The Doomed City
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The Doomed City
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Narrated by:
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Chris Andrew Ciulla
About this listen
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
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 14-10-2021
An Absolute Classic
A truely timeless novel just as meaningful today as it was upon its debut. The performance by Chris Ciulla is outstanding, his cadence and punctuation strongly lend to the feel and nature of this book. A definite listen if you have any interest in Eastern European philosophy or any of the Strugatsky brother’s works. This is definitely one of their best!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Belvedere Spudge
- 27-05-2024
A dense read undermined by the reading
The fore and afterwords provide good context but the story still benefits from a basic familiarity with life in Soviet Russia. Easy to see why the Strugatsky's didn't even submit this one; the critique of Soviet life and the slowly decaying promise of the communist project/"Experiment" are barely concealed, I doubt the censors would have forgiven it.
Andrei is a deeply (and I think intentionally) unsympathetic protagonist; an uptight, priggish true believer in the grand plan, who steadily gives way to a frustrated, crass figure still waiting for the fruits to arrive, to an apathetic cog in the machine who all but forgotten his ideals. One aspect I genuinely struggled with was Andrei's relationship with Selma- what the hell did she see in him? There are interpretations of the text that make it work, however it didn't make the journey any more palatable.
The narration did nothing for me. One man radio plays are my least favourite genre of audiobooks, and the "Boris and Natasha" European accent variations made it more of a slog than anything. I'll reread it at some point, but probably just stick to the text next time.
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