Hard to Be A God

Hard to Be A God (Russian: "Трудно быть богом") is the fourth novel by the Strugatsky Brothers to be set in the Noon Universe.

The protagonist Anton is an Earthling observer (not a "progressor", the institute of progressors was only created later) on a Dung Ages planet going through a Renaissance and a religious backlash, just starting to border on a full-blown Inquisition. He angsts, borderline violates the Alien Non-Interference Clause and achieves what is probably the most Downer Ending in any Strugatsky novel. Notable as an exploration of the Alien Non-Interference Clause concept and because the (arguably equivalent to) Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? solution with which a typical action hero might have ended the story is presented as a horrible failure for everyone involved. Two films and a computer game Inspired By the book followed.

Tropes found in the novel

 * Alien Non-Interference Clause:
 * Becoming the Mask - in Morality level. The greatest fear of all human watchers.
 * Berserk Button:
 * Black Shirt: The Grey Stormtroopers.
 * Catch Phrase: "I see no reason for noble dons not to do X" by Don Sera. X can be anything from playing dice to getting whipped by the inquisition. Achieved memetic status in Russia.
 * Children Are Innocent - Prince, Uno.
 * Church Militant
 * Corrupt Church
 * Crapsack World: And how. After a series of ill-advised wars that all ended in loses, common people in Arkanar are living in extreme poverty and the nobles struggle to hold on to their wealth. The king is incompetent and the kingdom's educational system is in shambles. The kingdom is surrounded by hostile powers on all sides. The only people who really thrive are the Grey Stormtroopers and the local criminal gang. You can pretty much count on everything that shows the slightest hint of goodness being twisted, corrupted, used in the service of darkness or outright destroyed.
 * Death By Genre Savvy -
 * Dual-Wielding: Anton/Don Rumata is famous for his Awesome Yet Practical fighting style. So Awesome Yet Practical, in fact, it was seen as evidence of his supposed Deal with the Devil.
 * Evil Chancellor: Don Reba.
 * Expy: Word of God claims that Don Reba is an Expy of Lavrentiy Beria, State Sec chief during the Stalinist era. The character was even called Don Rebia in an early draft.
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A mixture of Late Medieval / Renaissance Italy, Spain, and France, complete with Romance-sounding names and titles.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: Don Reba.
 * God Guise: Rumata attempts to avert this, but people who know him well enough realize that he cannot be human and Clarke's Third Law corollary applies. Still, while some (Dr. Budakh, Kira) see a god in him, others think he is a devil.
 * Good Is Not Nice - Arata.
 * Humans Are the Real Monsters
 * It Got Worse - and worse and worse.
 * The Dung Ages
 * The Empire: The entire Gulf region (which the Kingdom of Arkanar is part of) is officially ruled by one of those. The problem is that Empire has been on a slow decline for centuries, gradually losing control of all of it's outlying "provinces." By the time the novel opens, most outlying provinces are acting as independent powers in all the ways that matter. So long as they never formally break their ties from the Empire, the emperors seem content to let them do that (though the novel strongly suggests that the Empire couldn't rein in it's former subjects even if it wanted to).
 * The Chessmaster: Don Reba.
 * Implausible Fencing Powers: Don Rumata.
 * Inherent in the System
 * Mood Dissonance - the narrating style is somewhat lighthearted, with many funny moments thrown in. The overall story... isn't.
 * A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Grey Stormtroopers.
 * The Monks supplanting the Grey Stormtroopers works like SS supplanting SA.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nice job helping Reba, Rumata!
 * Also, Rumata's  will only make the situation worse, and he himself at one point explains why.
 * And before other humans tried to interfere, with disastrous results.
 * And the dialogue between Rumata and Budakh implies that everything Earthlings could do would result in this.
 * Out-Gambitted -
 * Rebel Leader: Arata.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge
 * The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized
 * Smug Snake: Don Reba.
 * Sufficiently Advanced Earthlings
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill
 * The Toblerone: Baron Pampa.
 * Those Two Guys: Don Sera and Don Tameo.
 * Title Drop
 * Unstoppable Rage
 * Upper Class Twit: Don Sera, Don Tameo and the other nobles.
 * Vestigial Empire
 * What Measure Is a Mook? -
 * What the Hell, Hero?: in the finale, Rumata
 * What Measure Is a Mook? -
 * What the Hell, Hero?: in the finale, Rumata