Escape Attempt

Escape Attempt
	First edition (Russian)
Author	Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Original title	Попытка к бегству
Translator	Roger DeGaris
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian
Series	Noon Universe
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Macmillan Publishers
Publication date	1962
Published in English	1982
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
ISBN	0-02-615250-9 (Hardcover edition)
OCLC	8170725
Dewey Decimal	891.73/44 19
LC Class	PG3476.S78835 A23 1982
Preceded by	Noon: 22nd Century
Followed by	Far Rainbow

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 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.

Plot summary[]

The novel tells a story of two young men from , 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 as . Their choice is an unnamed planet in EN-7031 system, because that's where Gorbovsky and predicted that ' traces could be found.

After landing successfully on the planet (which they named Saula after Repnin), the explorers soon discover a local 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 , they try to do just this - and fail, having misinterpreted 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 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 the Nazis (he is armed with a guard's machine-gun).

Saul Repnin was killed in a firefight soon after he returned to his time.

Sources[]

Strugatsky, Arkady and Boris. Escape Attempt (Best of Soviet Science Fiction) translated by Roger DeGaris. New York: Macmillan Pub Co, May 14, 1982, 321 pp. ISBN 0-02-615250-9. LCCN: 82000029.

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