In its first-ever unexpurgated edition, a sci-fi landmark that's a comic and suspenseful tour-de-force, and puts distraction in a whole new light: It's not you, it's the universe!
Boris and Arkady Strugatsky were the greatest science fiction writers of the Soviet era: their books were intellectually provocative and riotously funny, full of boldly imagined scenarios and veiledβbut clearβsocial criticism. Which may be why Definitely Maybe has never before been available in an uncensored edition, let alone in English.
It tells the story of astrophysicist Dmitri Malianov, who has sent his wife and son off to her motherβs house in Odessa so that he can work, free from distractions, on the project heβs sure will win him the Nobel Prize.
But heβd have an easier time making progress if he wasnβt being interrupted all the time: First, itβs the unexpected delivery of a crate of vodka and caviar. Then a beautiful young woman in an unnervingly short skirt shows up at his door. Then several of his friendsβalso scientistsβdrop by, saying they all felt they were on the verge of a major discovery when they gotΒ .β.β. distractedΒ .β.β.
Is there an ominous force that doesnβt want knowledge to progress? Or could it be something moreΒ .β.β. natural?
In this nail-bitingly suspenseful book, the Strugatsky brothers bravely and brilliantly question authority: an authority that starts with crates of vodka, but has lightning bolts in store for humans who refuse to be cowed.
Sciencefiction en fantasy