi & Boris Strugatski | Science Fiction

Hard To Be A God by Arkadi & Boris Strugatski

Name: Hard To Be A God by Arkadi & Boris Strugatski
Brand: Fehmerling Books
SKU: 7210040
Price: 14.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Hard To Be A God by Arkadi & Boris Strugatski

$14.00 USD

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Book Specifications

Format: Mass market paperback
Condition: Good
Publisher: Daw Books (1974)
Length: 205 pages
Genre: Science Fiction
LCCN: 72-10040

Condition Note: Lightly read copy with clean, crisp, unmarked pages and a tight binding. First Printing - November 1974.

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Ships within 1–2 business days. Carefully packaged for safe delivery.

An Undercover Earth Historian Battles a Medieval Anti-Intellectual Purge and the Agony of Non-Intervention

Operating undercover for Earth’s Institute of Experimental History, Anton lives on a distant human-inhabited planet arrested in a brutal, feudal dark age. Posing as the aristocratic, sword-fighting nobleman Don Rumata in the Kingdom of Arkanar, Anton is bound by a strict code of non-intervention: observe the planet's historical development, rescue key cultural figures when possible, but never kill or use advanced Terran technology to alter the society's trajectory.

Anton's detached mission deteriorates as the kingdom falls under the grip of Don Reba, a ruthless minister whose "Gray" stormtroopers launch a violent campaign to eradicate the realm's scholars, poets, inventors, and physicians. As Arkanar slides into religious tyranny and totalitarian terror, Anton struggles to smuggle targeted intellectuals to safety while protecting the woman he loves. Pushed past his psychological endurance, Anton must confront whether a civilized observer can maintain moral neutrality when faced with systematic slaughter.

Why You’ll Love This Book

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky craft a critique of fascism, anti-intellectual purges, and historical determinism. A foundational 1964 classic of speculative world-building and moral philosophy, this novel is essential reading for fans of the authors' Roadside Picnic, Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle.

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Very Good: Lightly read with minor shelf wear or light cover creasing. Pages are clean, crisp, and unmarked with a tight binding. (Our baseline standard for pre-loved books.)
Good: A well-loved reading copy with visible shelf wear or page aging, but fully intact and structurally sound.

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