A beetle in the anthill

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Beetle in the Anthill ( Russian Жук в муравейнике ) is a science fiction - novel by Strugatsky Brothers . It was originally published in Russian in 1979 and, as the successor to The Inhabited Island, represents the second part of the three-part Maxim-Kammerer series .

content

The meanwhile 40-year-old Maxim Kammerer - formerly a “free seeker” (tracking down foreign civilizations in space) and then “Progressor” (a kind of development worker for foreign civilizations) - works in the “KomKon2”, an organization that cares for the security of the earth responsible is. At a time when the earth has become a socialist utopia, robbery, theft and murder are unknown. The life and limb of the inhabitants of this fictional future is only threatened by the consequences of human experiments or the effects of foreign races. Therefore, Maxim works mainly with scientists and experts on alien civilizations. His current assignment, about which the novel tells, is to find the Progressor Lev Albakin. After an incident on the "Sarraksch", in which another Progressor was killed, he went underground without reporting to his superiors. While investigating the case, Maxim learns that the mysterious, extraterrestrial people of the "Wanderers" created thirteen human "foundlings" 40,000 years ago and stored them as embryos in a technical "sarcophagus". These became active for no apparent reason and grew into adults, including Albakin. The "foundlings" are completely like normal people; but it is unclear what the intention was to create them. Since Maxim's superior Sikorsky fears that Albakin could harm humanity, he kills Albakin with a gun.

style

In comparison with the novel The Inhabited Island , published ten years earlier, a clear difference can be heard in this novel. The plot is more distant, more distant from the main character Maxim Kammerer. Not least because numerous people and circumstances influence Kammerer's actions here. The typical narrative style of the Strugazkis corresponds more to this book than to its predecessor, it tends to be closer to the picnic by the wayside published in 1972 . Nevertheless, the reader learns more here than in other stories by the Strugazkis, who repeatedly understood how to let large parts of the plot take place only in the mind of the reader. For example, the actions of the minor characters are satisfactorily explained by their past experiences. Also the special features of the present of the novel are presented extensively and conclusively, the technical development and the possibilities of the intergalactic community are explained. The consequences of the particular experiment, however, only appear as MacGuffin ; possible consequences are left to the reader's imagination.

The hikers

For the first time in A Beetle in the Ant Hill the core of the plot revolves around the people of the wanderers. The hikers are an interstellar people about whom almost nothing is known. In the end, it is even uncertain whether they still exist at all - through special relics, all of which are lined with the same metal, mankind came to the conclusion that a race existed with far greater technical capabilities than man and everyone known to him Races. The goals of the hikers remain just as unclear as their motivation for the supposed manipulation of humanity. The wanderers are repeatedly a motif of the Strugazkis in their books. The experiment, which finally becomes a threatening factor in the novel, was also initiated by the hikers. Humanity is only the executive slave of its own curiosity. Here the classic element of many Strugazki stories shows up once again: the human being as a subject of himself, and curiosity and urge for everything new and supposedly better as the main motives for risk and risk.

expenditure

  • Published in German by Übergrenzen Verlag, 1983, translated by Erik Simon with a detailed afterword by Erik Simon, hardcover, ISBN 3-922978-94-0 (licensed edition of the publishing house Das Neue Berlin , which published the book a year later in the GDR released)
  • There is a radio play version with the speakers Peter Lieck, Ernst F. Fürbringer , Gottfried John , Barbara Freier u. a. from 1986. Arkadij Strugatzkij / Boris Strugatzkij: A beetle in the anthill Translated from the Russian by Erik Simon. Editing and direction: Bernd Lau . BR / HR 1986, length: 87'06.
  • A complete version of the entire trilogy was published in 2010 as the first volume of the collected works by Heyne Verlag, revised and supplemented by Erik Simon , with a foreword by Dmitri Gluchowski and numerous comments. ISBN 978-3-453-52630-3
  • At the same time, a leather-bound luxury edition of the same edition will be published in a limited edition by Golkonda-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-942396-06-6

See also

The books from the Maxim-Kammerer series: