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The Doomed City  By  cover art

The Doomed City

By: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Andrew Bromfield - Translator
Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
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Publisher's summary

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely considered the greatest of Russian science fiction masters, yet the novel they worked hardest on, the one that was their own favorite and that listeners worldwide have acclaimed their magnum opus, has never before been published in English. The Doomed City was so politically risky that the Strugatskys kept its existence a secret even from their closest friends for 16 years. It was only published in Russia during perestroika in the late 1980s, the last of their works to see publication.

The Doomed City is set in an experimental city whose sun gets switched on in the morning and off at night, a city bordered by an abyss on one side and an impossibly high wall on the other. Its inhabitants are people plucked from 20th-century history at various times and places and left to govern themselves under conditions established by Mentors whose purpose seems inscrutable.

Andrei Voronin, a young astronomer taken from Leningrad in the 1950s, is a die-hard believer in the Experiment, even though his first job in the city is as a garbage collector. As increasingly nightmarish scenarios begin to affect the city, Voronin rises through the political hierarchy, with devastating effect.

©2016 Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about The Doomed City

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Great Book

A great book if you're a fan of the authors but please skip the introduction as it contains minor spoilers.

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23 people found this helpful

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Holy spoilers, Batman.

The amount of spoilage in the prologue is a travesty. Some of us like to walk into a book blind

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12 people found this helpful

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I would have enjoyed it at 22

The Doomed City is brilliant. But I found it so damn boring. The first half was intriguing and engaging but then it went on and on and on. The real "problem" is that as a 21st century nihilist, I didn't find anything new in it. Ten years ago, when I was 22 and confused by moral relativism, I would have loved every second of it.

The narrator has a tough job getting the accents right and he acquits himself admirably. Unfortunately, he doesn't manage to do so while keeping the voices significantly different. When characters were from anywhere in Eastern Europe they sounded the same. Ditto Asia and America.

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11 people found this helpful

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Amazing book

This book was amazing probably my favorite one from The Great Strugatsky brothers. The performance from the narrator was top notch, a highly recommend it.

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still amazing

when you fall under the spell of these brothers writing, you'll search out everything available. smart strong thoughtful witty biting and fun. This novel in particular is layered and although it has a timestamp of cold war era in the background, still feels fresh and relevant in the current world environment.

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6 people found this helpful

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shocked!

this book took me so long to finish but it was worth it! love the Strugatsky’s so much!

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I was expecting more than this

Other reviewers advised to skip the introduction. I also advise other readers to skip to 14:05 and read the story first and the introduction later.

The Strugatsky brothers are lauded as the most famous (and best?) science-fiction writers of the USSR. However this book failed to convey this. I suppose it is an allegory to live in the USSR, but since I did not experience that (luckily!), I failed to understand most of this book. A city that is supposedly filled with many people all over the 20th century, was actually filled for 45% with Soviet Russians and 45% with Nazi Germans. for the rest I counted 1 Englishman, 1 American and 1 Swede. The few women that appear in the book are (according to the main character) a major slut, a giant floozy and a secretary who he seems to force to have sex. So don't expect any characters with depth. (And why are Russians so obsessed with Nazism to this day?)

The book did have 3-4 interesting discussions, but this was not enough to improve the overall story. Most of the time the writers just make all questions and all insight impossible. What is the city? Who or what are these Mentors? What the hell is this sun that can be turned on and off and doesn't seem to move in any logical pattern? What is the Red Building? Nothing makes sense...

As for the narrator, I do like his voice when he is narrating. It's very clear and easy to understand. But this completely switches he is impersonating the characters. Russian characters get a thick Russian accent which made it very difficult for me to understand what they were saying. Drunk Russian characters (and they are quite often drunk in the first parts of the book) are especially hard to understand. Too bad.

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3 people found this helpful

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1984 but Russian Sci-Fi. amazing read.

basically what I said in the title. it's like 1984 but based on a Russian experiment and a bit less linear than 1984. the major aspect being about the faults of communistic dictatorships.

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Good Story and Relevant

I won't compare the modern state of the US to the horrors of the Soviet Union, but the representation of nonsensical bureaucracy in this story that once represented the social minefield of communism will also ring closer to home than one may expect in this age of COVID foolishness. Never the less, the story does not read as a political criticism as the authors wanted to keep their heads intact. This means you're still getting a solid science fiction experience without the childlike political tirades of modern American story tellers.

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3 people found this helpful

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Almost interesting.

In summary, I think you need to be Russian to get this book. It's a lot of wandering philosophy and barely interesting soliloquy that is loosely tied together by some random stuff that happens; a lot like Ayn Rand (who was born in russia... hm...). I tried so hard to like this book. There were just enough interesting hints of what and where "The Experiment" was, that i kept going, thinking they would pull it all together and I could find out if my theories were correct. But that never happened. (Possibly I fell asleep and missed the punchline. )
I just did not care enough about the characters, they were one dimensional. The main character changed jobs/responsibilities throughout his journey, and that was interesting, as if they were trying to say people become the person they have to be to do the job. I am not sure that was the point of the story tho.
As to performance, he read just fine, emotion cadence etc, but his accents were SO distractingly bad. His Asian accents sounded just like Russian, and everything else was what you would imagine some random person off the street would attempt. If not for the fact that it helped identify who was speaking in the interminable pointless dialogs, I'd wish he hadn't bothered.
If you enjoy reading about people who get beat up by life, and just take it on the chin instead of try to better their lot, then talk on and on about it, you might enjoy this.

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1 person found this helpful