The most famous co-authors in literature - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - are not just science fiction writers, not just writers, not even just idols of millions. Who were they to us and will they remain forever? Part of life. The Strugatskys are our idea of the future, of the world, of man, of what is right and what is wrong, of the meaning of life and the meaninglessness of death. They are our tuning fork, our guide, our weapon and our torch in the dark labyrinth of history - past and future. The Strugatskys are our souls turned inside out. And our conscience. The eldest, Arkady Natanovich, left us in 1991, the youngest is now 75 years old, and he continues to work. The first large and detailed biographical book about the Strugatsky brothers was written by the famous science fiction writer and publicist Ant Skalandis.

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This book is an avid read. It is not surprising: for anyone interested in the history of literature, the writer “Strugatsky brothers” is an iconic figure. The author has collected unique material and presented it in such a way that you read the 700-page brick like a great piece of fiction. In fact, “Brothers” is a book not only about the writer ABS, but also about an entire era in the history of the country and literature. Of course, the author is biased, of course, the book could have been different. It lacks a detached look at the Strugatsky phenomenon, an attempt to analyze their books from the point of view of a person outside the fandom. Another thing is that this is not yet feasible: a person “outside” would hardly have the opportunity or desire to work with so many unique documents, it is unlikely that he would be able to get so many people talking... Bottom line: the book is primarily for lovers and connoisseurs of creativity ABS. But there are a lot of them - us -! The main sign of Skalandis’s success, in my opinion, is that, having finished reading his work, I really want to rediscover the Strugatskys’ books. (c) Vladimir Puziy