The Powerless of This World

The last novel by Boris Strugatsky, “The Vain Ones of This World,” published under the pseudonym S. Vititsky.

Stan Arkadyevich Agre (Sensei) has amazing abilities: he can see in a person the spark of the main talent and help it develop into an invaluable gift. One of his long-time students—Vadim—finds himself under pressure from a mafia structure that forces Vadim to use his gift to change the results of the Governor’s elections. In search of help and salvation from the terrible “clients,” Vadim turns to old friends—fellow students of Agre…

A story that begins in the genre of a detective thriller gradually turns into a real drama of the novel’s characters—into something that replaces “superheroes” with “lazy and uninterested.” Can we be happy knowing our main life talent? Can the course of history be changed without first changing humanity itself? The novel sends the reader back to the classic questions of creativity posed by the Strugatsky brothers about morality, the “progressor” role, and hope for mankind’s enlightenment.