Andromeda Nebula

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Andromeda Nebula (Russian: Туманность Андромеды), also known by its English title Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale is a grand, sweeping, Utopian epic by Soviet paleonotologist and Sci Fi author Ivan Efremov. First published in 1955 in magazine form, and later in hardcover edition in 1957, it's widely considered a first modern speculative fiction work in the Soviet literature, and is notable for breaking the prevailing (and governmentally promoted) "near aim" trend in the Soviet science fiction, with its atomic steamrollers and automatic threshers as a central point of the story.

Efremov moved the focus on to the society itself, and while not entirely successful (his writing is perceived by many as dry and scholastic, and his characters often seems to be phylosophical ideals rather than people), the novel became an important stepping stone for both the social SF, and for the scale and aim of the SF as a whole. He also introduced several crucial concepts of his social theory he worked on most of his life and which later brought him a fair share of problems, but this time, the ideological tone of the novel wasn't yet dissonant enough with the official line.

The Earth society shown in Nebula is a classless, moneyless, post-scarcity Communist Utopia in the original, theoretical-Communism sense: there's no oppression, No Poverty, no exploited classes (well, actually no classes at all), everyone gets most of their desires fulfilled at no cost, but everyone is considerate enough to not wish for something really outrageous. Politically it is an anarchist technocracy not unlike The Culture, albeit without the near-omniscience of the Minds, with powerful computers being only the aids and tools to the various governing committees and academies.

Absent Aliens are averted — there are a lot of various sapient aliens around, and most of them in the vicinity has already formed the Great Ring (or Great Circle), a kind of bulletin-board-cum-United-Nations organization which shares useful information and discusses important cooperation matters. Which is not a small feat, given that at this point of time the Faster-Than-Light Travel and Subspace Ansible aren't yet invented, and Earth, despite being in communication with the Great Ring for several centuries, has yet to receive an alien starship.

The novel features a complex interwoven plot that centers on a several key characters and storylines: starship captain Erg Noor, returning from his last expedition with many important discoveries, the ex-Outer Stations director Dar Veter, who's Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life, his eventual replacement Mven Mass, a very passionate man whose biggest hatred is a vastness of Space, a prominent historian Veda Kong, who is the tip of the Love Triangle between Noor and Veter, a supremely talented physicist Ren Boz, etc, etc, etc.

These characters and their storylines interconnect and influence each other through the story, allowing the author to paint a broad and colorful picture of a pretty appealing society. It's not without its problems, though, and they do get to be discussed there, but the main conflict of the novel still boils down to, as it's often said, to the "conflict of the good with the better": the Earth's expansion drive, personified by Erg Noor, is not only checked by the needs of the Earth itself (whose frontheads are Dar Veter and Veda Kong), but also runs headfirst into the very scale of the space: Efremov, being a scientist, consciously averted Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale.

In the end the novel just kind of opened the gate for the Soviet Science Fiction. Stuck for decades in their ghetto, the authors suddenly realized that the world is much bigger than they're used to think, and jumped on the bandwagon enthusiastically, paving the way for the Golden Age of the genre.

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Tropes used in Andromeda Nebula include:

• Action Girl: Nisa Greet on the planet of the Iron Star. Various Earth girls are pretty active too, but given its idyllic state have little chance to show off.
• Absent Aliens: Averted. There are loads and loads of them. The only problem is that lack of Faster-Than-Light Travel makes it a pain in the ass to communicate with them.
• Adorkable: Ren Boz, who's a textbook portrait of a nerd, but is full of puppy charm.
• After the End: Several subtle details hint on the current idyllic state of the Earth being the result of the enormous effort to rebuild and revive the planet after the disastrous and almost fatal war or series of wars. There are mentions of civilizations that didn't make it.
• Cool Starship: Tantra in the first part, Swan in the epilogue. Sail and Algorab fail to qualify by being lost, even if the former is a Tantra's sistership and gets finally found.
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: Doesn't yet exist, all Great Circle's starships (including Earth's) are Slower-than-Light. Its invention is a one of the central themes in the novel.
• For Science!: Ren Boz's motivation for the experiment.
• Human Aliens: Epsilon Tucanae people, who are inexplicably human enough to be squarely out of Uncanny Valley. Mven Mass falling for one of them in their Great Circle transmission forms his motivation to support Ren Boz's experiment.
  • Unfortunately, as a sequel points out, the marriages between Eartlings and Tucanians (yes, They Do) are still childless.
  • Averted with all other major races. They are mostly humanoid (some enough to qualify as Rubber Forehead Aliens), but clearly distinguishable from Earth humans.
• It's Personal: Mven Mass' motivation for the experiment.
• Jerkass: Pour Hyss, the Tantra's egotistical astronomer, and Beth Lon, the sociopathic mathematical genius, though the latter gets redeemed somewhat.
• Love Triangle: Two: one, between Erg Noor, Veda Kong and Dar Veter, is closer to Type 7, although Noor and Veter are friends and both wish for their beloved to be happy. The second, between Kong, Noor and Nisa Greet, is Type 11, with Nisa seeing much older and more experienced Veda as her Cool Big Sis.
• Mad Scientist: Beth Lon, who's, as explicitly said by the author, got his enormous intelligence at the expense of the social skills.
• Ms Exposition: Veda Kong, whose lecture about Earth history for the Great Ring is a one big Info Dump.
• Ms. Fanservice: Chara Nandi
• No Poverty: Although conscious self-limiting do exist. Ren Boz and Mven Mass conduct their experiment basically on the energy allowances of everyone interested in it being done, and the whole planet limits their energy consumption to speed up the fuel production for the Swan in the end.
• Older Than They Look: Most of the characters, as the life expectancy on Earth is generally somewhat above two centuries.
• Precursors: In a way: an alien space ship on the planet of the Iron Star is ancient beyond belief, having arrived from Andromeda Galaxy.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Mven Mass and Ren Boz's experiment. It was successful (at least partially), but it blew up the experimental apparatus, destroyed the transmitting satellite, killed its crew of four, and almost fatally injured Ren Boz himself.
• Utopia: The society itself.