Noon Universe

The Noon Universe (Russian term: "Мир Полудня" or "Мир Полдня" – "World of Noon"; also known as the “Wanderers’ Universe”^[1]) is a fictional future setting for a number of hard science fiction novels written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The universe is named after Noon: 22nd Century, chronologically the first novel from the series and referring to humanity reaching its noon in the 22nd century.

According to Arkady Strugatsky, at first, the brothers did not make a conscious effort to create a fictional universe. Rather, they reused characters and settings from prior works whenever they found it convenient. It wasn't until later that they began drawing on common themes and plot threads from various novels to create newer works.^{[citation needed]}

Description

The victory of communism and the advance of technological progress on the Earth of the Noon Universe has resulted in an over-abundance of resources and eliminated the need for most types of manual labor.

Mankind is capable of near-instantaneous interstellar travel. Earth's social organization is presumably communist, and can be described as a highly technologically advanced anarchistic meritocracy. There is no state structure, no institutionalized coercion (no police etc.), yet functioning of the society is safeguarded by raising everyone as responsible individuals, with the guidance of a set of High Councils accepted by everyone in each particular field of activity.

One of the controversial occupations is that of the

The main governing body is the

The universe is populated by a number of sentient races. Some of them are humanoid, while others are so alien that humanity didn't realize that they were sentient for decades. Several sentient races maintain diplomatic relations with Earth's society. Many planets in the Noon Universe are inhabited by races identical to humans in all but minor genetic differences. It has been speculated^{[by whom?]} that they were humans who wound up on other worlds due to the manipulations of the Wanderers (as Beetle in the Anthill shows, that is hardly unprecedented).

The Wanderers are the most mysterious race in the Noon Universe. Technologically advanced and highly secretive, the Wanderers are suspected of manipulating sentient beings throughout Noon Universe for their own purposes. While those purposes remain unclear, it is hinted that they try to "progress" various sentient beings, including the human race.

Works

These works by the Strugatsky brothers are set in the Noon Universe (listed chronologically):

• Noon: 22nd Century (Полдень. XXII век, first published 1961)
• Escape Attempt (Попытка к бегству)
• Far Rainbow (Далекая Радуга)
• Hard to Be a God (Трудно быть богом)
• Disquiet (Беспокойство) – the initial variant of the Snail on the Slope (Улитка на склоне) ^[2]
• Prisoners of Power (The Inhabited Island) (Обитаемый остров)
• Space Mowgli (Малыш)
• The Kid from Hell (Парень из преисподней)
• Beetle in the Anthill (Жук в муравейнике)
• The Time Wanderers
  (Волны гасят ветер)

There are loose connections to early stories The Land of Crimson Clouds ("Страна багровых туч"), The Way to Amalthea ("Путь на Амальтею"), Space Apprentice ("Стажеры"), The Final Circle of Paradise (through Ivan Zhilin), Ispytanie SKIBR, Chastnye predpolozheniya, mainly through Bykov's family.

In the early 1990s the Strugatsky brothers began writing what they intended to be a final Noon Universe novel. It would have tied up some of the plot threads that were left unresolved in previous novels. However, following the death of Arkady Strugatsky, the surviving brother, Boris, felt that he could not bring himself to finish the novel. The book should have been named White Ferz (

In the late 1990s, a collection of fiction by notable Russian sci-fi writers, titled The Time of the Apprentices, was published in Russia (with an endorsement of Boris Strugatsky). The pieces in the collection build upon Strugatskys' ideas and works, and many of them are set in the Noon Universe. The same period saw the re-release of all Noon Universe novels as part of the Worlds of Strugatsky Brothers series. This re-release is notable for introductory articles written by literary critics from the perspective of Noon Universe historians looking back on the events of the said novels several decades later.

Personalities

• Lev Abalkin (Абалкин, Лев)
• Leonid Gorbovsky (Горбовcкий, Леонид)
• Maxim Kammerer (Каммерер, Максим)
• Gennady Komov (Комов, Геннадий)
• Rudolf Sikorski (Сикорски, Рудольф)
• Maya Glumova (Глумова, Майя)

Planets

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• Ark (Ковчег): described in
  Wanderers
  . An official contact with them was never established although the Ark Megaforms employed a human agent to communicate with progressors working on the surface of Ark. This agent was Piere "The Kid" Semyonov, a 13-year-old human whose parents died in 2147 when their spaceship "Pilgrim" was shot down by Wanderers' satellite. Although Megaforms negotiated (through their agent) to drive progressors away from their home world, no further attempt to share technologies or cultural developments was registered.
• Arkanar (Арканар):^[4] the setting of the novel Hard to Be a God.
• Blue sands planet: the planet visited by the spaceship Taimyr, which returned in 2117.
• Earth (Земля).
• Garrota (Гаррота): the home planet of Garrotian snails (слизни Гарроты), a non-humanoid alien race that took humans and their technology for a product of their own imagination. This planet is briefly mentioned in Space Mowgli and no further information about either the race or the planet is available.
• Giganda (Гиганда): a planet populated by humans whose technological advancement is roughly equal to that of
  nuclear weapons
  . One of the planet's natives, a foot soldier (a teenager elite troops cadet) of the Alai Duchy was taken to Earth and introduced to its advanced society. Despite repeated efforts to integrate him, he failed to adjust. He then chose to be returned to Giganda. Discovered in 2136 AD.
• Gorgona: the planet where the
  Stepchild
  Thomas Nielsen died in 2165, possibly a suicide.
• Hope (Надежда): described briefly in
  Wanderers
  , apparently believing that a new, clean environment is the cure, have transported most of the population of Hope to an unknown planet using some sort of enhanced interplanetary transport ("null-T"), but few people decided to remain and became a subject of a consequent hunt by Wanderers (through a sophisticated system of traps, especially for children). Discovered in 2162 AD.
• Leonida (Леонида): the home planet of Leoniders, a humanoid alien race that lives in a perfect
  Leonid Gorbovsky
  . Discovered in 2133 AD.
• Mars: this solar planet featured in the Noon Universe. Mars bears complex forms of indigenous plant and animal life, though none sentient. It also bears many artifacts of an ancient supercivilization, assumed to be remnants of the
  Wanderers. An abandoned city sits at the North pole, and the moons Phobos and Deimos
  are discovered to be artificial satellites constructed by the Wanderers.
• Pandora (Пандора): a planet wide holiday resort. It is mostly covered with jungle swarming with dangerous alien
  fauna (like crayfish-spiders or tahorgs) young people just love to hunt. Every year dozens of people are killed or seriously injured on Pandora despite countless safety measures by Earth's government. No local sentient species registered. Pandora is apparently located in a system with two suns. Pandora's skies were a training ground for Headies
  , when humans shared the space-traveling technologies with them during the "Headies in Space" project. Discovered before 2119 AD (exact date unknown).
• Panta (Панта): a planet endangered by a global catastrophe – an explosion of its own sun as a part of standard
  progressors
  have apparently changed their mind. Discovered approx. in 2161 AD.
• Rainbow (Радуга): setting of the novel Far Rainbow.
• Ruzhena (Ружена): an Earth-like planet in VK-71016 system. Valentin Petrov, the leader of the expedition that discovered it, named the planet after his wife, Ruzhena Naskova, but the planet wasn't really hospitable: two members of the spaceship crew perished on it and Petrov himself lost an arm. Ruzhena is described in "Частные предположения", a book that's been never translated in English and contains only a vague connection to the Noon Universe.
• Saraksh (Саракш): the setting of the novel Prisoners of Power.
• Saula (Саула): the setting of the novel
  An Attempt to Escape
  .
• Tagora (Тагора): the home planet of Tagorians, a lizard-like alien race, the first one Earth's ever contacted with. It is mentioned in
  progressor
  working under cover to study Tagorian technology. Discovered in the end of 21st century although a full scaled contact was established in 2122 AD.
• Tissa (Тисса): a planet in EN-63061 system. It is famous mostly for an incident that happened shortly after a Freelance Search Group (FSG) expedition discovered it. For some reason the members of the group couldn't establish a radio connection to any human world or spaceship except for their own mothership on the orbit of Tissa, and its computers kept telling them that Earth and all other human settlements were destroyed by global catastrophes and that they are the only remaining humans in the Universe. After the group was rescued, psychologists decided that this was a case of temporary madness or a mass suggestion. Tissa is only mentioned in
  The Time Wanderers
  . Discovered in 2193 AD.
• Vladislava (Владислава): the first planet (apart from
  Leonid Gorbovsky
  . Despite that, there is some protein life on the planet although no sentient one. Vladislava is located in EN-17 solar system. Discovered in 2121 AD.
• Yaila (Яйла): an even harsher and more dangerous version of Pandora. Infamous for its monstrous fauna (e.g. Yaila Dragon, presumably, a reptile with an enormous regeneration potential). Due to its impenetrable jungle and swamps it is considered by many to be just another planet-wide resort, but generally only the toughest and most experienced hunters dare to visit Yaila.