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Noon Universe

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The Noon Universe (Russian term: "Мир Полудня" or "Мир Полдня" - "World of Noon") is a fictional future alternate universe that serves as a setting for a number of hard science fiction novels written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The universe is named after Noon: 22nd Century, the chronologically first novel from the series. While the Noon Universe shares many utopian qualities with the early Star Trek universe (such as world peace and high standards of living), it has its share of problems and internal conflicts.

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.

Contents

[edit] Description

The victory of communism and the advance of technological progress on the Earth of the Noon Universe resulted in an over-abundance of resources and eliminated the need for most types of manual labor. This, in turn, effectively rendered traditional credit-based currency obsolete. Knowledge became the most valuable commodity.

The most striking difference between Noon Universe and most of the other fictional sci-fi universes (most famous include Dune, Star Wars and Babylon 5) is a complete denial of imperialism. This means that no sentient race in the Noon Universe builds an inter-planetary state (republic, empire etc.) or has ever built one. Instead, most of them keep to their own planets, and the only space-faring ones (humans and, probably, Wanderers) have chosen a selfless existence assisting in the scientific development of less advanced civilizations ("progressing") rather than building a galactic empire based on their technological advantage.

The Earth of Noon Universe is governed by a global technocracy. The main governing body is the World Council, a legislative/executive body composed of the brightest scientists, philosophers, historians and strategists. The Council primarily deals with matters of global and interstellar policies. The local matters are handled by the regional versions of the council. Planetary councils are present on each Earth colony (e.g. Rainbow), as well, although "colony" in this context refers to a planet that wasn't home to any sentient life before the arrival of Terran settlers. In the Noon Universe, Earth has never attempted to seize permanent control over any other civilization.

While the knowledge-based society managed to successfully provide all human beings with the most basic necessities, it created a class of people who were uncapable of taking a high position in the academic hierarchy or of becoming famous artists, but didn't wish to settle for simple jobs such as supervision of the robots either. Many of them took to space exploration, traveling to previously uncharted worlds, exploring them, and in some cases, establishing contact with whatever sentient races happened to reside there. While the practice is generally frowned upon, the government tends to let it slide and even legalized it in the period between 2114 and 2193 AD (the Independent Reconnaissance Unit).

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 government. Many planets in Noon Universe are inhabited by races identical to humans in all but minor genetic differences. It has been speculated that they were humans who wound up on other worlds due to the Wanderers' manipulations (as Beetle in the Anthill shows, that is hardly unprecedented).

The Wanderers are, without a doubt, the most mysterious race in the Noon Universe. Incredibly technologically advanced and highly secretive, the Wanderers manipulate sentient beings throughout Noon Universe for their own purposes. While those purposes were never clarified, it was hinted that they try to "progress" various sentient beings.

[edit] Novels

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

There are loose connections of 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 (Russian: "Белый Ферзь"). "Ferz" or "Vizier" is the Russian term for a Queen in chess. Strugatsky brothers planned the book to be direct sequel of Prisoners of Power and follow the story of infiltration of the progressor Maxim Kammerer into the elite of the Island Empire[citation needed].

In the late 1990's, a collection of fiction by notable Russian scifi 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 Strugasky Brothers series. This re-release is notable for introductory articles written by literary critics from the perspective of Noon Universe historians who were looking back on the events of the said novels several decades later.

[edit] Personalities

For more information about people of the Noon Universe, see the list of minor personalities.

[edit] Planets

[edit] Races

Other possibly sentient species mentioned in the books are septoids (see Noon: 22nd Century) whose sentience is not really confirmed, semi-sentient prehistoric molluscs katapumoridako (see The Time Wanderers) and the unidentified sentient creature killed by Pol Gnedykh in the Kroox solar system (Noon: 22nd Century).

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Despite having a similar plot Disquiet and Snail on the Slope are completely different works with different ideas and characters. The former is set in the Noon Universe and features some well-known characters like Leonid Gorbovsky, the latter - in an abstract sci-fi universe with no connection to other books about Noon Universe.
  2. ^ Although the planet was never officially named, this is the name commonly used by Russian fans.


[edit] External links

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Noon Universe created by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Novels
Related works
Adaptations
Planets
Races
Personalities
Miscellaneous
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