Hard to Be a God is a great yarn, in many ways patterned after the historical adventure novel, and especially after its classic incarnation in the hands of Alexandre Dumas pere. Horse rides, sword duels, amorous conquests and court intrigues unfold against the backdrop of epoch-making revolutions and rebellions, and the requisite love story between Rumata and a local eighteen-yearold beauty ends, as it must, in her tragic death. Don Reba, the eminence grise at the Arkanar court, is openly compared to Cardinal Richelieu from The Three Musketeers, while the prodigiously eating, drinking and fighting Baron Pampa plays the role of Porthos to Rumata's D'Artagnan.

Rumata himself is like a god to the medieval courtiers. To their eyes this towering and super-strong nobleman appears invincible in battle, irresistible to ladies, and rich enough to indulge in any vice known in the realm. To us, he is an incurable...