Line #3 Literature/Disquiet


1	''Disquiet'' is a novel by the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers set in the Literature/NoonUniverse. Although originally written in 1965, the authors considered it a failure and reworked it into the standalone novel ''Snail on the Slope'', which was published chapter by chapter between 1966 and 1968. The original draft was first published in 1990, establishing the story as part of the Noon Universe (to which the ''Snail'' edition lacked any connection).
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3	The story of ''Disquiet'' initially follows the famous pilot and recurring Literature/NoonUniverse character Leonid Gorbovsky during his visit to Pandora, a planet known for its vast, mostly unexplored jungles. Said jungles stretch over almost all of its landmass, and, thanks to their exotic flora and fauna, are considered a sort of wildlife reserve and a popular vacation spot. When a helicopter crashes in the jungles, both Gorbovsky and the director of the Terran observation base embark on a rescue mission.
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5	The second plotline starts with the description of the life of Athos Sidorov, who went missing in the jungle three years ago and now lives with a tribe of HumanAliens in a truly alien world. Both plots go on to explore the mysteries surrounding Pandora, which in both cases only lead to further mysteries.
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7	!!Tropes found in ''Disquiet'':
8	* AmazonBrigade: [[spoiler: The "Female friends" in a scary, dogmatic sort of way. They control the forest, the "Deadmen", and the purple clouds, which may be nanobots. According to them, men have lost all usefulness on Pandora. Even scarier: they may be right.]]
9	* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler:The "Female friends" plan to induct all the women on their world into their ranks, and drown the remaining, now male-only villages. Athos Sidorov is conflicted whether this counts as social or evolutionary progress.]]
10	* DeathWorld: Pandora, even though the emphasis in the book is less on how deadly it is, and more how really, really weird its fauna and flora are. Still, a name like "Armeater" won't come out of nowhere.
11	* GardenOfEvil: Pandoran wildlife that isn't actively dangerous to humans is rather incomprehensible. Apart from the usual wild beasts you've got insects which seem to be very uncomfortable to come into contact with, and (possibly plant) tentacles that burrow into your skin. On the incomprehensible side, you have, for example, a mile high pillar of slime with a pool at its base that devours anything that falls into it.
12	* HumanAliens: The people of the forest are human, even though their civilization and society are pretty alien.
13	* MotorMouth: Every villager Athos talks to. They also tend to repeat themselves. [[spoiler:Athos suspects that they aren't stupid, they are afraid of talking about subjects like death or the doom of their village.]]
14	* OrganicTechnology: The Pandorans' [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. Even though they only have a feudal society at best, they use animals and plants like we use tools. [[spoiler:Taken even further with the "Deadmen", which are biological robots.]]
15	* TheSingularity: However the Pandoran society looked before the "Uplifting of the Soil" began, it will never turn back this way.
16	* StarfishAliens: [[spoiler:According to Gorobovsky, the entire forest might be one alien being. It just hasn't spoken to us yet.]]
17	* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: Subverted with the Earthlings, in a way. While they may not understand the forest and its creatures, they can control dead life (a.k.a. machinery), and a scalpel is a ''scary'' thing to a people that only can describe metal as "gleaming rocks".
18	* TheUnreveal: As stated, some things, like the nature of the "City" and the "Female Friends" eventually get explained, while other things remain in the dark.

Context Literature / Disquiet