Rare Book of the Day – Hard to Be a God, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. First Edition in English.

Hard to Be a God, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. First US Edition.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were Russian science fiction authors who collaborated throughout most of their careers. Their early work was influenced by such Soviet sci-fi luminaries as Ivan Yefremov and Stanisław Lem, but they would go on to develop their own unique style of writing that emerged from the period of Soviet rationalism and was interpreted as works of social criticism.

Hard to be a God is arguably their most well-known novel, published in Russian in 1964 and English in 1973. It tells the story of an undercover operative from Earth's future, Anton, who is sent to an alien planet populated by beings that have not progressed beyond the Middle Ages. The novel's central thesis is that history is often a bloody and cruel affair, with religion and blind faith serving as effective tools of oppression, stifling scientific and technological advancement. This is the scarce first American edition, being the first appearance of the novel in English:

The novel was twice made into a feature film, with the first being in 1989, directed by Peter Fleischmann and starring Werner Herzog. The second adaptation is my favorite, which was released in 2013 and directed by Aleksei German. It's a total trip. Here's the trailer:

More info here: