The Noon Universe ( Russian term: "Мир Полудня" or "Мир Полдня" – "World of Noon"; also known as the “Wanderers’ Universe”) is a fictional future setting for a number of hard science fiction novels written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky . The universe is named after Noon: 22nd Century , chronologically the first novel from the series and referring to humanity reaching its noon in the 22nd century.
23-408: According to Arkady Strugatsky, the brothers at first did not make a conscious effort to create a fictional universe . Rather, they reused characters and settings from prior works whenever they found it convenient. It was only later that they began drawing on common themes and plot threads from various novels to create newer works. The victory of communism and the advance of technological progress on
46-645: A fictional universe may be a remote alien planet or galaxy with little apparent relationship to the real world (as in Star Wars ); in fantasy, it may be a greatly fictionalized or invented version of Earth's distant past or future (as in The Lord of the Rings ). In a 1970 article in CAPA-alpha , comics historian Don Markstein defined the fictional universe as meant to clarify the concept of fictional continuities. According to
69-469: A local civilization (even though it is not the Earth's one) commit just the same cruelties he saw in his time, that it causes a severe psychological crisis in him. Anton and Vadim decide that it's the best to leave the planet immediately. On arriving back to Earth, they discover that Saul has disappeared, leaving a short note, which partly explains who he was and that he wants to go back to continue his fight against
92-707: A planet that was not home to any sentient life before the arrival of Terran settlers. In the Noon Universe, Earth has never attempted to seize permanent control over any other civilization. There is the COMCON (COMmission for CONtacts) in charge of contacts with aliens and the secret service COMCON-2 for clandestine operations. The universe is populated by a number of sentient races. Some of them are humanoid , and others are so alien that humanity did not realise for decades that they were sentient. Several sentient races maintain diplomatic relations with Earth's society. Many planets in
115-424: Is hinted that they try to "progress" various sentient beings, including the human race. The following sentient species are depicted: Ark Megaforms (негуманоиды Ковчега), Garrotian Snails (слизни Гарроты), Golovans (Голованы, sentient dogs), Humans, Ludens (людены, who are superhumans), Leoniders (леонидяне) Tagorians (тагоряне) Wanderers (Странники, a superrace). Other possibly-sentient species that are mentioned in
138-465: Is notable being accompanied with introductory articles written by literary critics from the perspective of Noon Universe historians looking back on the events of the said novels several decades later, as well as with the excerpts of Boris Strugatsky's memoirs Comments on the Past [ ru ] . The setting is a future utopia that gets gradually deconstructed as the authors become disillusioned with
161-612: Is the Russian masculine term for the queen in chess . The Strugatsky brothers planned the book as a direct sequel of Prisoners of Power following the story of infiltration of the progressor Maxim Kammerer into the elite of the Island Empire . In the late 1990s, a series of fiction by notable Russian sci-fi writers, titled Time of Apprentices [ ru ] , was published in Russia with an endorsement of Boris Strugatsky. The pieces in
184-453: The Ring of Fire series , actively court canonical stimulus from fans, but gate and control the changes through a formalized process and the final say of the editor and universe creator . Escape Attempt Escape Attempt ( Russian : Попытка к бегству , romanized : Popytka k begstvu ) is a 1962 science fiction novel by Soviet writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky , set in
207-574: The Czech translator of the Strugatsky brothers' works (among others) and the biographer of the Strugatsky brothers Ant Skalandis [ ru ] consider the phenomenon of "progressorship" to be one of the major concepts introduced into the social science fiction . Progressorship is a considerable element in the novels Beetle in the Anthill in which the term was first introduced and The Waves Extinguish
230-466: The Earth of the Noon Universe has resulted in an overabundance of resources and eliminated the need for most types of manual labor. Mankind is capable of near-instantaneous interstellar travel. Earth's social organization is presumably communist and can be described as a highly technologically advanced anarchistic meritocracy . There is no state structure, no institutionalized coercion, no police etc., yet
253-668: The Noon Universe . The English translation was published in a single volume with the other Noon universe stories Space Mowgli and The Kid from Hell . The novel tells a story of two young men from Earth, Anton and Vadim , who decide to go for a trip to Pandora , but are persuaded rather to travel to an uncharted planet by a mysterious man whom they know Saul Repnin. Their choice is an unnamed planet in EN-7031 system, because that's where Gorbovsky and Bader predicted that Wanderers ' traces could be found. After landing successfully on
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#1732858134782276-530: The Soviet Union and move away from the "technological optimism... depicting a quasi- Marxist perfection" to address the failures of the Soviet society. In writing about the Noon Universe, the Strugatsky brothers have been argued to have created their own utopian ideology, or "amateur personal metaphysics ", that is based on the primacy of science like more modern view of transhumanism . Critic Ezra Glinter described
299-646: The Noon Universe are inhabited by races identical to humans in all but minor genetic differences. It has been speculated that they were humans who wound up on other worlds by the manipulations of the Wanderers (as Beetle in the Anthill shows, that is hardly unprecedented). The Wanderers are the most mysterious race in the Noon Universe. Technologically advanced and highly secretive, the Wanderers are suspected of manipulating sentient beings throughout Noon Universe for their own purposes. While those purposes remain unclear, it
322-405: The Noon Universe as a socialist utopia in which humanity has survived its crises but still has problems to solve, and in which the conflict is between "the good and the better". It has been suggested that James Cameron 's Avatar 's lush jungle planet has been inspired by the planet Pandora of Noon Universe. Noon Universe's human civilization has been described as techno-patriarchal and some of
345-804: The Wind , but literary critics agree that the idea, although unnamed, may be found in the 1962 novel Escape Attempt and that a number of subsequent novels, notably Hard to Be a God , deal with progressorship. COMCON-2 suspects that the Wanderers act as progressors with respect to the Earth and try to counteract them. These works by the Strugatsky brothers are set in the Noon Universe (listed chronologically): There are loose connections to 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
368-493: The antagonists as eco-matriarchal. Fictional universe A fictional universe , also known as an imagined universe or a constructed universe , is the internally consistent fictional setting used in a narrative or a work of art . This concept is most commonly associated with works of fantasy and science fiction , and can be found in various forms such as novels , comics , films , television shows , video games , and other creative works. In science fiction,
391-678: The books are septoids (see Noon: 22nd Century ) whose sentience is not really confirmed, semi-sentient prehistoric molluscs katapumoridako (see The Time Wanderers ) and the unidentified sentient creature killed by Pol Gnedykh in the Kroox solar system ( Noon: 22nd Century ). One of the controversial occupations in the Noon Universe is that of the progressors , agents embedded in less-advanced humanoid civilizations in order to accelerate their development or to resolve their problems. Progressors' methods range from rescuing local scientists and artists to overthrowing local governments. Konstantin Šindelář,
414-456: The criteria he imagined: Fictional universes are sometimes shared by multiple prose authors, with each author's works in that universe being granted approximately equal canonical status. For example, Larry Niven 's fictional universe Known Space has an approximately 135-year period in which Niven allows other authors to write stories about the Man-Kzin Wars . Other fictional universes, like
437-421: 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, after the death of Arkady Strugatsky, the surviving brother, Boris, felt that he could not bring himself to finish the novel. The book would have been named White Ferz ( "Белый Ферзь" ). "Ferz" or " Vizier "
460-488: The planet (which they named Saula after Repnin), the explorers soon discover a local human civilization, as well as the predicted Wanderers' traces. The latter appear as a phenomenon later called " everlasting machines " and largely influence the entire local population. Despite the fact that it is strictly forbidden for them to initiate a contact with any human or alien civilization without an authorization from COMCON , they try to do just this - and fail, having misinterpreted
483-529: The series build upon Strugatsky brothers' ideas and works, and many of them are set in the Noon Universe. In particular, Aleksandr Lukyanov wrote the novel Black Pawn [ ru ] , author's vision of what the novel White Ferz could have been. More various Strugatsky fanfics were published later. From 1996 to 2015, there was a re-release of all Noon Universe novels as part of the Worlds of Strugatsky Brothers [ ru ] series. This re-release
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#1732858134782506-472: The situation. What Anton and Vadim (who lived in Anarcho-communism ) see as catastrophic is just a routine life in an early feudalistic society of Saula. Saul Repnin, who, as it was later uncovered, was from 20th-century Earth (a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp , but originally in drafts he was a Soviet political prisoner ) but shifted into the future (s.c. time guest ), is so shocked to see
529-618: The society's functioning is safeguarded by raising everyone as responsible individuals, with the guidance of a set of High Councils accepted by everyone in each particular field of activity. The main governing body is the World Council, which is composed of the brightest scientists, historians, doctors and teachers. Local matters are handled by the regional versions of the council. Planetary councils are present on each Earth colony (such as in Rainbow ) as well, but " colony " in this context refers to
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