Movies - Hard to Be a God

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	Movies - Hard to Be a God

Hard to be a God (Трудно быть богом) is a 1966 sci-fi novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky set in the Noon Universe.

Plot Summary

The novel tells about the reasons and circumstances of the s.c. "Arkanar Massacre" from the point of view of don Rumata, an Earth's progressor working in the Arkanar Kingdom on a planet named Arkanar. The book begins with a short flashback of his childhood when Rumata (his real name on Earth was Anton) and his friends, Pavel (Paul) and Anna, run away from their boarding school for a small role-play in the woods. Afterwards they stumble across an abandoned one-way road and split up because Anton wants to go in the "wrong direction". In the evening, Anton tells the friends that he has found a blown up bridge and a skeleton of a Nazi soldier chained to a machine gun and they tell him how they helped a car driver to fix the broken engine.

This first episode is very symbolic and therefore important for the book as a whole. The road stands for the history that can only go one way and if one tries moving back, in the end, one stumbles across a skeleton with a gun.

The actual story begins when don Rumata (Anton) visits the Drunken Den, a rally point for progressors working in the Lands Beyond the Strait (Запроливье), and tells his two colleagues that a new Prime Minister of Arkanar, don Reba, has started an official policy against literacy and apparently tries to establish a fascist police state. Don Goog and don Kondor are not convinced by his argumentation therefore they pay little attention to don Reba considering him simply a cunning politician who tries to protect his domain from a collapse.

Upon returning back to his house in Arkanar (which is also the name of the capital of Arkanar Kingdom), don Rumata decides to concentrate on finding Dr. Budah who disappeared under suspicious circumstances somewhere in Arkanar. Rumata suspects that don Reba's special task force, "grey troopers", whose objective is finding and killing all scientists and simply literate people, is responsible for this. Needless to say, that don Rumata secretly opposes the "grey troops" and rescues their captives at any cost.

In order to locate Budah, don Rumata visits Vaga the Wheel, the head of local organized crime, who agrees to lend a helping hand in the search for him, and when he returns home, his servants tell him that an unknown girl awaits him. This is Kira, Rumata's secret lover and a daughter of a merchant whose elder son is a "grey trooper". Kira tells Rumata that she no longer can live with her family because she hates their lifestyle and pleads to take her as a servant - for free. Rumata immediately agrees and appoints her his estate manager.

In the same evening, do Rumata visits a soiree arranged by don Reba's concubine, dona Okana, who tries to seduce him (since he is rumored to be the greatest playboy beyond the Strait) but fails and Rumata returns home. There he meets yet another acquaintance - baron Pampa - who is his only local friend and who persuades him to go to the nearest tavern to have some drinks. After a bloodless (psychological) victory over some "grey troopers", Pampa offers to celebrate it, so when they return home in the morning both are blind drunk. Avoiding Kira's attention, Rumata manages to take some kasparamid and is back in shape since he must attend a royal breakfast in the same morning.

In the palace, he manages to see the King Pits VI, who has damaged his knee, and tells him that don Reba, apparently, has taken the only doctor who can help heal it in custody - Dr. Budah. Reba appears to be extremely pleased with Rumata's sagacity and promises to call for Budah immediately. Intrigued Rumata secretly follows don Reba to his office and manages to eavesdrop his conversation with Vaga the Wheel himself - however, the two speak in some thieves' cant and Rumata doesn't understand a word. During the breakfast Rumata gets to know that dona Okana was arrested and executed earlier this night, but this doesn't interest him even a little bit since he awaits Budah's appearance. The great healer disappoints Rumata and the King by prescribing some disgusting and inefficient potion to the latter.

However, Rumata confirms that Budah is alive and returns home to prepare for the night watch since as a member of Imperial Guard his duty is to keep watch over the King's only son and successor's bedroom in this night. Despite having a very bad feeling about this, he attends the watch and waits for what will follow. Deep at night, panic breaks out when King Pits VI is found dead, poisoned by Budah (or, to be more precise, by don Reba) and the "grey troopers" storm the palace to kill the Prince. Rumata tries to protect him but fails and being quickly overwhelmed by the vast masses of attackers falls unconscious.

In the morning, when Rumata regains consciousness, the city and the country is overtaken by the elite knights of the Holy Order who arrived there "to protect the population from the marauding criminals and anarchy". Don Reba, who is now the Bishop of Arkanar, turns out to have been their agent all along and offers Rumata cooperation after providing evidence that Rumata is not what he says he is (the true don Rumata died prior to Anton's arrival on Arkanar). Rumata agrees to stop actively resisting Reba in exchange for true Budah's freedom (since the man he saw during the royal breakfast was an impostor).

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