The Bull's Hour
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The Bull's Hour (Russian: Час Быка, Tchas Bika) is a science fiction novel written by Russian author and paleontologist Ivan Efremov in 1968. Novel is usually called social fiction. It was censored from all Soviet Union libraries six months after its publication.[1]
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[edit] Plot summary
This novel became a sequel for Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale, though the characters are all different. However, there are few references to the previous volume - main character is a historian and in one of the chapter she's remembering the people of the past including most notable Andromeda characters.
Earth finally received a valuable information about faster-than-light travel through the Great Circle, which still exists in the novel. Now the starship departs from Solar System to visit a habitable planet, which is presumably colonized by Earth pioneers of the Space Age. The starship was propelled by an annihilation drive.
The society of this distant planet is called by the Author as "Inferno" and as "an amalgamation of a Capitalism in its worst form and of a Chinese pseudo-socialism". The second was added because the novel was written in the time of the Sino-Soviet split. There are some interesting references to it, for example, the gardens of the Dictator of the Planet were called Zoam Gardens, an obvious backward reading for Mao Zedong. The Big Four, who ruled the planet, represents the Chinese Gang of Four. Even the name of the novel derived from the old (1909) Chinese-Russian dictionary (quoting the phrase "Earth born in the Bull's hour (or Daemon's hour, 2:00 am)"). Quote also appeared in the epigraph of the novel.
The novel depicts the communist crew, who sacrificed some lifes including the life of the expedition commander, historian Fuy Rodis for the better future of the planet and of the Earth great-great-great-...-grandsons. The only weapon they used for this objective was of psychological type to selectively erase the memory chunks of any number of people. Not to mention the mental capacity of every member of the crew to do the same sort of thing though with less efficiency (compare to the Jedi-like ability of mind tricks from Star Wars or the neuralizer from Men in Black). Every member of the crew was accompanied by a strange mechanical robots with nine legs called SDF, that stands for Servant, Defender and Freighter. Fuy Rodis final words before she commanded SDF to blast her were "Up ship and out!". As mentioned in Efremov's questionnaire (1960th) it was his favorite phrase.[2]
[edit] Main characters
[edit] Starship "Dark Fire" Crew
- Fuy Rodis, expedition commander, historian
- Grif Rift, annihilation drive engineer, starship commander
- Vir Norin, astronavigator-I
- Menta Cor, astronavigator-II
- Div Simbel, pilot-engineer
- Gan Atal, armour belt defence engineer
- Nei Holly, biological defence engineer
- Sol Sain, computational devices engineer
- Olla Dez, communication and photography officer
- Evisa Tanet, medical officer, StarFlot Doctor
- Tivisa Henako, biologist
- Chedi Daan, sociologist, linguist
- Tor Lik, astrophisicist, planetologist
[edit] Planet Tormance characters
- Choyo Chagas, Chairman of the Big Four, Lord of the Planet
- Gen Shi, Zet Ug, Ka Loof, his deputies, other members of the Big Four
- Yantre Yahah, his wife
- Er Vo-Bia, his girlfriend
- Hontello Tollo Fraelle (or Taele), his information officer
- Yan Gao-Yuar (Yangar), commander of the "Lilac"
- Su An-Te (Su-Te), Tormance girl
- Kzer Boo-Yam, leader of the "kgee" ("shortlivers")
[edit] References
- ^ "The Mentor." (PDF)
- ^ P.K.Chudiniv. Ivan Antonovich Efremov 1907-1972 // Moscow, "Nauka", 1987; Russian edition, no ISBN, issue of USSR Academy of Sciences"
| Fiction by Ivan Yefremov | |
|---|---|
| Novels: | Andromeda | The Bull's Hour | The Land of Foam | Razor's Edge | Thais of Athens |
| Short stories: | Road of Winds | Cor Serpentis | Cutty Sark | Star ships |
