The Dead Mountaineer's Inn
by Arkadii Strugatskii, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky · first published 2015
50% recommend50% neutral
Policeman Peter Glebsky, heads on holiday to the Dead Mountaineer's Inn, a ski resort hotel in a small resort in a secluded valley in the Alps. On his arrival he meets the other guests: Mr. Moses, a rich old man with highly eccentric manners and his stunningly beautiful wife; Mr. du Barnstocre, an illusionist who is accompanied by Brun, his niece; Mr. Simonet, an obsessive physicist; Mr. Hinckus, a custodial attorney; and Olaf Andvarafors. Then an avalanche blocks them in and a dead body is discovered and it is up to Peter to find out who did it.
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And another excellent book by the same authors, The Dead Mountaineer's Inn, is exactly the opposite. You spend most of the book thinking you know what it's about, except you really don't. But their masterpiece, of course, is Stalker.
on “Common tech jobs described as cabals of Mesoamerican wizards” ↗"The Dead Mountaineer's Inn" is a fairly unique sci-fi noir also from the Strugatsky brothers that was my first introduction to their work. It interested me enough that I read all their other books afterwards -- worth checking out!…
on “The secretive world of North Korean science fiction” ↗…ideology; unredacted English translations have been published over the past fifteen years or so with epilogues written by Boris covering the censorship process. I would recommend beginning with "The Dead Mountaineer's Inn," which I started with, although "Hard to be a God" and "Monday Begins on Saturday" are more strongly allegorical. I read their entire catalogue after reading a book review last year and becoming (mildly)…
on “Bringing Chinese Science Fiction to the West” ↗The Dead Mountaineer's Inn is also good. A classic whodunnit with a twist.
on “Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read” ↗> Near the beginning of The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn, a 1970 novel by the Russian science-fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the innkeeper, Alek Snevar, proposes to his guest, police inspector Peter Glebsky, that mystery is always preferable to…
on “How the Strugatsky brothers’ science fiction went from utopian to dystopian” ↗The actual name of the book is 'The Dead Mountaineer's Inn.' What is it with American journalists that they feel it's OK to just change the titles of things to make a snappy headline? I've never seen this behavior in any other country's media. I find it incredibly…
on “'Mountaineer' Is a Must-Read of Soviet Sci-Fi” ↗I just noticed in the article the passage from "The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn" ("Haven’t you ever noticed how much more interesting the unknown is than the known?") which is missing in the german translation from "edition wunschmaschine". I did a rough comparison based on the amazon…
on “How the Strugatsky brothers’ science fiction went from utopian to dystopian” ↗