'Mountaineer' Is A Must-Read Of Soviet Sci-Fi
As is characteristic of many a Strugatsky novel, strange things are afoot in The Dead Mountaineer's Inn. The characters, so emotionally disconnected from one another and their surroundings, reflect a time of lingering pessimism and spiritual isolation, a time that favored scientific progress over human connection. Bleak as they sound, these factors often make for the most layered and well-imagined art. To apply the term "weird" here would be to label water just a touch wet.
One day Inspector Glebsky enters his room and finds a note. "MISTER INSPECTOR GLEBSKY: PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT A DANGEROUS GANGSTER, SADIST AND MANIAC IS CURRENTLY STAYING AT THE INN." The note goes on to claim that a certain guest is responsible for a pending crime, and MISTER INSPECTOR IS KINDLY REQUESTED TO TAKE SOME SORT OF ACTION. Finally, all the pranks and supposed practical jokes take on a more serious tone.
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"There goes my vacation," the inspector says to himself. "There goes that freedom I've been waiting so long for."
What is always striking about the Brothers Strugatsky is their penchant for misdirection: They can convince the reader that something is almost certainly true, only to disprove it the next minute to keep the mystery alive. In the world the Strugatskys create, everyone is a suspect and nothing is as it seems. And though the dead mountaineer informs much of the first part of the novel, things take a turn about halfway through: An avalanche cuts off the guests from the outside world, and a dead body surfaces. The reader becomes enveloped in a detective story, and Inspector Glebsky is the only one around who's capable of solving the puzzle. Even then, the narrative is fairly straightforward — that is, until the last section, when life morphs into a science fiction game and the Strugatskys rewrite history.
While other Strugatsky works were subject to delays and government opposition, The Dead Mountaineer's Inn did not suffer that fate — possibly because it's not quite as edgy as books like Roadside Picnic and Definitely Maybe. Still, the comparatively inoffensive material that makes up Mountaineer is no less delightful, and a must-read for a new generation of sci-fi fans everywhere.
Juan Vidal is a writer and critic for NPR Books. He's on Twitter: @itsjuanlove.