Russian Fantastika reading list -- this is where you start

At Readercon, a couple of folks asked me to point them to good books of Russian fantastika available for reading in the original language or in English translation. Here is my very first list item: start with Strugatsky brothers. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky is where modern Russian fantastika comes of age -- and into her own --  social sciences fiction somewhere in between science fiction and fantasy, surreal like a spaceship chained to a birch-tree, familiar like a voice that says in your ear, There is something wrong with the world as you know it.
Pick up any of these three novels -- as a matter of fact, new and improved translations into English by Olena Bormashenko are available for two of them:


Hard to be a God

Chicago Review Press (IPG, dist.), ISBN 978-1-61374-828-2

What a cool cover!  The image is from the film a prominent Russian director Alexei German made based on the book.

Roadside Picnic
Chicago Review Press, ISBN-13: 9781613743416

The Ugly Swans
only an older edition available -- 1980, Collier/Macmillan, ISBN13: 9780020072409 

If you'd like to read any of these (and any other works) by the Strugatsky brothers in Russian, they are available here
http://lib.ru/STRUGACKIE/ 
and are titled, respectively
Трудно быть богом 
Пикник на обочине 
Гадкие лебеди

Enjoy!