"Predatory Things of the Century" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, summary

"Predatory Things of the Century" is a science fiction novella by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, written in 1964. The authors depict a prosperous Land of Abundance, where the complete satisfaction of material needs has led to spiritual decline and the emergence of dangerous entertainment. The novella is part of the Noon World cycle and concludes the trilogy about cosmonaut Ivan Zhilin (which also includes "The Path to Amalthea" and "Interns"), occupying the place of the third book in the series.

Ivan Zhilin’s arrival and settling into his new position

Former space pilot Ivan Zhilin, now working for the UN Security Council, arrives in an unnamed European resort town disguised as a writer. At customs, he clears the necessary formalities, signs a strict immigration form, and pays a mandatory fee for accommodation. The town appears incredibly sunny, wealthy, and happy, but Zhilin has arrived on a secret mission.

Having met a local guide, Amad, Ivan forgoes noisy hotels and rents rooms in a cozy private home. The owner is the general’s widow, Vaina Tuur. Living with her are her flighty daughter, Vuzi, and her frightened eleven-year-old son, Len. Zhilin sets up an office and tries to contact his collegial contact, Rimeier, but he isn’t answering his calls.

In the house, Ivan encounters little Len, who, in fear, shoots him with a toy squirt gun. The boy is terrified of certain "cursed" beings and nightmares. Zhilin tries to find his old comrade-in-arms, Pek Zenay, but discovers that he no longer lives at his old address.

Meetings at the Olympic Mansion and Hotel

Ivan heads to the Olympic Hotel to meet Rimeyer. In the square in front of the hotel, he’s surprised to see a monument to his late friend, astronomer and planetologist Vladimir Yurkovsky. A passerby in a spacesuit explains that the sculpture depicts Yurkovsky with an "erula" — an electronic roulette wheel — and that the monument was erected in honor of his casino winnings.

In room 902, Zhilin finds Rimeier in a neglected and ill state. He smokes heavily, drinks heavily, and behaves extremely secretively. Rimeier avoids direct answers about the investigation and advises Zhilin to go to the so-called "fishermen."

In Rimeyer’s hotel room, Zhilin meets a cheeky girl named Ilina and a prim man named Oskar, who offers to sell him Devon mosquito repellent. Soon, Zhilin visits the hair salon of Gaoei, a hairstylist. For a huge fee, the hairstylist transforms Ivan into an attractive man, disguising his true appearance with a flawless illusion.

Over lunch at a restaurant, Zhilin listens to Ph.D. Opir. The philosopher enthusiastically extols the era of automated abundance and neo-optimism, extolling wave psychotechniques — mass sleep with hallucinations, popularly known as "shivering." Returning to the desalinated Rimeier, Ivan sees him barely able to stand and hurriedly leaves.

Eccentric townspeople and the search for contacts

While wandering around the city, Zhilin tries to track down Pek Zenay, but encounters the aggressive bartender of the "Smile" bar, who hates the "intellectuals" — the local intellectual opposition. Then Ivan meets a truck driver giving away free books and other items. The driver adores classical literature but despises the soulless consumer society.

That evening, Zhilin takes a stroll with Vuzi. On the streets, they see groups of stooped, smoke-stained teenagers — the "pershas" and "artiks" — lounging idle under the streetlights, listening to transistor radios and dancing the flask dance. Vuzi tells stories about individual locals, including the taciturn "fisherman" Sus.

Night mass psychotechnics and underground patrons

Zhilin and Vuzi emerge into the city’s central square, where thousands of citizens have gathered. Giant colored lamps — red, blue, green — flare above the square. A mass session of wave psychotechnics begins. People fall into a stupor and experience collective hallucinations.

Suddenly, a private plane appears over the square. Unknown assailants open machine-gun fire on the lampposts and drop tear gas bombs on the crowd. In the darkness and panic, Zhilin escapes, washes his eyes at the fountain, and meets a wounded citizen, embittered by the intelligentsia.

At the Lasochka bar, Zhilin overhears a conversation about the Old Metro and tracks down two gentlemen in formal black suits. They lead him to an ancient mansion. A secret meeting of the "Patrons of the Arts" is taking place there — an underground society of wealthy individuals who buy and destroy original works of art for their own perverse pleasure. Zhilin is spotted, and guards with brass knuckles attack him, but he fights his way past them and escapes.

Returning home, Ivan finds Len in the garage reading a book on necromancy. The boy trembles with terror before the "damned." On the veranda of the house, Zhilin sees Petya, the customs officer, lying in his pajamas, his face bruised and bloodied, very drunk. Ivan calms Len down and puts him to bed in his office.

In search of the underground and a meeting with Peck

In the morning, Zhilin sees Petya, who, with fresh blood on his chin, politely claims he simply fell off a chair. In the newspapers, Zhilin reads about the night attack on the square, the theft of a Raphael painting, and Dr. Opir’s musings on the absolute harmlessness of the "drozhka."

Zhilin heads to Rimeier’s hotel, but is met by Oskar at the door. Inside the room, Rimeier lies delirious and unconscious. Zhilin notices a box of Devon repellent on the floor. The doctor called in diagnoses severe nervous exhaustion. Ivan sends an encrypted telegram to Maria’s supervisor at the Center.

Zhilin goes to the Old Metro, home to the "DOC" attraction. After passing through damp, abandoned tunnels with twisted rails and swaying garlands of dead rats, Zhilin encounters a deranged space robot. Ivan realizes the "tests" are just a dangerous amusement for bored citizens. On the way out, workers El and Roundhead mention a certain "slugh" and refer him to a man named Buba at the Oasis café.

At the Oasis café, Zhilin finds Buba and is horrified to recognize him as his old space friend, Pek Zenai. Pek has completely degenerated: he drinks alcohol by the glass, eats sugar, and renounces his past. In response to his questions about his "sleb," Pek gives Zhilin a small component — a vacuum tubeoid. He explains how to use it: insert the component in place of the local oscillator in a radio receiver, drink alcohol, take a Devon tablet, sprinkle the repellent into a hot bath, and then lie in the water.

The test of a slug and the death of a friend

Returning home, Zhilin talks to Vuzi. When asked about three wishes, the girl dreams of eternal youth and a handsome man. But when Ivan jokingly mentions "being laid up," Vuzi turns pale, slaps him viciously across the face, and runs away in tears.

That night, Ivan prepares his bath: he dissolves Devon, turns on the radio with a slug, drinks brandy, and lies down in the hot water. He instantly plunges into a profound illusory existence. The wave effect on the brain’s pleasure centers produces vivid, dazzling experiences that completely obscure reality.

Coming to in the cooling water, Zhilin realizes the truth. Sleg is not a chemical drug, but a combination of an ordinary vacuum tube, a standard radio, repellent, and hot water. Brain stimulation deprives a person of the need for the real world, leading to inevitable death from nervous exhaustion.

Zhilin rushes to Pek Zenay’s house and finds him dead in the bathtub. Ivan carries his friend’s body to the bed, calls the ambulance and the police, and throws the drunken hangers-on out into the yard.

The denouement and the decision taken

Zhilin returns to the Olympic Hotel. The doorman, Vile, reports that Rimeyer has been taken away by helicopter by Oscar Pebblebridge and two young men. In Rimeyer’s room, Ivan finds a radio with a slab. Soon, the operation’s leaders, Maria and Oscar (who turns out to be Zhilin’s understudy from another branch of the Security Council), arrive.

Maria and Oskar are convinced that a sophisticated gangster network is operating in the city, producing and distributing a new drug. They plan a military operation and a city blockade. Zhilin shatters their illusions. He shows them a recovered FX-92-U tubeoid, which costs fifty cents and can be found in any electronics store. Ivan explains that no underground syndicates are needed where society itself yearns to escape boring reality into an illusory world.

Maria tries to try the slug on her own in the bathroom, but ends up trapped by Woozy’s green nail polish.

Zhilin realizes that police raids and blockades are powerless against spiritual emptiness. You can’t ban a component sold in every store. The fight for human souls will require years of education and enlightenment. Ivan decides to stay in this city to help people find true meaning in life and protect children like Len from false prosperity.